Career
Born Ronald Richard Pratley in London, England, to Mary Lipscombe and an unknown Irish jockey and was adopted at an early age. He played the piano and saxophone for the Central Band of the Royal Air Force. Richards started working for London"s Tin Pan Ally in 1952, and discovered songwriter Jerry Lordan, later worked at Electric and Music Industries"s Parlophone imprint as an assistant to producer George Martin.
Richards discovered and signed The Hollies in 1963 to a recording contract with the Parlophone label.
Richards produced most of The Hollies" music between 1963 to 1979, during which time they had seventeen Top 10 hit singles in the United Kingdom, as well as worldwide success. He also produced The Beatles" "Love Maine Do" and Gerry and the Pacemakers" "You"ll Never Walk Alone".
In August 1965, Richards joined Martin in leaving Electric and Music Industries to start Associated Independent Recording Studios. Working for Liberty Records, Richards was also the musical director for P.J. Proby and together they worked on the Proby albums.
Richards is mentioned in The Beatles" bootleg recordings during the session for "Think Foreign Yourself".
After George Martin makes a few mistakes, George Harrison jokes about getting Richards to produce Rubber Soul instead. The exact words were, "I wonder if Ron Richards is free tomorrow?" followed by laughs. One of the songs on Rubber Soul is George Harrison"s "If I Needed Someone".
On the same day that the Rubber Soul LP came out in Britain (December 3 1965), a cover of that song was released by The Hollies - produced by Ron Richards.
He died in Watford, Hertfordshire in April 2009, and his funeral was held on 15 May in Hemel Hempstead.