Customer Reviews

Phil Spector: Back to Mono

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Phil Spector led a troubled life but in his peak years produced some of the finest pop music. This collection is in chronological order for the first three CD's. The fourth CD is his famous Christmas album, which is available separately for those who don't want the other music.

Phil's first success was with To know him is to love him (Teddy bears). Otther early classics include Spanish Harlem (Ben E King) and I love how you love me (Paris sisters) but Phil is remembered (apart from the Christmas album) for producing the Crystals, Ronettes and Righteous brothers.

The Crystals are represented here by classics such as Da doo ron ron, Then he kissed me and He's a rebel. I was surprised to find that there are more tracks by the Ronettes than the Crystals. Both were brilliant but the Crystals were more successful overall. Still, I can't fault any of the Ronettes tracks, the most famous of which is Be my baby. Darlene Love, who was sometimes a member of the Crystals (lead singer on He's a rebel), is represented by several solo tracks. The Righteous brothers recorded their two most famous tracks with Phil Spector, these being You've lost that loving feeling and Unchained melody. During this period, there was one other noteworthy group recording for Phil - Bob B Soxx and the Blue jeans, who had success in America with Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and Why do lovers break each other's hearts?

Among all the success, there was failure. Ike and Tina Turner recorded one album with Phil Spector, featuring the classic song, River deep mountain high. At least, it is regarded as a classic in Britain, where it was a top three hit. In America, it was only a very minor hit. Phil couldn't understand it and lost interest. He occasionally returned to production (notably on Let it be) but things were never the same again. It didn't help that the Supremes and Four Tops eventually had a big hit with a cover of River deep mountain high.

The Christmas album was something of a revolution in its time, at least where Christmas music was concerned, although all that Phil Spector actually did was apply his normal production style to Christmas music. The Crystals sing brilliant, energetic versions of Santa Claus is coming to town, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Parade of the wooden soldiers. The Ronettes are equally brilliant on Frosty the snowman, Sleigh ride and I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus. Bob B Soxx and the Blue Jeans also excel on Bells of St Mary's and Here comes Santa Claus. Darlene Love sings four songs here. Christmas (Baby please come home) is the only original song here. White Christmas includes the rarely heard verse about being in Beverley Hills. The other two, Marshmallow world and Winter wonderland, are also outstanding. The closing Silent night is just a series of spoken acknowledgements set to a backing track. Don't worry about that - the twelve songs that go before set the standard for Christmas rock albums when it was first recorded and still do, because nobody has bettered it in the forty years since.

This is a brilliant boxed set and a fitting tribute to one of the most important producers in pop music history.

This set is a compendium of many of the most popular recordings produced by the young genius. Most of the songs included were hits, and there is litle on this set not to remember and like.

Say what you will about Phil Spector: He was arrogant, demanding, pedantic and every other derogatory adjective you can think of. Even given all this, however, one cannot seriously dispute the fact that he knew how to produce both popular and very memorable music.

What a concept the Phil Spector "Wall of Sound" was! He would start with a whole boatload of instruments; from violins to castanets. To these he would then add some of the most beautifully haunting voices ever heard (those of Darlene Love, Phil's own wife Ronnie, a young singer known then only as Cher and even Tina Turner to name a few). Blended together, these would create a tsunami of sonic power. It creates a force bigger than any song, or any band, and truly become greater than the sum of the parts. Tack on a set of headphones, and you can just relax and let it just wash all over you!

Baseball great Rickey Henderson once said of another great Nolan Ryan: "If he hasn't struck you out, then you ain't nobody." A musical corollary can be said for Phil Spector: If he didn't produce your music, you didn't put your very best work down on the vinyl (remember, this was thirty years ago, when '45's were as compact as discs could get). From the Beatles to Sonny Charles and the Checkmates Ltd., everyone who was anyone is here.

Go back and marvel at what is here. The index of his songs in this set is nothing less that an anthology of some of the greatest music of the early pop era. You might disagree with Cousin Brucie for calling "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" the greatest song of the decade. You may call George Harrison crazy for declaring that "River Deep, Mountain High" was the only "perfect" rock and roll song; one which could never be improved upon. But no one could seriously suggest that Phil Spector's was anything but some phenomenal music.

This collection would be a cornerstone of any collection of '50's and '60's music. Add some Atco, some British Invasion and a dash of Motown, and you need no more to get through the summer (or the rest of the year, for that matter).

It is worth every penny of the cost (even without the Christmas album).

When I saw the "Back to Mono" box for 20 bucks, I first thought of the barrage of criticism that greeted this set when first released more than 15 years ago and, in particular, the near universal condemnation of the absolutely horrendous digital remastering that marred what should have been an unbeatable compilation. Then I thought, "So what? I LOVED this music 45 years - AUGH! - ago! This is the background music of my life! And a great collection! And I don't have much of it, vinyl or otherwise." So I bought it.

And yes, the remastering is indeed horrible, particularly when listened to through earphones. But if you can pump this music through a tinny 5-inch speaker, perhaps boosted from a '57 Chevy, it all sounds pretty damn fine. So: don't play it on your audiophile equipment: my vintage boom box does the music all the honor it requires.

And what music. A lot of this stuff didn't chart in the New York metropolitan area, so I'd never heard several tracks, but it's all vintage, no filler, hits and non-hits, lots of Ronnie Spector and the Ronnettes, the Crystals, and fewer, but important, sides from Curtis Lee), Ben E. King, Bob B. Soxx, the Righteous Brothers, the majestic Tina Turner and that sidekick of hers, and, of course, the patented Spector Wall of Sound, complete with timpani, maracas, glockenspiels, strings, horns, full brass section, yackety sax, everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink. On the tree of rock, Phil Spector is a taproot (and Bruce Springsteen the most celebrated emulator/branch).

But let's be serious: these are very basic sentiments, harking back to a very different, much simpler time, before Vietnam, Watergate, and universal irony really invaded our consciousness (the first 29 tracks before the Kennedy assassination). The Spector chronology tracks along through LBJ's "Great Society" and civil rights legislation, Nixon, and the onset of cynicism, skepticism, and the beginning of a much more complicated social and political fabric. Through all this, we underestimate the role this and other top-forty music played in shaping our imaginations: it played, constantly, to GROUPS of people in packed cars, at parties and dances, not to one solitary listener through iPod earphones, shaped romantic vocabularies, taught kids how to say "I love you" and how to rebel against parents who screamed "that guy's no good!" My wife's parents.

In short, this music and its peer recordings helped fill in pieces of our emotional identities. In this set we hear lots of 16 year olds pouring out their hearts into diaries via girl-group doo-wop. From the Righteous Brothers, a more mature, wistful kind of heartbreak with full choirs of strings. And from Ike and Tina, my god - River Deep, Mountain High has enough emotional energy to blow a bank of Marshalls, a clear high-point on a collection of high points.

The 96-page booklet is almost worth the price of the box. I didn't need the lyrics - many of them, goofy, saccharine, maudlin, trite as can be, are grafted into my brain, courtesy of that Chevy speaker - but the photos of those wonderful, innocent, vibrant faces, the essays (one by Tom Wolfe), and the discography are all splendid.

So: if you've ever loved this music - that's a significant qualifier: my kids (all in 20s and 30s) think it's virtually unadulterated corn (with the exception of River Deep, Loving Feeling, and a few other tracks) - forget about the atrocious remastering. (I'll bet Rhino will take care of that, sooner or later, and we'll hear these in gorgeous, layered monaural.) Just buy this now while you can get all four discs, the big booklet, and the huge box for 20 dollars or less. Then boogaloo or slow-dance your baby to these legendary tunes.

Say what you will about Phil Spector: Arrogant, demanding, pedantic and every other derrogatory adjective you can think of. You cannot, however dispute the fact that he knew how to produce memorable music.

Go back and marvel at what is here. The index of his songs in this set is nothing less that an anthology of some of the greatest music of an era. I might get into a fistfight defending Cousin Brucie for calling "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" the greatest song of the decade. You may call George Harrison crazy for declaring that "River Deep, Mountain High" was the only "perfect" rock and roll song; one which could never be improved upon. But one could not seriously suggest that Phil Spector's was anything but some phenominal music.

What a concept the "Wall of Sound" was! He would bring in a boatload of instruments; from violins to castanets, and add some of the most beautifully haunting voices (Darlene Love, his wife Ronnie, Cher and Tina Turner to name a few) to create a tsunami of sonic power. It creates a force bigger than any song, or any band, and you can just relax and let it just wash all over you!

Rickey Henderson once said of Nolan Ryan: "If he hasn't struck you out, then you ain't nobody." A musical corolary can be said for Phil Spector: If he didn't produce your music, you didn't put your very best work down on the vinyl (remember, this was thirty years ago, when '45's were as compact as discs could get). From the Beatles to Sonny Charles and the Checkmates, everyone who was anyone is here.

This collection would be a cornerstone of any collection of '50's and '60's music. Add some Atco, some British Invasion and a dash of Motown, and you need no more to get through the summer (or the rest of the year, for that matter).

It is worth every penny of the cost (even without the Christmas album).

This is a must-have for true fans of pop music (authentic pop of the non-Britney, non-Backstreet variety). Not only does it contain such familiar gems as "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" and "To Know Him is to Love Him", there are rare jewels as well, including Darlene Love's haunting "Strange Love" and the ill-fated Ike and Tina Turner masterpiece "River Deep, Mountain High." Disc four is the complete, classic Christmas album, released at a most inopportune time in 1963, right after the Kennedy assasination. Those circumstances make it even more poignant to listen to, but it is joyous too (pop would never produce a more joyous Christmas record until Spector himself went into the studio to cut "Merry Xmas - War is Over" some seven years later).

Spector once called his records "little symphonies for the kids." "Little operas" would be more like it, with their soaring strings and dramatic, heartfelt vocals. There's never been anything else like Spector's wall of sound. Let's up some enterprising company is able to release another such compilation, covering Spector's productions from 1970 onward.

I got this set as a much-beloved gift, right after it first came out. Shortly afterwards, I also bought the individual ABKCO "Best of" releases for the Spector artists. I have played each of these discs more times then I can count, in the last 14 years. This is an amazing collection of tunes that will never leave you once you've heard them. They are the foundation that the rest of my music collection is built on, and everything else remains in the shadows. The Christmas album alone is so great; I can't stand to play it only one month out of the year...that would be painful.

Spector's music legacy from the late 50s, and through the 60s, is an incredible feat for anyone. Listening through the discs, one can hear his method of production developing from the sweet, lyrical harmony of "To Know Him Is To Love Him" (on disc 1), through the infectious, goodness of "Be My Baby" and "Then He Kissed Me" (disc 2), and then the lush, heavily orchestrated monuments like "River Deep-Mountain High" (disc 3). These songs are majestic. They are masterpieces, sure, but more then that, they are originals. Others may try to imitate the Spector sound, even build from it, but trying to top these tracks, is near impossible. I can't say enough good things about this music. You either get it or you don't, but to not give yourself the opportunity to hear it would be a sad shame.

With all that said, this set being over a decade-and-a-half old, is in dire need of remastering. While the sound (in the original mono form, as it should be) is authentic and great, the mastering of the CDs sounds muddy and heavily compressed, and simply not up-to-date. With today's high-bit technology, this set truly is in need of a remaster that can bring out the punchy dynamics of the original recordings. ABKCO has recently released (in the UK, at least), a 2-disc Spector Retrospective featuring one disc of the hit singles and also the Christmas album. The sound of the original singles is incredible; sharp, better bass and much more enjoyable to hear then what is on this set. I hope that the new year will bring about a complete remastering of all these recordings. This is sublimely wonderful music, and really needs to be heard in the best mastering possible. Hopefully the recently lowered price for this set is an indication of that.

As we all know, the eccentric genius Phil Spector is admired as being one of the greatest rock and roll producers of, not only the 60s, but maybe of all time, influencing such artists as Brian Wilson and many others. Spector's "Wall of Sound"--in which strings, voices and just about everything else in the studio are overdubbed and reverbed, creating a massive audio experience--has become the thing of legend. This box set--three wonderful disks of pure Spector goodness, plus a fourth album, the legendary "Christmas Gift to You", features just about all the major artists he produced, ranging from "regulars" like the Crysals and the Ronettes, to Ike and Tina Turner ("River Deep Mountain High" is one of the greatest productions ever), Gene Pitney, and Spector's own Teddy Bears ("To Know him is to Love Him"). This is seminal, essential music, and for less than 20 bucks, you can hardly go wrong.

The mad genius of Rock `n Roll, Phil Spector has created some of the most memorable, superbly produced recordings of the genre. He was the producer entrusted with completing the album "Let It Be" after The Beatles fell apart. He was the producer entrusted by Yoko Ono to complete Lennon's final album after his tragic shooting. His work was influential for the man who made The Beachboys who they were, Brian Wilson. Known for his habit of rehearsing his girl groups for four or five hours until their voices had the right husky sound and then cutting the track he turned record production into an art.

This boxed set contains three CD's packed full of great tracks, from the first track he recorded "To Know Him Is To Love Him" (apparently dedicated to Spector's father) to later classics such as the lush and incredibly layered Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" there are any number of tracks that must be heard.

Disc 1 is mostly tracks that show the development of Spector's "Wall Of Sound" while he was mainly producing for a mix of bands and labels before he started Philles records and while A & R head at Atlantic developed his own stable of groups (the `les' in Philles was his sound engineer).

Disc 2 is full of classic Phil Spector tracks, chock full of titles recorded by The Crystals, The Ronettes and Darlene Love. "Be My Baby" and "Then He Kissed Me", the first two tracks are perhaps the "Wall Of Sound" at it's clearest. One of Spector's trademarks was the way he would use whichever vocalists were at the studio and suited the sound of the track so the line up changes on these tracks can be huge. The third disc starts with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the track that redefined The Righteous Brothers and pushed along their career, and continues with more of the same glorious Phil Spector sound.

The fourth CD is "A Christmas Gift For You", Spector's Christmas album - a very mixed bunch of carols from a number of his groups. Quality drops a little on this album - some of the tracks are gems, others not up to his usual standard.

The boxed set also contains a "Back To Mono" badge - Spector wears one and it is the badge that gives the boxed set it's name and a superb book with notes on every track and some marvellous articles about Spector and his sound.

I doubt a week goes by without me playing at least one of the first three CD's and the fourth gets played a few times every Christmas.

No collection of popular music would be complete without this set.

...not some mega-riot. And Phil Spector knew that. He made the day-to-day concerns of the teenage world (i.e., "my baby") sound like the world was coming to an end. The best songs here, with the lyrics that direct Spector's amazing music (arranged with fin-de-siecle pathos by Jack Nietzsche), reflect the brain chemistry and feelings of a young man or woman being dumped by the love of his or her life - there's a wee bit of psychosis going on there - or fragile but passionate characters who would crack up like Madame Butterfly if their beloved ever let them down. Even the goo-goo pillow talk sentiments have a passionate intensity to them. Cavernous echo, swirling strings, booming percussion, endlessly doubled guitars and pianos all illustrate a world in which callow young people have arrogated adulthood with chancey premarital (usually) sexual experience in a pre-pill, pre-sexual revolution world. They may be punching their first time cards, but they haven't reached emotional maturity. Phil captured this subculture with a positively Joycean artistry. The first two discs contain some titanically great, classic singles ("(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry," "Da Doo Ron Ron," the decadent vastness and plaintive self-giving of "Be My Baby," "Then He Kissed Me (if there isn't something slightly necrophilic about Phil Spector, why did Joy Division rather directly and unironically quote the main musical motif of this song in "Love Will Tear Us Apart?")," "Baby I Love You," "Strange Love," and "Walking in the Rain") - but it's the third disc where Phil really reached an artistic peak. This stuff is SOOOOOOO fantastically decadent. Remember how the Righteous Brothers complained that "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" sounding like it was playing at 16 RPM? It's the aural equivalent of the Four Horsemen, I'm telling you... No, not the biblical Four Horseman, but in that sense of late teenage judgment of what the end of the world is - "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." The music has pretensions to the adult world while the lyrics still maintain that simplistic, narrowly youthful vision. The masterpieces - "You've Lost..." "Born to be Together," "Just Once in My Life," "Unchained Melody," "Is This What I Get for Lovin' You," "Long Way to Be Happy," "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," "Ebb Tide," "Paradise," "River Deep - Mountain High (which is NOT the best song here, but certainly the most representative of the aesthetic Phil was after)," and "I'll Never Need More than This" - WOW.

"Wagnerian" is SUCH an appropos adjective for this set - like Tristan und Isolde, these songs present love as the most important thing in the world, ultimately fatally destructive, and certainly worth that mortal conclusion. Ditto Verdi's Aida. Once again, it sure bears a resemblance to Madame Butterfly, too - Pinkerton's abandonment of Butterfly is the end of the world, just as for the young adults in these songs. Phil may have referred to his tracks as "mini-operas," but they were really mega-operas - with far less time to say their piece, they had to jam-pack all of the stormy l'amour-based emotions into three or four minutes, and the writing, production, and arrangements convey them with a frighteningly convincing power and intensity.

Hopefully, Spector's work brings about catharsis rather than despair for most listeners. Most of us have reached that passionate, swept-off-the-feet height of the early stages of falling in love, and the shattering experience of being dumped by a great significant lover we thought was everything. However, just as most of us eventually come back to down to earth or up from the depths, the CD player gets turned off. But hopefully not 'til after hours of edification by this apotheosis of teenaged pop, which this great set makes possible. Much more expensive than most comparably-sized boxes, but worth every penny.

Absolute classic rock and roll!!! With that awesome "Wall Of Sound"!!! Phil Spector produced some of the greatest classic tunes in history,nuff said,forget about his recent problems with the law,it's the songs that matter,like the 60 ones(on the first three CD's) contained on this 4 CD set which also includes His classic: "A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector" (on the 4th CD)!!! Classic sides from The Teddy Bears,Ray Peterson,Ben E. King,Curtis Lee,The Crystals,Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans,The Alley Cats,Darlene Love,Veronica,The Ronettes,The Treasures,The Righteous Brothers,The Modern Folk Quartet,Ike & Tina Turner,and Sonny Chareles and The Checkmates!!! Absolute essential listening!!! A delight for the ear!!! They just don't make great music like this anymore!!! Includes a beautiful full-color 96 page book and even a red and white "Back To Mono" button,just like the one Spector wore himself in his Santa Claus garb!!! Way to cool!!! Over 3 hours of the finest music ever waxed!!! Two thumbs up!!! Way up!!! Five stars!!! A+