Steve Buckingham

Stephen Craig Buckingham is an American record producer and musician working in Nashville, Tennessee.

Buckingham is a music producer and guitarist whose work has generated at least 24 gold and 17 platinum record albums and earned him four Grammy Awards. Buckingham has produced music for four feature films, including a Grammy win for the Muppets recording Follow That Bird (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) He was vice-president of A&R (artists and repertory) at Columbia Records for ten years, and Senior Vice-President of Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records. Later in his career, he became an adjunct instructor of Music History at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music in Nashville.

Early life Buckingham was born and raised in the Lakeside area of Henrico County, Virginia, which is a suburb of Richmond. At age 15, while attending Brookland Junior High School, he helped form a band called "Ron Moody and the Centaurs". "I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round)" became a worldwide hit in 1978. This song endured and became a party anthem, and it was on the playlist for clubs across North America and Europe and became one of the signature songs of the disco era. Buckingham's successful production of this song got him noticed in the music industry, namely by Clive Davis, chairman of Arista Records. Buckingham was invited to New York to meet with Davis. Buckingham stated, "He grilled me, kept me there for what seemed like hours, playing me things — 'Is this a hit? What do you think of this demo?' ... it was like taking college boards." Success on this project resulted in Buckingham being hired by CBS as an A&R man. In this new role, Buckingham discovered and produced Ricky Van Shelton who won the CMA's "Male Vocalist of the Year" in 1987, with number one songs including "Wild-Eyed Dream", "Life Turned Her That Way" and "Somebody Lied". He produced Van Shelton's song, "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" which was featured in the 1992 film, Honeymoon in Vegas. Buckingham produced five albums for Sweethearts of the Rodeo resulting in seven top ten hits.

In the 1990s, Dolly Parton was unceremoniously dropped from her label MCA/Universal. They switched seats to be able to talk. Buckingham asked her if she would ever consider doing a bluegrass album. and was named Album of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) A subsequent Buckingham-produced Parton hit was "Shine" (with Nickel Creek), from the album Little Sparrow which won a Grammy for Best Female Country Performance.

Buckingham's fourth Grammy award was for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel album, called All Out by The Winans Family in 1994. The specialized sub-category winners are not broadcast live and often don't receive a lot of publicity. Buckingham recalls receiving a package in the mail. In it, he was surprised to find a Grammy statue. He had been so busy in the studio that he was unaware he had won it. A friend told him, "That should tell you something".

In 1978, Rick Nelson came to Memphis and made the only album he ever made anywhere but Los Angeles, produced by Larry Rogers. For unknown reasons, the CBS executives never released the material, and referred to it only as "the Memphis Sessions". Then in December 1985, Nelson was tragically killed in a plane crash. After Nelson's death, CBS wanted to release the album but decided to turn it over to Steve Buckingham in Nashville for re-vamping rather than its original supervisor, Larry Rogers. Buckingham's reconstruction of the album involved transferring the material from 16 track analog to 48 track digital tape, replacing the old drum parts with "hotter" drums, and replacing the guitar parts with a cleaner Fender Telecaster sound. Nevertheless, a controversy arose as to whether hard-to-please Nelson himself would have allowed the release. John Beland, Nelson's guitarist on the original work, said, "I'll tell you right from the outset Rick wouldn't have wanted anybody touching those tapes". Jack Hurst of The Chicago Tribune said "Buckingham's technique brings Nelson's voice out front as never before". He produced the end credit song, "Brother To Brother" for the film, Next Of Kin starring Patrick Swayze. The recording featured vocals by Gregg Allman and Lori Yates. He was the music producer for a CBS network television special in 1996 titled Dolly Parton: Treasures which featured Parton in concert as she saluted her favorite songs and the writers and performers who popularized them. This included Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Alison Krauss and others. He produced songs for the feature film Nadine starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Bassinger and also a song in the feature film The Beverly Hillbillies based on the classic television series. Annabelle's Wish is an animated Christmas film for which Buckingham produced two songs.

Later life Buckingham gave the commencement address at his Virginia alma mater, the University of Richmond in 2007. He cited the many changes in the recording industry in recent years and advised the graduates, whatever their chosen profession, to stay on the cutting edge of developing technology. He became an adjunct instructor of Music History for the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach. One of his most popular classes is "Rhythm and Blues Tore Down the Walls of Segregation".