LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23 – Terry Melcher, surfin’ era singer songwriter and recording executive who produced the Byrds’ No. 1 hits Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn, Turn, Turn and co-wrote The Beach Boys’ well-loved Kokomo, has died. He was 62.

Melcher, who also worked on several projects with his mother, actress and singer Doris Day, died Friday night in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home of cancer, publicist Linda Dozoretz said Saturday.

Helping to shape the California surf, rock, and folk music scene in the 1960s, the multifaceted musician sang background, played piano, wrote lyrics, composed music and produced records and shows, including the Monterey Pop Festival.

During his famous mother’s filmmaking heyday, he often composed songs for her projects, including the title ballad Move Over, Darling for her 1963 movie with James Garner and Polly Bergen. He also was an executive producer of her CBS television series, The Doris Day Show from 1968 to 1972, and engineered her return to television in the mid-1980s with the show Doris Day’s Best Friends.

In the early 1960s, Melcher formed Bruce & Terry with Bruce Johnston, who later joined the Beach Boys, and had hits with Custom Machine and Summer Means Fun.

The duo also formed the Rip Chords and recorded such successes as the top 10 Hey, Little Cobra, which they released in an album, along with the album Other Hot Rod Hits.

Subsequently, Melcher issued two less successful solo albums, Terry Melcher and Royal Flush. He also performed backup on albums of his friends the Beach Boys, including their successful Pet Sounds.

In the mid-1960s, Melcher became a staff producer for Columbia Records and hit his stride when he was assigned to work with a new band called the Byrds.

He helped craft their fusion of rock and folk into a new and immensely popular sound, and produced their definitive versions of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger’s Turn, Turn, Turn, as well as later albums including Ballad of Easy Rider.

The young producer went on to turn the rag-tag garage band Paul Revere and the Raiders into a mainstream pop group. He wrote such hits for them as Him or Me – What’s It Gonna Be? and The Great Airplane Strike.

Other well-known artists relying on the Melcher touch included the Mamas and the Papas, Bobby Darin and Glen Campbell.

Melcher gained an unwanted place in Hollywood history for refusing to help another well-known person – convicted murderer Charles Manson.

Melcher and his then-girlfriend Candace Bergen had once rented the secluded Benedict Canyon house where Sharon Tate and others were slain in 1969.

After Manson and his acolytes were arrested for the slaughter, rumours abounded that Manson’s intention was to kill Melcher for refusing to produce his songs. Investigators, after determining that Manson knew at the time of the murders that Melcher had moved to Malibu, eventually discounted the purported motivation.

As Day’s only child, Melcher clearly benefited from the halo of her enormous success in forging his own career and initially even billed himself as Terry Day.

But he also remained extremely close to Day throughout his life, seeing her through marital and financial strife, and in recent years devoting himself to managing her projects.

He licensed and marketed her record, broadcast and video properties, and helped operate her nonprofit organizations, the Doris Day Animal League and Doris Day Animal Foundation.

Born Feb. 8, 1942 in New York City to Day and her first husband, trombonist Al Jorden, Melcher was adopted 10 years later by her third husband, Martin Melcher, and took his surname.

He is survived by Day, of Carmel, Calif; his wife, Terese, and a son from a previous marriage, Ryan.

By MYRNA OLIVER