Rick Chertoff

Richard E. "Rick" Chertoff (born March 29, 1950 in New York, NY) is an American five-time Grammy-nominated producer responsible for such hits as Joan Osborne’s "One of Us", Cyndi Lauper’s "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time" and Sophie B. Hawkins’ "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover." Both Cyndi Lauper’s album She's So Unusual and Joan Osborne’s album Relish were debut albums that garnered multi-platinum sales and multiple Grammy nominations. Chertoff was nominated twice for 'album of the year', twice for 'record of the year' and also for 'producer of the year.'

Chertoff attended the University of Pennsylvania, and whilst in Philadelphia he met soon-to-be long-time friends Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian and formed a musical collaboration that has lasted to this day. Chertoff played drums in a local band "Wax" with Hyman and later produced and played with the band Baby Grand, which included both Hyman and Bazilian. He was a major force behind the signing of Hyman and Bazilian's later band, The Hooters to Columbia Records, where he produced their multi-platinum albums, Nervous Night, One Way Home, and Zig Zag.

Chertoff's A&R career began under the training of music legend Clive Davis at the inception of Arista Records. In his all-purpose A&R/production role, Chertoff signed and produced, edited and remixed tracks for many Arista artists including The Kinks and the Alan Parsons Project. Chertoff’s Arista career culminated in his co-production of Air Supply’s first million-seller, Lost in Love as well as his co-production of the theme from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind with acclaimed composer John Williams.

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