Jack Douglas was a guy who liked to be in the room where it happened — and he helped make a lot of music happen during his career as a recording producer and recording engineer.

The Bronx native — who passed away earlier this week at the age of 80 — studied at the Institute of Audio Research in New York and, under the guidance of co-owner Roy Cicala, rose from janitor to a house producer at the Recording Plant in New York City.

He engineered the Who‘s abortive Lifehouse sessions, including tracks that wound up on Who’s Next, as well as John Lennon‘s Imagine before Bob Ezrin encouraged Douglas to produce after watching him do the heavy lifting on the New York Dolls‘ 1973 debut album.

He soon became “our George Martin,” according to Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, producing seven albums for the band over the years, including its key ’70s titles and later releases such as 2003’s Honkin’ on Bobo and 2012’s Music From Another Dimension!

Read More: How Jack Douglas Helped Aerosmith Find Their True Sound

He also helmed projects by Cheap Trick, Supertramp, Starz and Zebra, as well as more contemporary acts such as Clutch, Local H and Slash‘s Snakepit.

Douglas was prolific in the TV world as well, notably working on the Personality Crisis: One Night Only documentary about the late David Johansen.

Most recently Douglas was operating his own label, Make Records, whose roster included Robin Taylor Zander (aka RTZ), son of the Cheap Trick frontman.

“I love being part of the team,” Douglas told UCR in 2023.”I like having those initial meetings with the artist, coming up with a vision, talking about the songs and the sounds we want — just being part of the whole creative team and helping to make the music as great as it can be.”

Douglas was great more often than not — especially on these 10 key albums from his discography…