Harvey Averne, born in 1936 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American record producer. He began performing professionally as a musician at age fourteen, and by the mid‑1950s, he appeared in New York’s club circuit, playing venues such as the Palladium Ballroom and Lincoln Center. In 1967, he released his debut as a songwriter and performer with the album Viva Soul on Atlantic Records, with The Harvey Averne Dozen, featuring the hit "My Dream" and the widely sampled "You're No Good". In 1972, Averne founded the label CoCo Records, signing a roster that included Eddie Palmieri, whose albums The Sun of Latin Music (1975) and Unfinished Masterpiece (1976) earned the first two Grammy Awards in the newly created Latin Music category. Throughout the 1970s. Averne produced and mixed work for artists such as Danny Rivera, Eydie Gorme, and the Machito Orchestra, securing multiple Grammy nominations and consolidating CoCo’s international presence through a distribution deal with Spain’s Zafiro Records. In 1979, he had moved to France and Belgium, producing Euro‑Disco hits and discovering Madonna, before retiring from the music business. He later returned to New York to produce tracks for the boogaloo revival band Spanglish Fly.
