After university, Wilson borrowed $500 () to set up
Transition Records, having a goal in mind of setting up a record label and recording the most advanced
jazz musicians of the day. The label released about a dozen albums, including
Sun Ra's
Jazz By Sun Ra (retitled
Sun Song when reissued in 1968), which was Ra's first LP (a second LP of Transition material remained unreleased until 1968), and the album
Jazz Advance by
Cecil Taylor, which was Taylor's debut release. Transition also released the first sessions led by
Doug Watkins,
Donald Byrd, and
Herb Pomeroy. The label went bankrupt in 1957 and the catalog was sold off to the
Blue Note and
Delmark Records. Wilson's work with Transition Records helped him obtain a job with
United Artists Records in 1957. He worked as a producer for jazz labels, including
Savoy Records, for whom he again recorded Sun Ra in 1961.
Columbia Records As a staff producer at
Columbia Records, Wilson was one of the "midwives" of
folk-rock, producing three of Bob Dylan's key 1960s albums: ''
The Times They Are a-Changin', Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Bringing It All Back Home, along with the 1965 single, "Like a Rolling Stone." Wilson also produced the final four tracks Dylan recorded for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'', after he replaced
John Hammond as Dylan's producer in 1963. Wilson produced
Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 debut LP
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. which included "
The Sound of Silence". Seizing on local radio interest in the song in
Florida and inspired by the huge success of
the Byrds'
folk-rock version of Dylan's "
Mr Tambourine Man", Wilson took the duo's original acoustic track and, without Simon's or Garfunkel's knowledge, overdubbed electric instruments, turning the track into a #1 pop hit, helping to launch the folk-rock genre. Simon and Garfunkel, who had already split, reunited after the hit and went on to greater success. After working with Wilson, both Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel worked with another Columbia staff producer,
Bob Johnston, who produced several albums for both acts.
Verve/MGM Records In 1966, Wilson signed
the Mothers of Invention to
Verve Records and produced on the group's debut album
Freak Out! Also in 1966, after
the Animals split from producer
Mickie Most, Wilson became their producer, which continued until the original band broke up in 1967. Wilson also produced
the Velvet Underground, featuring
Lou Reed and
John Cale. Although
Andy Warhol is credited as the producer of the group's debut album,
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), Cale credits Wilson as the true producer, as Warhol was mostly absent from the sessions. Wilson was credited only for the production of the song's opening track, "
Sunday Morning", which had been released as a single in 1966 prior to the album's release. Wilson also produced the Velvet Underground's second album,
White Light/White Heat (1968) and was officially credited as that album's producer (the band having parted ways with Warhol prior to its recording). Wilson resigned from MGM Records (then owner of Verve) prior to the release of
White Light/White Heat and did not work with the Velvet Underground thereafter. Another of Wilson's Verve production credits was
the Blues Project's first studio album
Projections (1966) featuring
Al Kooper (with whom Wilson had previously worked on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone") as vocalist and keyboard player. Wilson co-produced the
Soft Machine's eponymous
first album with
Chas Chandler in 1968. ==Achievements==