December 01, 2025

AN INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER PHIL RAMONE (Ep. 235B)

11 minutes

Discograffiti is the deep-dive podcast for music obsessives. In this episode, we feature the next entry in The Chuck Granata Pet Sounds Interview Series. It’s Chuck’s chat with legendary producer Phil Ramone, Billy Joel’s most relied-upon right-hand-man, the producer of every Billy Joel record during the height of his popularity, from 1977’s The Stranger to 1986’s The Bridge. Phil won his first production Grammy for his work on Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years in 1975, eventually becoming chairman of The Recording Academy. He also helped produce, with Quincy Jones, 2001’s televised A Tribute To Brian Wilson. His credits and accomplishments in the industry are almost literally endless, and what better place to learn about them than Chuck Granata’s 2007 memoir (co-written with Phil) Making Records: The Scenes Behind The Music. Phil passed away a few years after this interview in 2013, which makes this posthumously released “Chuck Chat” yet another priceless buried treasure.

Here are just a few of the many things that Phil discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:

The dysfunctional Wilson family dynamic, which Phil talks about with great candor;

Digging into the history of harmony, and the experience of working with The Beach Boys on Chicago’s “Wishing You Were Here”;

Working with Burt Bacharach, and Phil’s transition from engineer to producer;

The differences between east coast and west coast records in the 1960s & 1970s;

The Nylon Curtain’s debt to both The Beatles & Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys;

Why Elton John was nervous to perform at the Brian Wilson tribute;

And stereo vs. mono with regard to hearing Pet Sounds.

There’ll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti’s Patreon. Don’t miss it, or you’ll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, or better yet just subscribe…and then we’ll all have world peace.

Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)

Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffiti

Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It’s completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti’s weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 400 Patreon episodes.

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