Reggie Fisher is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 record producer. Fisher worked with many popular artists on recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock, country and soul records.

Early years

Born in Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...

, and raised in New Canaan, Connecticut

New Canaan, Connecticut

New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...

, Fisher arrived in Los Angeles in 1971.

Music

Fisher took a job at United Artists Records, where he became an recording engineer

Audio engineering

An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

 and recorded artists such as John Buck Wilkins, Rita Coolidge

Rita Coolidge

Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...

, Brenda Russell

Brenda Russell

Brenda Russell is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboardist. Known for her eclectic musical style, her recordings have encompassed several different genres, including pop, soul, dance, jazz and adult contemporary...

, Sly Stone

Sly Stone

Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...

, Bobby Womack

Bobby Womack

Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...

, The Curtis Brothers, Waylan Jennings, Pablo Cruz, and Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

.

Beginning in the early 1970's, Fisher worked as a producer, recording albums by many artists including Ernie Watts

Ernie Watts

Ernest James "Ernie" Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist...

, T-Bone Burnett

T-Bone Burnett

Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...

, Los Lobos

Los Lobos

Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...

, Black Tie

Black tie

Black tie is a dress code for evening events and social functions. For a man, the main component is a usually black jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo...

, and Toto

Toto (band)

Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...

.

In 1980, Fisher financed and produced T-Bone Burnett's first solo album, Truth Decay. He went on to finance and co-produce two more of Burnett's solo albums, Trap Door EP, released in 1982 on the Warner Brothers label, and "Behind the Trap Door", released in 1986.

In 1991, after watching Charlie Rich, Jr. perform at the legendary Palomino Club, Fisher offered Rich a recording contract, requesting that Charlie, Jr. be a component in the superstar ensemble Fisher was promoting - Black Tie. The budding ensemble consisted of Billy Swan, Randy Meisner (co-founder of The Eagles and Poco), and Jimmy Griffin (formerly of Bread).

Black Tie went on to record tracks for an album that included the single "I'm Sure of You". The recording, co-written by Rich and Swan, featured Rich, Jr. as vocalist and topped the charts in 1993.