Jerry Wexler Famed Record Producer Dies at 91

Jerry Wexler, a legendary record producer, worked with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other greats. He helped shape R&B music with influential recordings of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other greats, and later made key recordings with the likes of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

Legendary record producer Jerry Wexler, who helped shape R&B music with influential recordings of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other greats, and later made key recordings with the likes of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, has died, says his co-author, David Ritz. He was 91.

Ritz, co-author of Wexler's 1993 memoir, “Rhythm and the Blues," said he died at his Sarasota, Fla., home at about 3:45 a.m. today. He had been ill for a couple of years with congenital heart disease.

Wexler earned his reputation as a music industry giant while a partner at Atlantic Records. Atlantic provided an outlet for the groundbreaking work of African-American performers in the 1950s and '60s. Later, it was a home to rock icons like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. He later helped Dylan win his first Grammy by producing his 1979 “Slow Train Coming" album.

Wexler helped boost the careers of both the “King of Soul," Charles, and the “Queen of Soul," Franklin. Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge were among the other R&B greats who benefited from Wexler's deft recording touch. He also produced Dusty Springfield's classic “Dusty in Memphis," considered a masterpiece of “blue-eyed" soul.

Among the standards produced by Wexler: Franklin's “Respect," a dazzling, feminist reworking of an Otis Redding song; Sledge's deep ballad “When A Man Loves A Woman" and Pickett's “In the Midnight Hour," with a horn vamp inspired by Wexler's admittedly rhythmless dancing. Wexler was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.