Hal Willner, the Grammy-winning record producer and longtime “Saturday Night Live” sketch music producer, has died from complications from COVID-19. He was 64.
Through his curation and production skills, the New York music connoisseur helped advance the careers of countless artists starting in the 1970s. As a producer, he worked with Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, the Neville Bros., Leon Redbone and dozens more.
Willner described himself in his Twitter bio as the “so-called Music Producer & Saturday Night Live sketch music guy since Raging Bull debuted, Another One Bites the Dust a hit & Kim Kardashian was born,” but that barely captures the effect his enthusiasm had on music culture.
“I’ve been lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to do things in all different areas: records, films, television,” Willner said in one interview. “I started out doing these conceptual projects basically to make the records I wanted to hear, and no more reason than that. I thought something would grow out of it, and it did.”
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