Mike Stone (1951-2002)
Professionally active 1971-1997
A few of his notable credits include:
Whitesnake - "Whitesnake" (producer)
Queen - "A Day At The Races", "A Night At The Opera", "News Of The World", "Sheer Heart Attack" (engineer)
Journey - "Escape", "Frontiers", "Raised On Radio" (producer)
Asia - "Asia", "Alpha" (producer)
Mike Stone has been associated with so many successful albums, but I would include him in the top 5 solely for producing the first album by Asia.
With all the talent in that band, and egos filling the room, he somehow managed to forge a number one, multi-platinum album in a time when prog was all but dead.
But even more than that, there is a certain feel to the songs of that album that the various incarnations of the band (including the original) have consistently failed to convey live. Like when I listen to the first album, I get a forward head-nod feel. I listen to a live performance from ANY era, and I get a back-and-forth head sway feel. BTW, "Wheel In The Sky" by Journey feels the exact same way to me, and they can't come up with that feel live, either.
It is most frustrating, and in autumn 2005 when I saw the original band on tour in Niagara Falls, NY I finally gave up looking for that magical performance that "feels" like the original. Not sounds like it, but feels like it.
It is after that concert that I realized that the original Asia were a really good band with a strong musical heritage that will always draw sales and attendance at concerts, but the albums Asia and Alpha were the creations of Mike Stone.
Somehow, he used the most excellent tools he had to work with, and crafted something really amazing, that the four band members could never have come up with... "never in a million years."