music and memories

Phil's Spectre - A Wall of Soundalikes
ACE CHCHD 978

by Peter Lerner


Phil's Spectre The premise of this excellent 24-track CD is that each of the tracks sounds as if it might have been produced by the great Phil Spector during his "wall of sound" period…….. but that none of them was.

Spector’s buddies feature all over the place, though. The ultimate Spector sidespersons, Sonny and Cher, wade through Just you (was it really 40 years ago that Cher starting making hits?). Nino Tempo, sax player supreme, and his sultry-voiced sister April Stevens do a Righteous Brothers on All strung out, and the Righteous Brothers themselves do a Spector on (You’re my) Soul and Inspiration, actually produced by Brother Bill Medley. Phil Spector’s right hand man and ace arranger, Jack Nitzsche, comes up with the goods on the Walker Brothers’ Love her and P.J.Proby’s sublime I can’t make it alone.

The variety of artists who tried to jump on the Spector bandwagon is in retrospect not surprising. Here are Gene Pitney, who worked with Phil in his early days, the Beach Boys (Brian Wilson hero-worshipped Spector) and the Supremes. Yes, that’s right, the Supremes, with Ms Diva Ross sharing the vocal honours with Mary and Florence on the little known Run run run.

And the lesser known mortals make some great music too: The Four Pennies (aka The Chiffons), Dorothy Berry, Carol Connors (once a Teddy Bear, but that’s another story) and Kane and Abel, are just a few of these.

So why is this being reviewed for "Jackie"? Have you guessed yet? Well, track one is the ultimate, best ever, 1963, Liberty 55645. Yes, the stupendous sound of Jackie DeShannon’s When you walk in the room, produced and arranged by the great man (and Jackie’s close friend) Jack Nitzsche. A track to die for, and I don’t mind how many times I hear it. Turn the volume loud! And for good measure we have at track 16 the legendary (?) Hale and the Hushabyes rendition of Yes sir that’s my baby……. And as every "Jackie" reader knows, H and the Hs comprise most of the Blossoms, Sonny and Cher, Brian Wilson and our own Ms DeShannon. Mind you, you can’t pick Jackie’s voice out amongst the wall of sound, but it’s still a powerful track.

If you like 60s pop music, which I guess you do, then buy this! And the liner notes are compiled by JDSAS member and long-term DeShannon fan Mick Patrick.




Please click below for the index page for this issue.

Cover Pic v15


Click on Jackie to return to page one.