Too many fathers of rock have been lost to the mists of time, so join J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin' every Saturday as he reminds us who helped to set the groundwork for the music we love...
From early Svengalis like Sam Phillips to the hip-hop impresarios of today, producers have often been critical figures in pop history. A savvy producer can make a rank amateur into a star. A handful of producers have become arguably more famous than their best-known proteges. Phil Spector might be the most famous.
In the early 1960s, he took anonymous singers and veteran studio musicians and ruled them with an iron hand to create what he called "little symphonies for the kids." Spector had been a singer, songwriter, session musician, and freelance producer before going into business with his mentor, Lester Sill, in 1961. Philles Records was home base for mad-scientist productions in a style quickly nicknamed the "Wall of Sound." By assembling large groups of musicians and having them play in unison, Spector created a dense, layered effect that made his records sound like nothing else on the radio. Classic American pop songs from the Brill Building in New York City (subject of a future Rock 101) and backing from the finest L.A. studio musicians (a group known as the Wrecking Crew, featured in a recent documentary film) resulted in some legendary recordings, including Be My Baby by the Ronettes, He's a Rebel by the Crystals, and You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by the Righteous Brothers.
In 1966, Spector set out to make his masterpiece. River Deep Mountain High, credited to Ike and Tina Turner even though Spector had banned Ike from the studio, featured two dozen musicians and background vocalists. Through a long, hot night of recording, the performers did the song again and again, with Spector urging Tina to greater heights of emotion. The end result is an on-the-edge wail over a black and seething instrumental track, a record that is both beautiful and scary as hell. It went to #1 in the UK, but was a stiff in the States. Its American failure caused Spector to retreat into retirement at age 26, returning to the studio only rarely after that. He worked sessions with Dion and Leonard Cohen; he co-produced George Harrison's All Things Must Pass in 1970 and John Lennon's Imagine in 1971. After that, he would complete only one more whole album: End of the Century by the Ramones in 1979. A few abortive projects followed in succeeding years. In the mid '90s, he worked briefly with Celine Dion on an album that became her megahit Falling Into You, although none of his work appeared on the record.
Spector was always an odd character, even when he was on top of the pop world. Out of the spotlight, his behavior became more and more odd. He abused his wife, Ronnie (lead singer of the Ronettes, to whom he was married from 1963 to 1974), refusing to let her leave their house in Los Angeles. He also had an unhealthy fascination with guns. In February 2003, he was booked on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of an actress named Lana Clarkson, whose body was found in his home. Although he was indicted in late 2003, the case did not come to trial until 2007. It ended in a mistrial on September 26, 2007. Jury selection in the retrial is set to begin early next month.
Spector's sound was washed out of style by several factors, including the British Invasion and the rise of the writer-as-performer. He influenced dozens of soundalike productions in the '60s; in the '70s, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run inspired comparisons to his studio techniques. Today, Spector's legacy is in danger of being washed away by the sorry course of the last two-thirds of his life. You can reclaim it, however, by getting your hands on the 1991 Back to Mono box set, the 2006 Phil Spector Definitive Collection, or 1963's A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, featuring his stable of performers doing holiday songs, which might turn out to be Spector's most enduring music of all.
You could probably create your own Wall of Sound on a laptop computer today. Spector did it with groups of musicians sawing away in unison, all analog, and it was extraordinary.
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Hidden tracks rarely get attention in a time where there are deluxe reissues of albums only a decade old. With exclusive downloads and bonus CDs issued in early pressings, choices for extra music abound. But hidden tracks are still special to some listeners.
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