Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson (1931-1978) was a record producer best known for his work with Columbia & MGM/Verve artists like Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention.

Born in Waco, Texas, Wilson was inspired to go into the music industry after working at Harvard’s college radio station WHRB. Upon graduating, he borrowed $900 to set up an independent jazz label, Transition Records, which released early albums by luminaries like Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor before going bankrupt in 1957. Wilson was picked up as a jazz A&R man by United Artists, then became staff producer at Columbia. He was the first African American to hold that position. At the helm of that label, he produced three-and-a-half Bob Dylan albums from 1963-65 and Simon & Garfunkel’s debut.

In early 1966, he quit Columbia and signed on as head A&R man for MGM/Verve. Among his first signings were The Mothers of Invention and The Velvet Underground. Wilson was a champion of both acts, producing the first two albums for each. Other acts he produced for Verve include Nico, The Animals and Soft Machine.

By 1968, he’d quit Verve and went into business for himself, founding the Tom Wilson Organization – a combination production company/talent agency. His acts, in accordance with the times, were left-field and psychedelic (the most prominent being The Fraternity of Man, known for their single, “Don’t Bogart That Joint”). But at the end of the 60s, Wilson’s well ran dry, and production jobs were fewer and farther between. He still kept busy, moved to England, wrote an R&B opera about “the legend of Atlantis and the story of the black man in America”, but nothing ever really came to fruition.

Wilson died of a heart attack at age 47 in Los Angeles.