Joel Moss, Grammy-Winning Music Producer, Dies at 79

Joel Moss, the Grammy-winning producer, engineer and mixer for a slew of memorable Hollywood film scores and recordings, has died. He was 79.

Moss died Sept. 15 in Saratoga Springs, New York, after experiencing an aortic dissection, his daughter, Rachael Moss, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Joel was loved and respected by all and was known as ‘the biggest mensch in the recording industry who created the best sounds in town,’” his family said in a statement.

Over a six-decade music-making career, Moss became a go-to engineer for scores for memorable films like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Footloose, Sister Act, City Slickers, Sleepless in Seattle, Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society, Gorillas in the Mist and A Few Good Men.

Born in Detroit on May 11, 1946, Moss started his music career in the late 1950s as a 12-year-old folk prodigy and a member of the Hebrew quintet called The Hi-Liters. By the early 1960s, when rock and roll had eclipsed folk music, he thought his career might be over.

“I luckily had enough experience in studios, and I thought that might be fun,” Moss recalled of early studio work for mostly garage bands as a 15-year-old in a 2022 video he participated in when inducted into the Eddie’s Hall of Fame.

But his career took flight when Moss arrived in Los Angeles and found steady work. He finally established career as a producer and engineer for such artists as Tony Bennett, the Eagles, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Cissy Houston, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Talking Heads.

For the Talking Headsʼ 1984 documentary, Stop Making Sense, Moss became the first person to transfer analog recordings to 24-track digital as an audio engineer. Over his career, Moss was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards and won seven trophies in all.

His work on Broadway cast recordings included credits for Lin-Manuel Mirandaʼs In the Heights, Hair and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which earned him a Grammy for best musical theater album.

Moss became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in recent years worked at the Caffe Lena folk club in Saratoga Springs as he dedicated his time and talent as a writer, sound designer and archivist to friends and musicians who performed there.

In addition to his daughter, Moss is survived by his wife, Terri-Lynn Pellegri; grandchildren Zuzu and Griffin; brother Gary; sister Karen; and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Moss’s life will be held Oct. 14 at Caffe Lena, with the event streamed live on the Caffe Lena page.