Denny Cordell


Dennis Cordell-Lavarack, known as Denny Cordell, was an English record producer. He is notable for his mid 1960s and early 1970s productions of hit singles for The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, The Move, Procol Harum and Joe Cocker.

Early life and career

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cordell grew up in England and was educated at Cranleigh School.
He met Chris Blackwell when he was aged twenty one, and started to work for Blackwell's label, Island Records, as a producer. When Cordell started to work more closely with The Moody Blues, he decided to leave Island and become an independent producer.
Cordell produced the Moody Blues' debut album The Magnificent Moodies on the Decca record label in 1965. The record contained the hit "Go Now", which had been a #1 hit on the UK Singles Chart a year earlier. This was followed up with hits for Cordell producing The Move, Georgie Fame, Procol Harum and Joe Cocker. On the back of his success with Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help From My Friends", Cordell moved his operation to Los Angeles and started up Shelter Records, with session piano player, Leon Russell.
He enjoyed success with Shelter, signing J. J. Cale, Phoebe Snow, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, amongst others. He is also known as an early mentor of Tony Visconti.
In the late 1970s he started up the Flippers roller skating boogie palace in Los Angeles, California. In the 1980s he turned to his other interest, horseracing, but in the 1990s he took up producing records again, and once more worked for Island. Among others he helped produce The Cranberries, who wrote a song in his tribute called "Cordell", and Melissa Etheridge's album, Yes I Am.

Death

Cordell died in February 1995 in Dublin, Ireland from lymphoma at the age of 51.

Legacy

He was the father of the musicians Tarka Cordell, and Milo Cordell of the band The Big Pink. A horse race, the Denny Cordell Lavarack Fillies Stakes, is run annually in Cordell's memory at Gowran Park Racecourse, where he saddled his first winner as a racehorse trainer.