- Father of musician Roberta Swedien.
- In 1957 he moved his family to Chicago to work at RCA Victor Recording Studios.
- In 1958 he joined his mentor Bill Putnam at his Universal Recording Studio as a staff engineer.
- First worked with Michael Jackson on the soundtrack for the feature The Wiz (1978) and followed that with his album Off The Wall (1979).
- Started his own recording studio at age 19 when he converted a former movie theater in Minneapolis.
- First Grammy nomination for engineering was for Frankie Valli & The Four Season's single "Big Girls Don't Cry.".
- Nominated for 13 Grammy Awards and received 5 for Michael Jackson's albums Thriller (1982), Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1992) along with Quincy Jones' albums Back On The Block (1990) and Q's Jook Joint (1996).
- While with Universal Recording he recorded the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, among many others.
- Nominated for 5 TEC Awards.
- Wrote three books about his working methods and recording philosophy: "Make Mine Music" (2004), "In The Studio With Michael Jackson" (2009) and "The Bruce Swedien Recording Method" (2013).
- Won two ASCAP composer awards.
- His most cherished work was on Michael Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" album, for which Swedien won the Best Engineered Recording Grammy Award.
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