Bernard Alfred Nitzsche known professionally as Jack Nitzsche, was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer.
His instrumental composition "The Lonely Surfer" entered the Cash Box top 100 on August 3, 1963 and reached No. 37.
He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector. He was the musical arranger and orchestrator for many of Phil Spector's classic "Wall of Sound" recordings, in the 1960s. Coincidentally, Nitzsche's nickname was "Specs".
He became arranger and conductor and orchestrated the Wall of Sound for the song "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner.
He was hired by Sonny Bono, who was at the time an A&R executive at Specialty Records, as a music copyist. While there, Nitzsche wrote a novelty hit titled "Bongo Bongo Bongo". Nitzsche also helped Bono write the song "Needles and Pins" for Jackie DeShannon, later recorded by the Searchers.
While organizing music for the T.A.M.I. Show television special in 1964, he met the Rolling Stones and went on to play keyboards on their albums The Rolling Stones, Now!, Out of Our Heads, Aftermath and Between the Buttons as well as on their hit singles "Paint It, Black" and "Let's Spend the Night Together"; he also wrote the choral arrangements for "You Can't Always Get What You Want".
Nitzsche also worked with Earl Palmer, Leon Russell, Roy Caton, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine in The Wrecking Crew, the backing band for many acts such as the Beach Boys and the Monkees.
His work with Buffalo Springfield (“Expecting to Fly”) and subsequent friendship with Neil Young led to Young recruiting him as not only a producer but also a touring member of Crazy Horse, for whom he wrote string arrangements and played piano.
He also worked extensively in film scores, notably for films such as Performance, The Exorcist and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In 1983, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "Up Where We Belong" with Buffy Sainte-Marie.
While remaining prolific throughout the 1970s, he began to suffer from depression and problems connected to substance abuse. Though Nitzsche had a stellar reputation as an arranger and composer, his private life was a bit more spotty. He had a long-standing problem with drugs and a reputation for erratic behavior.
