Well, Steve Albini would yell at you for calling him a producer, but he's on my list too.

More favorites:
Brian Deck (Califone, Iron and Wine, Fruit Bats, etc.)
Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Low . . .)

And locally:
Tucker Martine (Laura Veirs, among many others)
Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Arkade, Water Kill the Sun, Mudhoney, and on and on . . .)

Martin Hannet

Albini's best job was on The Wedding Present. The rest of the catalog I could live without.

I'll take George Martin for 1000, Hannah. Steve Albini never stitched together two recordings in different keys like Martin did with "Strawberry Fields Forever". How about Brian Wilson? Much more than just the Beach Boys.

And don't forget Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart who produced the best band of the sixties, The Monkees, along with a million other smash hitsters. Or Kasenetz-Katz.

Martin Hannett is a good call -- all that Factory stuff, not just Joy Division but New Order and "Quick as Rainbows" by the Kitchens of Distinction. How about John Rivers, mastermind of Woodbine Studios in Leamington Spa, responsible for half the UK pop records of the 80s -- Chesterf!elds, Jazz Butcher, Brilliant Corners, etc.

Phil Spector shot his load by about 1965; remember, not only did he make great records, but he also ruined the Beatles (easy to do) AND the Ramones (hard).

How about the most idiosyncratic production jobs ever, My Bloody Valentine's "Isn't Anything" and "Loveless", both by bandmember Kevin Shields? The Cocteau Twins (Robin Guthrie) also self-produced some amazing
records that sound like nothing.

FNARF--I'll definitely back you on Martin, Wilson, and Shields, but Spector was at the boards for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, recorded in 1970 and one of my favorite albums of all time. Granted, Harrison eventually came out against using Spector, but I still love the way those original recordings sound...

Teo Macero, for all the genius techniques he used on Miles Davis' electric-era LPs.

DJ Premier's work with Gang Starr and other lesser lights.

My Bloody Valentine seconded; guitars have never sounded so alien yet sensual.

The Bomb Squad's mad sample collages with Public Enemy.

Lee Perry- for everything he's done on his own... plus... producing the greatest tracks of Bob Marley's career.

How about Voyle Gilmour? You've never heard of him, but he produced all those incredible Capitol albums for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and many many others. He really brought the big bands of Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Gordon Jenkins to life in those cavernous studios.

Milt Gabler did some killer work at Capitol too, on top of his long career at Decca -- heard of Ella Fitzgerald? How about Billie Holliday? Bill Haley and his Comets?

Dave Cavanaugh (Peggy Lee) and Lee Gillette (Nat King Cole) were also great Capitol producers back when Capitol was THE label.

Nick Lowe's production work on Elvis Costello's early albums is stellar. The drum roll that kicks off "Watching the detectives" is just impeccable.

Locally Ryan Hadlock has worked on some incredibly lush and interesting albums by folks like Blonde Redhead & the Dead Science.

Don Zientara will always be significant to me for defining the DC Dischord sound-- and I've been noticing Guy Picciotto's name a lot more lately for his production work than for his own music.

Guy Picciotto=sexiest man in punk rock

Duh. Brian Eno. More Songs About Buildings And Food and a few others.

Tony Visconti for all those great Bowie albums -- Young Americans, Low>, Heroes, Lodger, though I was surprised to note just now that Station to Station was done by Bowie with Harry Maslin, not Visconti. But Visconti also did T.Rex and Sparks, which is a pretty impressive resume.

Don't forget Giorgio Morodor.

Lou Pearlman
"I want it that way" RULED

I gotta go with Lee Perry. The man made bass sound bigger and thicker than a tarpit full of mastodons. And he did it on a quarter inch 4 track machine.

giorgio moroder. single handedly created hard disco, while still producing some of the best soft disco around. he was a genius. somewhere along the line he sunk to some lows, but i pray he'll make an e=mc2 part 2 and it will be just as amazing as the first.

as far as bob rock is concerned he only sucked, imho, post black album. up to that point metallica still had some balls, they sound so neutered now though.

rick is amazing too, his workk with neil diamond was fantastic this year. one of my favorite listens to surprise guests at my house.

I'll second the person who said Nick Lowe above. But, that's more because I love Costello than Lowe's production.

I'd throw out Chris Stamey (formerly of the dB's) as someone who is doing a lot of good production work, especially with a lot of alt.country and powerpop acts.

No one's mentioned the Mizell brothers yet...

eYe of Boredoms
Charles Stepney (Rotary Connection): orchestral psychedelic-soul genius.
Rogerio Duprat (Os Mutantes).
Richard Pinhas (Heldon mastermind)

I'll second Fridmann. Also: Steve Fisk.

King Tubby
Tom Dowd
Glyn Johns

the who brothers? haha
dilla
norman whitfield
eno
upsetter
prince paul
rubin
bomb squad
albini
gamble & huff

Besides lar, every person who has posted a comment thus far has completely ignored hip-hop, a genre now completely dominated by the producer. Don't get me wrong, rock production is important, and Bob Rock's production of the recent Metallica albums has absolutely rendered them impotent, but we can't completely ignore one of the most popular genres in music, especially one where the producer is king.

So...

Afrika Bambaataa
Dr. Dre
RZA
Timbaland
Danger Mouse
Automator
Prince Paul
DJ Shadow
MF Doom (in all his various aliases)

I think you should subtract Dan the Automator and Danger Mouse (damn overrated) and add The Beatnuts, 9th Wonder and Lil Jon. I don't even know if Bambaataa should really be up there.

A lot of you may not have heard of this guy, but i was a bit of a fan, read the AP report below. This guy truly lived the "American Dream" after coming here from Turkey.
ac

NEW YORK (AP) -- Arif Mardin, the legendary Grammy Award-winning producer who worked with stars including Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Norah Jones, has died.

Mardin, 74, died Sunday, said his publicist, Lydia Sherwood. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

"It's difficult to put into words the impact one individual has had on the evolution of recorded sound, especially when that individual is Arif Mardin," said a statement from the Recording Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards. "Everyone in music will miss his contributions, but his legacy will live on as he truly has earned the music community's and the world's utmost respect."

Born in Turkey in 1932, Mardin came to the United States in 1958 after a meeting with Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones convinced him to make music his career. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating in 1961.

Mardin started working at Atlantic Records in 1963, subsequently became a producer and arranger, and ultimately a senior vice president. He left in 2001, and worked at the revived Manhattan Records label later that year. He retired in 2004.

Mardin worked with an extensive list of artists, including The Young Rascals, Dusty Springfield, Hall and Oates, Bette Midler, Bee Gees, Roberta Flack, Barbara Streisand and Jewel.

Mardin won numerous Grammy Awards, including producer of the year in 1975 and 2002.

Steve, you're kidding, right..?