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Burbank, Calif.

At a recording studio here, Britney Spears puts some last-minute polish on a song for her next album. As she sings a line about handling her “business,” I’m in the next room minding mine; with so much focus on the singer’s recent travails, her representative says she’s not giving interviews.

That doesn’t mean she’s not talking. My interaction with perhaps the most closely watched woman in America comes during a break, when she steps out of the vocal booth and politely asks me to pass her a drink from the fridge. (I do. Red Bull.)

No matter. The real draw at this session is the man in the control booth. He is producer Nate Hills, aka Danja (pronounced “DANE-ja”). At age 26, Mr. Hills is emerging as one of music’s elite, behind-the-scenes hit makers. With industry sales in a slump, demand for his services — and those of other top producers — is surging.

The Burbank session is a case in point. Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr. Hills had been working in his studio in Miami. An urgent call from Ms. Spears’s camp summoned him across the country (with me in tow) to assist her.

In the coming months, the fruits of this session and others like it will make or break tens of millions of dollars in music sales. It will also mark the biggest test yet for Mr. Hills as a solo producer.

In the past year, Mr. Hills has had a direct hand in crafting albums that yielded seven No. 1 songs, for singers such as Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. “Gimme More,” one of his songs with Ms. Spears and the first single released in her comeback attempt, has been No. 1 on the iTunes chart for more than a week. Also bearing Mr. Hills’s mark this fall: an album from 1980s stars Duran Duran.

Although Mr. Hills is virtually unknown to music fans, he has joined the handful of producers who are behind the bulk of today’s top-selling pop records. Grounded mostly in hip-hop, this elite group includes will.i.am (pronounced as three words), leader of the Black Eyed Peas, who has recently been in the studio with Michael Jackson. Another key producer is Swizz Beatz, who has branched out from hard-core rap to work with Beyoncé and Alicia Keys.