NEW YORK (AFP)Phil Ramone, the legendary US music producer behind hits by Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died Saturday at the age of 79, a trade publication said. Ramone - a 14-time Grammy winner once dubbed the “Pope of Pop” - died in New York after being hospitalized for weeks with an aortic aneurysm, Billboard magazine reported. Billboard and other media outlets had initially reported Ramone’s age as 72, but later confirmed he was 79.