Sound from the recording studio was fed to speakers inside specially constructed rooms with very thick and hard walls. Spector used the legendary echo chambers at Gold Star Studio in Hollywood. PROFFITT: Echo was an important ingredient. TURNER: (Singing) I know I love you baby, baby, baby, baby. He created the wall using doubled and tripled string sections, multiple guitar and bass and piano players, as well as virtuoso singers like Tina Turner. Spector assembled a group of stellar musicians, including Glen Campbell, Leon Russell and Mac "Dr. PROFFITT: But the wall of sounds was more than just an unusual approach to instrumentation. TINA TURNER (Singer, Ike and Tina Turner): (Singing) When I was a little girl, I had a rag doll, the only doll I ever owned… (Soundbite of song, "River Deep, Mountain High") PROFFITT: Combining traditional rock instruments - electric guitar, bass, drums - with orchestral strings, harps, even glockenspiels and French horns, Spector created a symphonic pallet that was perfect for the era's jukeboxes and AM radios. RONNIE SPECTER (Singer, The Ronnettes): (Singing) The night we met I knew I knew I needed you so, and if I had the chance, I'd never let you go… This hit, "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, is thought by many to be the quintessential wall of sound, too. While other producers tried to isolate instruments so each could be heard cleanly, Specter worked to get a big, flat sound. PROFFITT: That hit, by the Crystals, is vintage wall of sound. BROOKS: (Singing) Somebody told me that his name was Bill… THE CRYSTALS (Vocal group): (Singing) Da doo ron ron, da doo ron ron. DOLORES "LA LA" BROOKS (Singer, The Crystals): (Singing) I met him on a Monday, and my hear stood still. STEVE PROFFITT: Well first, here's what it sounds like in a 1963 Spector-produced recording. We asked our senior producer, Steve Proffitt, to break down the Wall of Sound. In coverage of the trial, which is airing live on Court TV, you'll probably hear references to Spector's Wall of Sound, that's his trademark production technique. Spector, who some consider the greatest record producer ever, was the man behind such hits as "Walking in the Rain" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." Music legend Phil Spector is charged with killing actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. While the true Spector loyalist will be happy with nothing short of the Back to Mono box set, this is as good a single-disc overview of Spector's classic era as you can get, and those who love the glory days of AM radio need this music in their collections.In Pasadena, California, a much delayed celebrity murder trial finally gets underway today. And the disc closes out with a rare item, a demo of Spector singing "Spanish Harlem" and revealing why he didn't step up to the vocal mike more often (his voice, while not bad, lacked the strength to stand up to his own Wall of Sound). Most of the songs are presented in their original mono, as Spector intended (though "River Deep, Mountain High" roams ambitiously across the two channels), and the mastering is splendid the liner notes don't offer much beyond session details, but knowing when and where each selection was created and who was playing what will certainly delight detail-obsessive pop fans. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, climaxing with Ike & Tina Turner's epochal "River Deep, Mountain High," Spector's self-styled masterpiece and still one of the more remarkable 45s of the rock era. Unfortunately, there aren't many decent CD collections of Spector's oeuvre, so Phil Spector's Wall of Sound Retrospective (which was previously released in tandem with his fabled holiday record, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector) is especially welcome, as it features 21 iconic songs from the Crystals, the Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Righteous Brothers, and Bob B. Simple yet majestic in their widescreen grandeur and celebration of all that's sweet and painful about adolescent love, Spector's sound was often imitated, but rarely if ever did anyone get the proportions just right, and his best stuff is still amazing, heart-tugging music more than four decades after it was recorded. There's little in pop music of the '60s that's more satisfying than the singles Phil Spector created for his Philles Records label between 19, in which with the help of some of gifted session musicians, a handful of singers, and arranger Jack Nitzsche he conjured up a majestic sound that exploded out of transistor radios and cheap record players all across the teenage nation.
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