Joel Dorn - Music Producer

Joel Dorn - Yeadon

Joel Dorn was born in Yeadon in 1942. In the early 50s in the Philly area he developed a taste for music of Ray Charles, the Drifters and other artists of the Atlantic Record label, and hoped to work for them from the time he was 14.

In his early 20s, Dorn worked as a DJ for Philadelphia station WHAT-FM when the station was known for serious jazz.

In the mid '60s, the head of Atlantic Records heard Dorn on the radio and offered him a chance to produce Thee Laws of Jazz. a record featuring Hubert Laws. He soon began producing other jazz records and became a vice president of the company.

Joel Dorn's production of Roberta Flack's of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Killing Me Softly With His Song helped win 5 Grammies for the songs in the 1970s. He also produced albums for Max Roach, Bette Midler, the Allman Brothers, the Neville Brothers and Leon Redbone.

Dorn continued to expand in entrepreneurial directions following his stint with Atlantic  working for Capital, Warner Brothers, Columbia, Epic, A&M and Arista. In the late '80s he specialized in repackaging back catalogs for many labels, and also helped found many new labels.

Dorn died in Manhattan at the age of 65 in 2007.