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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sensational!, December 29, 2000
No offense,but previous reviewer dont have a clue about rock history - how can anybody give 3 stars to one of the most influental albums of all time,I simply cannot understand!? OK lets see what do we got here: ORIGINAL (as a difference of countless complation albums with same name) LP recorded in 1966.and snubbed by audience in USA by the time of release.Seems that European listeners listened more carefully,as this album became huge hit in UK and it began a decades-long love affair between Tina and her European fans.Half "Wagnerian",undescribable symphonic sound of Phil Spector,half Ike's gutsy R&B,this album was monumental achievement of 1960's music and still sounds great today.As we all know,Ike was NOT close to studio on Spector's sessions,but still his name is one the cover of the album.At this stage of her life (27 years old) Tina was not a Goddes-in-making,but a wild Queen of Amazon woman warriors - her singing,passion and attitude are simply out of this world:numerous British rock stars were hugely impressed after hearing this album (Rod Stewart:"I wanted to BE Tina Turner") and Rolling Stones invited them on a UK tour immediately.Never mind commercial flop in USA,Brian Wilson from "Beach Boys" still list this album as one of his all-time favourites.One has also to remeber it was a girl-group age when girls sounded sweet,so Tina's wild vocals were completely different from the rest of the competition,she was obviously more inspired by screaming,hot soul male singers like James Brown than say,Motown girls.I remeber reading interviews with her,where she never mentioned any female singer as her influence and its clear why - this woman had her own sound that was not "feminine" in conventional way,her voice at that time was more raw & primitive than anything you could hear in 1960's - almost like Stone Age woman clawing her way out of the Cave,with arrow in her hands.Ike was obviously not impressed with Spector's masterpiece,as it shows on "Kent Years" compilation which follows the period shortly afterwards:he just kept on touring and recording his less-than-inspired R&B that mostly copied his own style from early 1960's.Tina had bigger commercial succes in 1980's and I enjoyed the fact that world finally recognised her importance,but this was a moment of her immortality,the reason why she is always listed in every Rock-antholgy.(By the way,Darlene Love - Spector's faithfull background singer who did most of his classic work - pleaded Spector to give her "River Deep" but he always refused,saying its made for Tina,after he was blown away with her live performance)
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ike & Tina and Spector stereo classic, November 20, 2001
This album is one of the most influential albums of all time and is a highlight of Phil Spector's career. A few of these songs: I Idolize You, A Fool In Love and It's Gonna Work Out Fine were hits when they were signed to the Sue label and the original versions are on the "Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner" compilation on EMI which is THE essential compilation of their hits spanning their entire career but with nothing from this album although that compilation does have an inferior remake of the title song from this album. The title track of course is the most essential track of the album but the rest of the album is as well produced as this album. I actually have another CD pressing of this album that features this album in stereo plus "Sonny Charles & The Checkmates, Ltd.'s "Love Is All We Have To Give" on CD in stereo, featuring "Black Pearl" as a Spanish import The Sonny Charles album is not available on CD otherwise. As mentioned in another review, all songs from this album that are on the Back To Mono boxed set are in mono, the stereo versions are great while I'll add that another mono copy of the title song is on Tina's "Simply The Best" compilation from 1989 on Capitol with her 1980's comeback hits.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tina High, Spector Higher!, December 31, 2000
George Harrison once called the single "River Deep, Mountain High" an absolutely perfect record ... and he wasn't far wrong. It was Phil Spector's pinnacle production -- and it remains a nearly overwhelming recording -- and reaching for the stars, he carried Tina to new heights. But music was changing in the mid '60s and America had tired of Spector's intricate productions and fabled Wall of Sound. The single barely dented the charts in the U.S., but became a smash in England and Europe and established Tina as a superstar there decades before she attained diva status here. The single's disappointing reception so embittered Spector that he stopped producing his own kind of music for a while (focusing on the Beatles' chaotic "Let It Be" tapes and, later, various solo Beatle projects) and was never again able fully to find his muse or the audience he'd once enjoyed. So enjoy this 'twilight of the gods' event; nothing remotely like it has come along since and likely ever will. Although Spector is credited as producer of the entire album, he appears to have been personally involved only in the production of about half the 12 tracks -- the ones with Tina performing with Spector's own orchestra, not Ike's group. You'll be to pick them out instantly. The A&M version of the LP was released in America about five years after the single was released and the British version of the LP (which has one different track). It was released in mono only in Britain, but the American version was in stereo. Mobile Fidelity put out the best-sounding CD of this I ever heard, but that disc has long been out of print (as MoFi is, sadly, itself these days). However, this is your best bet to catch this fabulous music in stereo. The versions of the songs from this album released on Spector's box set are in mono ... the way Spector seems to prefer everything. But mono just can't to full justice to the sweep and power of the stereo versions in my book.
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~ Ike Turner
~ Ike & Tina Turner
~ Ike & Tina Turner
~ Ike Turner
~ Ike and Tina Turner
by Ike & Tina Turner 
