Steve Lillywhite

 ( 1955 Births ) 

In 1987, Lillywhite worked with the Pogues, producing "Fairytale of New York". His wife, Kirsty MacColl, provided the lead female vocal for the song, which became the band's biggest hit. The single narrowly missed being the UK Christmas number one single, but was still one of the biggest selling records that year, and has frequently returned to the holiday charts. MacColl also provided additional vocals during Lillywhite's production of Talking Heads' final album, 1988's Naked.

The song "Cotton Fields", from the Pogues' 1989 album Peace and Love (also produced by Lillywhite), includes a reference to "Steve Lillywhite's drunken mix".

Lillywhite was featured as the subject for a BBC Radio 1 documentary series on record producers. In 1999, he produced the US band Guster's Lost and Gone Forever.

In 2002, Universal Music Group head Lucian Grainge invited Lillywhite to become managing director. Lillywhite signed singer-songwriter Darius Danesh and served as executive producer for his debut album Dive In, which spawned three Top 10 hits, and Mercury Records' first number one in eighteen years. He also signed Razorlight, and also produced Jason Mraz's Mr. A-Z.

In September 2005, Lillywhite joined Columbia Records as a Senior Vice-president of A&R. During his tenure he signed MGMT. He left the label at the end of 2006. Lillywhite collected consecutive Grammy Awards for Record of the Year with U2's "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On". In 2006, Lillywhite won three more Grammys: Producer of the Year (Non-Classical), Best Rock Album also with U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb; and a partial win for Album of the Year, also for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

In late 2006, he worked with Chris Cornell on his album Carry On, and also produced two songs on Switchfoot's album, Oh! Gravity.. In February 2007, Lillywhite began work with Crowded House on tracks for Time on Earth, the band's first studio album in fourteen years. The majority of the album was produced by Ethan Johns, but Lillywhite produced four songs with the full touring line-up, including new drummer Matt Sherrod as well as studio guest guitarist Johnny Marr. Lillywhite's next project was working with Matchbox Twenty on an Extended play that comprised a portion of Exile on Mainstream, a two-disc album that entered the US charts at No. 3 and Australian charts at No. 1. In 2008, Lillywhite again worked alongside Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois on U2's No Line on the Horizon. He also worked on Blue October's Approaching Normal, and rejoined Flood to work with Thirty Seconds to Mars on This Is War.

In 2008, Lillywhite produced a number of recordings for the World Cafe radio show on NPR. This included sessions at Avatar Studios in New York with Fleet Foxes, She & Him, Bell X1, Dr. Dog, and Mercury Rev.

In November 2009, he began presenting his own weekly radio show on East Village Radio called "The Lillywhite Sessions".

Lillywhite produced an album for Evanescence at MSR Studios from February 2010 to April that year, but was scrapped in early 2011. On his work with Evanescence, Lillywhite said: "what happened was a few people lost their nerve. I don't even think it was her

In 2011, Bono and the Edge brought Lillywhite in to produce the cast recording for Interscope.

On 16 July 2012, the Irish Examiner reported that Lillywhite was attached to a new television show entitled The Hit.

Lillywhite reunited with Thirty Seconds to Mars in 2012, co-producing the band's fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams, alongside Jared Leto.

In 2015, at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Lillywhite was awarded his sixth Grammy Award for his work on Juanes's album Loco De Amor. That same year, he was credited as a producer on Amy Lee's cover of Chris Isaak's "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" for her Recover, Vol. 1 EP. The track was originally recorded for Evanescence's original third album produced by Lillywhite in 2010 but it was rejected by their Wind-up Records.

In 2016, Lillywhite produced an album by Thai rock band Slot Machine.

In April 2017, musician and writer Jon Regen wrote an article for The New York Times profiling Lillywhite and his work bundling recorded CDs with fried chicken in Indonesian KFC restaurants.

Lillywhite worked with a Japanese act for the first time when he co-produced Luna Sea's 2019 album Cross. In interviews about the album, the producer has stated that he is semi-retired living in Jakarta for the past five years and now only works with select artists.

Lillywhite was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to music and was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Surrey in 2025.

• Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding
• Big Country – The Crossing, Wonderland, Steeltown
• Bruce Foxton – Touch Sensitive
• Blue October – Approaching Normal
• Chris Cornell – Carry On
• Climie Fisher – some songs from Everything
• Counting Crows – Hard Candy
• Crowded House – Time on Earth
• Darius Danesh – Dive In
• Dark Star – Twenty Twenty Sound
• Dave Matthews Band – Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, Before These Crowded Streets, The Lillywhite Sessions (unreleased), Away from the World
• Elwood – The Parlance of Our Time
• Frida – Shine
• Gigi – Setia Bersama Menyayangi dan Mencintai
• Guster – Lost and Gone Forever
• Iwan Fals – SATU
• Jason Mraz – Mr. A-Z
• Joan Armatrading – Walk Under Ladders, The Key, mixing on Sleight of Hand
• Johnny Thunders – So Alone
• Juanes – Loco de Amor
• Kirsty MacColl – Kite, Electric Landlady
• Luna Sea – Cross
• Marshall Crenshaw – Field Day
• Matchbox Twenty – Exile on Mainstream
• Morrissey – Vauxhall and I, Southpaw Grammar, Maladjusted
• Noah – Second Chance
• Ours – Distorted Lullabies
• Penetration – Coming Up for Air
• Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel (aka Peter Gabriel III or Melt)
• Phish – Billy Breathes, Joy
• Rearview Mirror – All Lights Off
• Simple Minds – Sparkle in the Rain
• Siouxsie and the Banshees – The Scream
• Slank – Palalopeyank
• Switchfoot – Oh! Gravity.
• Talking Heads – Naked
• The Adventure Babies – Laugh
• The Killers – Battle Born
• The La's – The La's
• The Members – At the Chelsea Nightclub
• The Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace with God, Peace and Love
• The Psychedelic Furs – The Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk
• The Rolling Stones – Dirty Work
• The Sam Willows – Glasshouse (Lillywhite edition)
• The Smiths – mixed the "Ask" single ( The World Won't Listen)
• Thirty Seconds to Mars – This Is War, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams
• Thompson Twins – Set
• Tom Robinson – Sector 27
• Toyah – The Changeling
• Travis – Good Feeling
• U2 – Boy, October, War, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb; as well as some songs on The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, All That You Can't Leave Behind, No Line on the Horizon and Songs of Experience
• Ultravox – Ultravox!, Ha!-Ha!-Ha!
• Urban Verbs – Early Damage
• World Party – Bang!
• XTC – Drums and Wires, Black Sea