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Michael Berniker was an American record producer who was recognized with nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career for his work on albums with such performers as Perry Como, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand, as well as Broadway theatre cast recordings, Latin jazz, classical, spoken word and comedy albums in a career that lasted some forty years working for Columbia Records, CBS Records and RCA Records.
Born on June 30, 1935, and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Columbia University, studying music and philosophy. While serving at Fort Bliss in El Paso County, Texas while in the United States Army for two years, he hosted a local radio show and organized a jazz festival.
While in his late-20s, Berniker produced Barbra Streisand's first three albums — The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album and The Third Album — all of which were released six months apart in the one-year span from February 1963 to February 1964, and which were described by The New York Times as "among the most expressively uninhibited" of her career. He produced several Broadway albums, including his work with composer Cy Coleman on The Will Rogers Follies, which won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album at the 1992 ceremonies. He won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards of 1986 for his work as producer of the original Broadway cast album for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
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