Keith Olsen facts for kids

Keith Alan Olsen (May 12, 1945 – March 9, 2020) was an American music expert. He was a record producer and sound engineer. This means he helped bands make their music sound great and recorded it. He worked with many famous bands. Some of these include Fleetwood Mac, Ozzy Osbourne, Grateful Dead, and Whitesnake.

Keith Olsen helped create over 100 albums. Many of these albums became very popular. His work earned him more than 39 Gold, 24 Platinum, and 14 Multi-Platinum album awards.

Keith Olsen's Music Career

Keith Olsen was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the United States. He went to school in Minneapolis. There, he learned to love different kinds of music. These included classical, pop, and jazz.

He started gaining experience in recording studios in Minneapolis. He also played upright bass in jazz and folk bands. This gave him musical and touring experience. Later, he played bass in a band called the Music Machine. They had a hit song called "Talk Talk".

Working with Famous Musicians

During this time, Keith began working with Curt Boettcher. Curt was a producer for the band The Association. Keith also met Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. Brian taught him to imagine the whole sound of a song from the very first listen.

After moving to Los Angeles, Keith helped start the careers of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. He helped them get a record deal. He also produced their first album, Buckingham Nicks. He even let them live in his house for a while. He introduced them to Mick Fleetwood. Then, Keith went on to produce Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album. This album reached number one in the US.

Top Albums and Soundtracks

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Keith Olsen became a very well-known producer. Besides Fleetwood Mac, he worked with many other artists. These included the Grateful Dead, Rick Springfield, Pat Benatar, and Heart. He produced Rick Springfield's number one hit song, "Jessie's Girl". He also worked on Ozzy Osbourne's No Rest for the Wicked. He produced the Scorpions' album Crazy World.

Keith was also involved in several movie soundtracks. These included Footloose, Vision Quest, Tron, Flashdance, and Top Gun.

Later Career and Legacy

In 1996, Keith Olsen took a step back from producing artists. He focused on creating surround sound music mixes. He worked for a record label called Kore Group. He would take existing songs and remix them for surround sound.

Later, he produced several albums each year for Pogologo Productions Group. He was also a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Producers and Engineers Wing. He believed this group was very important in the digital music age.

Keith Olsen passed away on March 9, 2020. He died from cardiac arrest at his home in Genoa, Nevada. He was 74 years old.

Production Credits

Keith Olsen produced many albums for various artists. Here are some of them:

• Eternity's Children - Eternity's Children (1968)
• The Millennium - Begin (1968)
• James Gang - Passin' Thru (1972)
• Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks - Buckingham Nicks (1973)
• Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac (1975)
• Sons of Champlin - A Circle Filled With Love (1976)
• Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station (1977)
• Bob Weir - Heaven Help the Fool (1978)
• Foreigner - Double Vision (1978)
• Santana - Marathon (1979)
• The Babys - Union Jacks (1980)
• Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion (1980)
• Rick Springfield - Working Class Dog (1981)
• Santana - Zebop! (1981)
• Sheila - Little Darlin' (1981)
• Pat Benatar - Precious Time (1981)
• Sammy Hagar - Standing Hampton (1982)
• Rick Springfield - Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982)
• Sammy Hagar - Three Lock Box (1982)
• Heart - Passionworks (1983)
• Kim Carnes - Café Racers (1983)
• Joe Walsh - The Confessor (1985)
• 38 Special - Strength in Numbers (1986)
• Bad Company - Fame and Fortune (1986)
• Saga - Wildest Dreams (1987)
• Whitesnake - Whitesnake (1987)
• Starship - No Protection (1987)
• Carlos Santana - Blues for Salvador (1987)
• Rick Springfield - Rock of Life (1988)
• Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked (1988)
• Night Ranger - Man in Motion (1988)
• Whitesnake - Slip of the Tongue (1989)
• Kingdom Come - In Your Face (1989)
• Magnum - Goodnight L.A. (1990)
• Scorpions - Crazy World (1990)
• Eddie Money - Right Here (1991)
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer - In the Hot Seat (1994)
• Scorpions - Pure Instinct (1996)
• Shirley Myers - There Will Come a Day (1999)
• Sheila - Venue d'ailleurs [fr] (2021) (two songs realized in 2017)

See also

In Spanish: Keith Olsen para niños