Paul O'Duffy (born 31 December 1963, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) is an English record producer, composer and mixer. He is best known for producing

Swing Out Sister Swing Out Sister are a British pop group best known worldwide for the 1986 song " Breakout". Other hits include "Surrender", " Twilight World", " Waiting Game", and a remake of the Eugene Record soul composition "Am I the Same Girl?" Histor ...

's Grammy-nominated multi-platinum debut album ''

It's Better to Travel ''It's Better to Travel'' is the debut album by the British pop band Swing Out Sister, released in 1987 on Mercury Records. Upon its release, the album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. Information This was Swing Out Sister's debut albu ...

'', for his BMI nomination as "Producer of the Year" in 1987, his work with John Barry and his work with

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

, which resulted in his co-writing one of the tracks on her multi-platinum album ''

Back to Black ''Back to Black'' is the second and final studio album by English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, released on 27 October 2006 by Island Records. Winehouse predominantly based the album on her tumultuous relationship with then-ex-boyfrie ...

''.

Professional life

Mixer / engineer

O'Duffy started out his music career at Marcus Music Studios London, and by the age of 17 was engineering sessions for

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, Yes and

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

. He moved to New York in 1984, establishing himself as a club

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

er working on remixes for artists such as

KC and The Sunshine Band KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida. Their best-known songs include the hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "K ...

Man Parrish Manuel "Man" Parrish (born May 6, 1958) is an American songwriter, vocalist and producer. He, along with artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, John Robie, Jellybean Benitez, Lotti Gold ...

Stephanie Mills Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to stardom as "Dorothy" in the original seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway run of the musical ''The Wiz'' from 1974 to 1979. The song " Home" from t ...

, the System,

Animotion Animotion is an American synth-pop band from Los Angeles, California, best known for the songs " Obsession", "Let Him Go", "I Engineer", and " Room to Move". Formed in 1983 from the remnants of a retro science-fiction band called Red Zone, th ...

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and

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Production

O'Duffy returned to London in the late eighties where his remixing successes took him into record production. His first production success was the debut album by Scottish group

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which included the top twenty hit on both sides of the Atlantic, "Honeythief". He followed this up with production on the number one platinum selling debut album by

Curiosity Killed the Cat Curiosity Killed the Cat was a British pop band that achieved success in the UK in the late 1980s, with hit singles such as " Down to Earth", " Misfit" and " Ordinary Day", from their No. 1 debut album, '' Keep Your Distance''. This was follo ...

, ''

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''. His BMI nomination for Producer of the Year in 1987 came from his work on the multi-platinum debut album ''

'' by Manchester group

, which included the worldwide hit " Breakout". The album was also nominated in the US for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and led to more work for him and his distinctive retro sound with US acts. One of these was the band

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with the resulting worldwide hits "Walk the Dinosaur", "Spy in the House of Love" and platinum selling album '' What Up, Dog?''. At the other end of the spectrum O'Duffy produced one of

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", "I Write the Songs", " Can ...

's last chart hits "Keep Each Other Warm" from his eponymous album ''

'', in which Manilow recorded other artists' songs using a variety of top producers. O'Duffy additionally produced and mixed

Tom Verlaine Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, December 13, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known as the frontman of the New York City rock band Television. Biography Verlaine was born Thomas Miller in Denville, New Jersey and ...

's (

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) solo album ''

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'' in 1987. In 2009, he produced John Barry's unreleased orchestral album, ''The Seasons''.

Writer/producer

In the 1990s, O'Duffy increased his songwriting credits, producing and writing on four subsequent albums for Swing Out Sister (including 1992's '' Get in Touch with Yourself'') as well as production for

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop music, p ...

on her album ''

Reputation The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. Reputation is a ubiquitous ...

'', which became Springfield's best-selling new album since her 1960s-era peak. He produced the

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' "If There Was a Man" and "Where Has Everybody Gone?", as well as

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, Danny Wilson, the Beloved, John Barry, the eponymous debut album by

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, and Pigeonhed. In the 2000s, O'Duffy continued to collaborate with artists and songwriters including Charlotte OC,

Låpsley Holly Lapsley Fletcher (born 7 August 1996), known by the stage name Låpsley, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. Her debut album '' Long Way Home'' was released on 4 March 2016. Early life Låpsley was born in York. Her m ...

, Purple Ferdinand,

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and

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Hiatus and recovery

An amateur racer of both off-road and on-road motorcycles, O'Duffy was riding a road bike in London when a car cut across his lane and ran him down. His back was broken in two places, and he spent many months in traction and several years in recovery. His motorcycle, a Ducati 851 which had been given to him by his then management team, was repaired and presented back to him after a chance meeting with Federico Minoli, then head of

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worldwide, at the

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. Fully recovered after further surgery to fuse his back. During the first three years after the accident, O'Duffy worked almost exclusively out of the substantial studio he had built at his home in North London. It was here that

came to spend a month in 2006 to work on tracks for what became the ''

'' album, which features the O'Duffy/Winehouse song "Wake up Alone".

Film and television

O'Duffy produced the John Barry score for 007 film ''

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'' (winner, 1988 BMI Film Music Award). Further work with Barry continued, including in 1992 the movie ''

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'' starring

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, for which Barry was nominated for an

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and a

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. O'Duffy worked with John Barry on his UK concerts at the

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. O'Duffy produced the

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...

score for the film ''

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'' (winner, 1991 BMI Film Music Award) and the version of "

All by Myself "All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen released in 1975. The verse is based on the second movement (''Adagio sostenuto'') of Sergei Rachmaninoff's circa 1900–1901 '' Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor'', Opus 18. The ...

" used in the film ''

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''. He also produced the Dr. Calculus track "Full of Love" for the 1988

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

film ''

She's Having a Baby ''She's Having a Baby'' is a 1988 American romantic comedy film directed and written by John Hughes and starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern. It tells the story of a young newlywed couple who try to cope with married life and their parents ...

''. O'Duffy is also a well-known composer for television, having composed the themes and incidental music for: ''The Team – A Season with Mclaren'' (BBC2 series) ''The Great Outdoors'' (Channel 4 series) ''The Big Elsewhere'' (with Swing Out Sister, NHK Japan series) ''London Bridge'' (Carlton TV drama series).

References

External links

"Distinctive yet accessible" – An interview with Paul Staveley O’Duffy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oduffy, Paul Staveley 1963 births Living people British music industry executives English record producers English male film score composers English television composers English bass guitarists English male guitarists Male bass guitarists English keyboardists English songwriters British male songwriters People educated at St Ignatius' College, Enfield People from Enfield, London