While he built his reputation on extravagant productions for Queen and others, Mr. Baker pared down his sound as a producer of the Cars’ first four albums, particularly the band’s landmark 1978 debut, which included the hits “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Good Times Roll.” The album marked a transition from the slick commercial rock that dominated the FM airwaves in the late 1970s to the lean, taut New Wave that would follow.

“I had been doing Queen, which was kitchen-sink overproduction, which I loved,” he said in the 1999 interview. But, he added, “I would run into the Sex Pistols, because they were working over at Wessex. They were saying the usual, ‘All you bands are going to be gone because you’re overproduced.’”

As a result, Mr. Baker took a leaner approach with the Cars’ first record, although he augmented its spare, sinewy sound with Queenesque vocal cascades.

“‘Good Times Roll’ is a classic one for that,” he said. “When they sing those words, it’s huge and then it’s gone, and everything is back to sparse again. I was able to put big vocals on a sparse, punkish background, sort of inventing post-punk pop.”

Mr. Baker is survived by his wife, Tere Livrano Baker, and his brother, Alan.

“My whole thing is, the more different you can sound from anything else around but still be commercially successful is great,” Mr. Baker once said of his philosophy as a producer. He added: “People need an identifiable sound. When your song is being played on the radio, people should hear who that is, even without the D.J. mentioning who it is.”

Sara Ruberg contributed reporting. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.