The Jack Nitzsche Story - Hearing is Believing: 1962 - 1979 [Import]

Jack Nitzsche (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ace Records UK
• ASIN: B0007RFOM0
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,166 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Lonely Surfer

2. Don’T Make My Baby Blue

3. Needles & Pins

4. Seein’ Is Believin’

5. Not For Me

6. Move Over Darling

7. Castles In The Sand

8. Rumble

9. Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann

10. Always’S Waitin’

11. Walk With A Winner

12. No Matter What You Do

13. Hung On You

14. Cheryl’S Goin’ Home

15. I Could Be So Good To You

16. Road To Nowhere

17. Heart Of Juliet Jones

18. Wild Life’S In Season

19. You Make Me Feel Like Someone

20. It Happens Every Time

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The ratio of rock superstars to genuine arranging-production legends is at least a hundred-to-one. The late Jack Nitszche was one of the greatest of his era, a wizard of the charts and mixing console who initially helped engineer Phil Spector's fabled Wall of Sound, yet eventually developed a spacious arrangement/production knack that was nearly its sonic opposite. Many of Nitzsche's fabled sessions (as far-ranging as Ike & Tina's "River Deep", the Stones' "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby", "Porpoise Song" by The Monkees, Ringo Starr's hit "Photograph" and Buffalo Springfield's ghostly "Expecting to Fly") were beyond the reach of this compilation. Nonetheless, these 26 tracks offer up a compelling tribute to his singular musical vision via a wealth of early singles, album cuts and rarities by artists spanning the early '60s pop of Doris Day and Bobby Darin and '70s new wave of Mink DeVille and Graham Parker. Early instrumentals (the Nitzsche-penned Cali-classic "The Lonely Surfer," a rousing cover of Link Wray's "Rumble") display the ballsy studio power he could conjure. While tracks like Judy Henske's "Road to Nowhere," "Ashes, the Rain and I" by The James Gang and Marianne Faithful's harrowing read of "Sister Morphine" showcase the haunting, incomparable impressionism that graced so much of his work. His eerie theme for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest also pays tribute to a parallel soundtrack career that yielded such unsung 90's gems as The Hot Spot and The Indian Runner before his passing in 2000. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

A long overdue, all encompassing career overview of probably the most revered all round arranger/songwriter/producer in the history of popular music. The sub-title is 'Hearing Is Believing'. 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jack Niitzsche Story, March 17, 2006

By 

Christopher Gordon Brooke (Winnipeg) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jack Nitzsche Story - Hearing is Believing: 1962 - 1979 (Audio CD)

A great overview of an artrist who helped shaped the architecture of rock and pop...his closing theme from the soundtrack of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest" is an absolute masterpiece-it's beauty is surpassed only by it's emotional wonder and splendour.What a track!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Story Of Jack Nitzsche Runs Deep, April 10, 2011

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jack Nitzsche Story - Hearing is Believing: 1962 - 1979 (Audio CD)

The story of keyboardist Bernard Nitzsche, born in Chicago on April 22, 1937, has far less to do with personal charted singles (he only had two as Jack Nitzsche) but rather far more as a renowned producer, arranger and composer, and that story is told here as only Ace of London can do it, with their usual immaculate sound reproduction and background information.

After spending his early life on a farm in Newaygo, Michigan, and attending the Westlake College Of Music, he hit the road to sunny California at age 18 fully intending to pursue a career as a jazz saxophonist. Instead he became gainfully employed as a musical score copyist for Sonny Bono, then serving as the A&M man for Specialty Records and first displayed his writing talents when he and Bono wrote Needles and Pins, which became a minor hit in 1963 for Jackie DeShannon (but a much better one in 1964 for The Searchers, again a minor entry in 1977 for Smokie, and a decent one in 1986 for Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks). That led to his being hired by Lee Hazelwood as an arranger.

Not long after, Hazelwood and his partner, Leonard Sill, parted company with Sill opting to go work with Phil Spector on his new Wall Of Sound Concept, and he took Mitzsche with him and, for about four years, he had a major part in the arrangements of those memorable Philles hits. He also signed as a solo artist with Sinatra's Reprise label in this period, eventually recording four albums, the first of which produced the hit single The Lonely Surfer. Unlike all the other "surf" records cropping up all ovcr the place, this was an orchestration featuring strings, French horns and Bill Pittman's 6-string bass. It made it to a modest # 39 Hot 100 in August 1963 on Reprise 20,202 b/w a cover of the 1956 Mitch Miller hit Song For A Summer Night. The A-side is here but not the flip.

Several months later he had his "big band" version of the Link Wray 1958 hit Rumble top out at # 91 Hot 100 in November on Reprise 20,225 b/w Theme For A Broken Heart (again, only the A-side is here). And that would be it insofar as personal charted singles were concerned. But his work as an arranger/producer would help pay the bills for years to come, serving as the conductor/arranger for a studio group formed by Hal Blaine, The Wrecking Crew, which would, at various times, include some of what would become the biggest names in music (e.g Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Earl Palmer, Al Casey, James Burton, Plas Johnson, Nino Tempo, Billy Strange, Carol Kaye, Bill Pittman, Barney Kessell, Tommy Tedesco, Ollie Mitchell and Don Peake, among others), which can be heard as the backing musicians for groups like The Beach Boys and The Monkees. Nitzsche also played electric piano for the group Crazy Horse.

His work on musical scores for film is legendary, among over 35 some of the most notable being One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Exorcist, An Officer And A Gentleman (from which he won an Academy Award along with then wife, Buffy Sainte-Marie, for their Up Where We Belong), Stand By Me and The Jewel Of The Nile. He also produced/arranged albums for Bob Lind, The Rolling Stones, The Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Graham Parker and Willy De Ville.

Personal problems dogged him throughout his life, including an assault charge for beating up girlfriend Carrie Snodgress in 1979 and brandishing a loaded weapon in public in the 1990s. In 1998 he suffered a stroke and two years later died from cardiac arrest while being treated in hospital for a bronchial infection.

This is easily the best compilation of just some of his work on the market today.