Record producers rarely achieve fame. Quincy Jones and George Martin are a couple of producers who became known through their association with artists: Michael Jackson in Jones’ case, the Beatles in Martin’s case. But Phil Spector achieved fame by producing hits by a number of artists: the Ronettes, Crystals, Righteous Brothers, Darlene Love, and even the Beatles. One of Spector’s musical innovations was “The Wall of Sound.” Spector created a dense, layered, reverberant sound that sounded great on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the Sixties. Spector achieved this sound by having a number of electric and acoustic guitarists perform the same parts in unison, adding musical arrangements for large groups of musicians up to the size of orchestras, then recording the sound using an echo chamber. The result was a unique sound that’s instantly recognizable. This just released collection presents much of the range of Phil Spector’s early work. Highly recommended!
TRACK LIST:
1. He’s A Rebel
2. Da Doo Ron Ron
3. Be My Baby
4. Then He Kissed Me
5. (Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry
6. Baby, I Love You
7. He’s Sure The Boy I Love
8. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
9. Wait Til’ My Bobby Gets Home
10. Walking In The Rain
11. Uptown
12. Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts?
13. Do I Love You?
14. A Fine, Fine Boy
15. There’s No Other Like My Baby
16. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling
17. (The Best Part Of) Breakin’ Up
18. Not Too Young To Get Married
19. River Deep, Mountain High
Four words: Fabulous music; screwed-up life.
Geniuses are quirky, Deb. But Phil Spector was quirker than most.
Well, five, if you count “screwed” and “up” as separate words.
A weird guy, all right, but I love that wall of sound.
Me, too, Bill. Phil Spector was able to convince a whole stable of artists to buy into his sound.
I just love this music. I wonder if anyone who wasn’t there does though. You may have to have the ear for it.
I think Phil Spector’s work holds up, Patti. I still listen to his music today with as much enjoyment as when I was a kid hearing his music for the first time.
I certainly wasn’t too much a radio-listener in ’61-’66, and I like a whole lot of this (though Spector’s unpleasantness does haunt it…and certainly Brian Wilson and Shadow Morton and others were doing similar work). But I will take issue with the notion that Quincy Jones was obscure before taking up with Michael Jackson…THRILLER helped make them Even More household names…
Point taken, Todd. Quincy Jones worked with some of biggest names (Sinatra) and created artists (Leslie Gore). But he moved to a whole different status level when he worked with Michael Jackson.
You can’t go wrong with this. We already have a 3 CD collection of Spector’s greatest plus his famous Christmas album. Besides the obvious he produced great stuff like “Every Breath I Take” by Gene Pitney.
Psycho, yes, but a brilliantly talented one.
I was going to say what Todd said about Quincy Jones. He was around for a long time (back to Ray Charles’s early days) before Michael Jackson.
Quincy Jones has had a long, successful career, Jeff. I own plenty of his CDs and ones he’s produced.
Earlier than that, Jeff…jazz folks were familiar with his work with his brothers and with the Count Basie Orchestra…
Quincy Jones’ work with the Count Basie Orchestra was before my time, Todd.
But I hadn’t remembered the teenaged work with Charles! (When both were kids.) And he was in Gillespie’s orchestra ahead of Basie’s…
I didn’t really know about his early connection to Ray Charles until I saw RAY.
Spector also had some of the top songwriters of the time working with him: Carole King & Gerry Goffin (that Gene Pitney song), Cynthia Weill & Barry Mann (Uptown, He’s Sure the Boy I Love You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’) and especially Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry (Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby & other Ronettes songs, River Deep-Mountain High). Also, Gene Pitney wrote He’s a Rebel.
You’re right, Jeff. Phil Spector attracted a lot of talent, both artists and song writers.
Of course Quincy Jones produced Lesley Gore’s hits, starting with It’s My Party in 1963.
Phil Spector – Back to Mono is the one I’m referring to.
BACK TO MONO is one of my favorite Spector works, Jeff. I’ve also ordered the just released THE PHILLES ALBUM COLLECTION.
Well, even more money, sure. But “Soul Bossa Nova” put him (as artist) on the hit parade in ’62 (and back again thanks to AUSTIN POWERS). Of course, in some ways his most impressive achievement that we all get to enjoy might be Rashida Jones…but the last Dizzy Gillespie orchestral album he helped put together, RHYTHMSTICK, will always mean a lot more to me than THRILLER (as rare as that makes me, I’ll admit…but, then, Gillespie will always mean more to me than Jackson). Jones worked with the Basie Orchestra around the turn of the ’60s…the first “new” jazz album I bought as a kid was the ’60 (iirc) CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, with Jones (more than one Jones brother) comps…
And don’t forget Quincy Jones did a ton of soundtracks, Todd. WALK, DON’T RUN, IN COLD BLOOD, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, ROOTS, THE WIZ, THE COLOR PURPLE, etc.
I had every single on of these on a 45. Damn near wore them out and listened to them on the radio too, then later bought the Top Hits collections that had many of them. Good stuff indeed, and a LOT of memories associated with them: girlfriends, cars, guy hanging out things, trips to the beach, parties… a LOT of memories which come right back when I hear them even today.
Well said, Rick! Tons of memories are intertwined with Phil Spector’s music.
Re Quincy Jones: The double-track method he used to record Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” influenced many other artists, including the Beatles.
Re Phil Spector: I don’t think anyone else mentioned it, but “To Know Him Is To Love Him” was Spector’s father’s epitaph. Spector used those words to write a love song. I think the family was messed up way before Spector shot and killed a woman.
Quincy Jones and Phil Spector were both innovators, Deb. But both had “issues” that haunted them throughout their careers.
One need only ask Ronnie Spector that, Deb. The other Teddy Bears (the “To Know Him is to Love Him” chorus) might’ve been able to say something, too…
I’d say, on the whole, Quincy handled his demons better than Spector did.
Quincy Jones almost died in the Sixties from a drug overdose, Deb. That was a wake-up call for him.