The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh
The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh 20 BE MY BABY, The Ronettes Produced by Phil Spector; written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry Philles 116 1963 Billboard: #2 DA DOO RON RON, The Crystals Produced by Phil Spector; written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry Philles 112 1963 Billboard: #3 CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME), Darlene Love Produced by Phil Spector; written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry Philles 119 1963 Did not make pop charts To hear folks talk, Phil Spector made music out of a solitary vision. But the evidence of his greatest hits insists that he was heavily dependent on a variety of assistance. Which makes sense: Record making is fundamentally collaborative. Spector associates like engineer Larry Levine, arranger Jack Nitzsche, and husband-wife songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich were simply indispensable to his teen-art concoctions. Besides them, every Spector track featured a dozen or more musicians. The constant standouts were' drummer Hal Blaine, one of the most inventive and prolific in rock history, and saxophonist Steve Douglas. Finally, there were vast differences among Spector's complement of singers. An important part of Spector's genius stemmed from his ability to recruit, organize, and provide leadership within such a musical community. Darlene Love (who also recorded for Spector with the Crystals and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans) ranks just beneath Aretha Franklin among female rock singers, and "Christmas" is her greatest record, though it was never a hit. (The track probably achieved its greatest notice in the mid-eighties, when it was used over the opening credits of Joe Dante's film, Gremlins.) Spector's Wall of Sound, with its continuously thundering horns and strings, never seemed more massive than it does here.
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