American record producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, many Nashville recording artists, and Simon and Garfunkel.
By 1964 he had moved into production work at Kapp Records in New York, freelance arranging for Dot Records and signed as a songwriter to music publisher Hill and Range. He also married songwriter Joy Byers with whom he began to collaborate.
In recent years, Johnston has claimed that songs still credited to Byers were actually co-written, or solely written by himself. The songs in question include Timi Yuro’s 1962 hit “What’s A Matter Baby,” plus at least 16 songs for Elvis Presley’s films between 1964 and 1968, including “It Hurts Me”, “Let Yourself Go” and “Stop, Look and Listen.”
After a couple of years in New York, Johnston became head of Columbia in Nashville, Tennessee, where he had known many of the session musicians, such as Charlie Daniels, for years. He produced three of Cohen’s albums, toured with him and also composed music to the Cohen lyric “Come Spend the Morning.”
In more recent years, Johnston has returned to working with fresh talent. In 2011, he signed on to produce indie “power-acoustic” rock band Friday’s Child’s sixth album, Cue the Violins.

Link to Wikipedia biography