Roy Thomas Baker, the hitmaking record producer behind some of the biggest and most proudly polished songs and albums of the rock era — including Queen’s chart-topping, multipart “Bohemian Rhapsody” — died April 12 at his home in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He was 78.
His death was announced by a spokesperson, Bob Merlis, who said the cause had not yet been established.
Known for his technological savvy and his discipline in the recording studio, Baker oversaw the creation of Queen’s first four albums, which spun off a varied assortment of singles in the early 1970s including the jaunty “Killer Queen,” the tender “You’re My Best Friend” and the almost comically elaborate “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which moves over six minutes from a show-tune-style intro through a densely arranged operatic sequence before climaxing in a hard-rock section that inspired a headbanging set piece in 1992’s “Wayne’s World” movie.
“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it,” Baker told Mix magazine in 1999. “It was basically a joke, but a successful joke.” The song went to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart in 1975 and later peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 after “Wayne’s World” was released. In 2018, “Bohemian Rhapsody” provided the title of the blockbuster biopic about Queen’s flamboyant frontman, Freddie Mercury; on Spotify, the song has been streamed more than 2.7 billion times.
Baker had a similarly close artistic relationship with the Cars, whose first four albums he produced; among the gleaming new wave hits they created were “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Let’s Go” and “Shake It Up.” The producer also worked with Journey, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Devo and Ozzy Osbourne, among many others. He reunited with Queen in 1978 to make “Jazz.”
Born in the Hampstead area of London on Nov. 10, 1946, Baker got his start in music as a second engineer at London’s vaunted Decca Studios and Trident Studios, where he assisted the producers Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti and worked on records by the likes of David Bowie, the Who and the Rolling Stones.
He moved to Los Angeles in the late ’70s and later became an A&R rep for Elektra Records, helping to bring acts including Metallica and 10,000 Maniacs to the label. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, he produced albums by Local H, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Darkness. Baker is survived by his wife, Tere Livrano Baker, and his brother, Alan Baker.
Asked by Mix what he thought of artists forgoing producers to make their own records, Baker compared the decision to “someone wanting to be their own lawyer in court” and advised against it.
“I think, even if you’re a great producer who happens to be an artist, and you’re great at working with other artists, you should never produce yourself,” he said. “You still need somebody else around to make sure you get the best out of yourself, because you can’t be in two places at once.”