Song of the Day: '(Let's Dance) The Screw Part I by the Crystals

 

Yikes. I've read quite a bit about legendary music producer Phil Spector and even I didn't know about THIS craziness!

Thank you, Jake Fogelnest. 

Song of the Day: 'To Know HIm Is to Love Him' by the Teddy Bears

If ever there were a case to be made for separating the art from the artist, it would be Phil Spector, who died of complications of Covid -19 yesterday at 81. By all accounts, to know him was to loathe him -- if he wasn't holding you against your will he was pointing at gun at you, in one case fatally -- yet there's no arguing he's the most influential music producer of all time. 

"To Know Him Is to Love Him" (a phrase lifted off his father's tombstone), recorded with his high school band, the Teddy Bears, reached No. 1 on the charts -- selling more than a million copies after the teens appeared on “American Bandstand,” with Spector playing guitar and singing backup.

From there, his famous Wall of Sound was born, leading to a string of classic singles -- “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” by the Crystals, “Unchained Melody” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers, "I Love How You Love Me" by the Paris Sisters, Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem," the Beatles LP "Let It Be," "Instant Karma (We All Shine On)" by John Lennon, "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison, and the one (and sadly only album by the Ronettes, which featured "Be My Baby," arguably the best pop song of all time. 

I'll never forget stopping in Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard (below Spago) around Christmas 1992 after getting my wisdom teeth violently yanked at a nearby medical plaza on the corner of Doheny -- drugged up and driving -- and buying the box set of Phil's works, "Back to Mono (1968-1969)." In addition to the aforementioned hits, the set included "A Christmas Gift to You," Phil's legendary holiday album that provided aural comfort to my oral pain, and is still my favorite Christmas record of all time.

RIP/rot in hell, you actually evil genius. 

Naturally, everyone has an opinion about his death ... and about the only one who had anything to say about his musical legacy was his ex-wife:

Read HERE.

Song of the Day: 'The Bells of St. Mary's' by Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans

As the #MeToo movement begins to trip over itself -- what we should be doing now is stopping current offenders and re-calibrating acceptable norms moving forward -- it got me wondering when/if the greatest holiday album of all time ("A Christmas Gift to You From Phil Spector" ) will be banned from the radio. The guy terrorized dozens of women and murdered one, after all.

Song of the Day: 'Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)' by Darlene Love

My girl sings her classic song from "A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector" on "Late Show With David Letterman" for the final time, a tradition we can only pray will carry on when Stephen Colbert assumes the reigns in 2015. How would we know it's Christmas if it didn't?

A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector - Various Artists

UPDATE: Awful news -- Love says she is retiring the song.

'Baby' Talk

A must-read piece about the enduring popularity of the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" -- now 50 years old! -- without a doubt the finest moment in Phil Spector's illustrious career. Read HERE.

'The Girls' Room' Premieres on Sirius/XM Radio

See how many of my sweet spots this press release hits:

SiriusXM’s Ron Bennington interviewed Ronnie Spector today (March 22) on SiriusXM’s "The Ron & Fez Show." Spector talked about SiriusXM’s new all-girl band channel, ‘The Girls’ Room,’ her upcoming one-woman show ‘Beyond the Beehive’ and why she won’t watch HBO’s film "Phil Spector," based on her legendary music producer ex-husband’s life.

Select quotes:

On HBO’s Phil Spector movie: Ronnie Spector: “…everybody knows about…my ex-husband’s HBO movie Phil Spector…I was going to watch it. Then I found out I was in it and I was like, ‘Aaahhh!’...[it stars] Al Pacino, and Helen Mirren is one of his…[defense]…lawyers. And every time he hears my name [in the movie], he goes into a rage…I am not going to see that movie.” 

 Ronnie also talked about “Beyond the Beehive,” her upcoming New York City one-woman show (May 6 & 7), in which she touches on the difficulties she experienced in her career and her personal life:  

Ronnie Spector: “…[singing] it’s like a dream come true…every time I say a sentence, I sing about it and the audience goes crazy. They laugh and they cry and they make me cry too because it’s so emotional.” 

“The Girls’ Room,” which launched today, is a limited-run channel airing on SiriusXM channel 17 featuring music by all-girl bands spanning the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s including: The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, The Supremes, The Go-Go’s, Bananarama, The Angels, Martha & the Vandellas, The Dixie Cups, The Bangles and The Chiffons, as well as female solo artists who had the “Girl Group sound.” “The Girls’ Room” will run through Monday, March 25 at 3:00 am ET. "The Ron & Fez Show" airs weekdays from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm ET on SiriusXM’s "The Opie & Anthony Channel" (Sirius 206/XM 105).

Then He Killed Me

Page Six has details from inside the screening last night of HBO's "Phil Spector" -- Al Pacino, Keith Richards, writer/director David Mamet, Johnny Depp and Barry Levinson were among the attendees. (Meanwhile, Lana Clarkson's publicist was busy picketing a screening in Los Angeles.) I'm smelling a little too much "Scent of a Woman" and not hearing enough Wall of Sound from the trailer, but I'll definitely be turning in, March 24 at 9 p.m. Helen Mirren is wondrous, but I still can't help but wish Bette Midler hadn't gotten hurt and bowed out early on. Have a look:

Wigging Out

I don't think the hair and makeup artist on this HBO Phil Spector biopic is going to be winning any Emmys, I'm afraid. Al Pacino's wig is too fuzzy -- like a clown number you'd get in a bag at Ricky's -- and I'm looking for a more defined bang. Am excited about the film, though. From HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Baby, I Love You' by the Ramones

  A classic song by a classic band. But if I had had to guess whose version would have been the biggest hit -- the Ronettes in '63, Andy Kim in '69 or the Ramones in 1980 -- I'd have guessed Ronnie or Joey's. (Andy's was the biggest -- my mom even owned it!) 

Song of the Day: 'River Deep, Mountain High' by Ike and Tina Turner

 A live performance of "River Deep, Mountain High," the (classic) song whose (chart) failure took a huge toll on Phil Spector. Note how Tina doesn't quite have the title down when introducing it to the audience!

'The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector'

With the amount of stuff that's already been said and written about Phil Spector, I hadn't a clue what director Vikram Jayanti had up his sleeve when he produced "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector," his 2008 documentary that is just now screening at the Film Forum in Manhattan. What a delight to find that Jayanti -- who must have been as big a Spector fan growing up as I was -- somehow managed to employ Spector's Wall of Sound theory into his filmmaking, with an "everything but the kitchen sink" documentary that simultaneously shows clips of a pre-conviction interview with the normally reclusive music genius, snippets of the trial and crime scene of the horrific murder of actress Lana Clarkson, while playing full-length Spector classics ("Da Doo Run Run," "He's a Rebel," "To Know Him Is To Love Him"), complete with intricate subtitles of critics' assessment of the songs changed music forever. The effect is overwhelming -- not unlike a Phil Spector single -- stimulating your eyes, brain, ears and heart all at once to create a kind of stimulation like no other film you've seen before. (Imagine seeing a photo of a beautiful blond woman slumped in a glamorous chair with a bullet-wound through her head while "Be My Baby" blares in the background.) The film doesn't entirely dwell on the past -- Ronnie's name is not even mentioned -- also focusing on the matter at hand, the second-degree murder trial he is in the midst of as cameras rolled. That Spector -- who repeatedly compares himself to Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bach and Galileo -- comes across as bright, funny and, at times, oddly self-aware does not detract from his obvious deep-seated anger, paranoia and delusional behavior, but it does help explain his ability to continue seducing women nearly 40 years after his moment on top of the world, and perhaps what led Miss Clarkson to make that fatal decision to accompany Spector home one night in 2003.

 

Music Box: A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector

With the possible exception of the Frank Sinatra Christmas album, which is a classic in an entirely different way, there's never been a better holiday soundtrack than Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift for You." Released in 1963, the album featured 11 holiday classics -- you've heard them all, performed by his Wall of Sound stars the Crystals, the Ronettes, Bob B. Soxx and Blue Jeans and Darlene Love -- plus one new song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" written by the legendary songwriting trio of Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, which today ranks as my favorite Christmas song of all time. (Did you know the tune was intended for the Ronettes, but Ronnie "was never able to channel the emotion and strength" her producer husband wanted, so Darlene was brought in to save the day -- and boy did she!)

Each year, the holidays don't quite seem right without the following two things taking place: seeing Darlene perform her signature Christmas song on Letterman (coming up on Dec. 23), and seeing the annual Ronnie Spector Christmas Party at B.B. King in Times Square (got my tickets for Dec. 19). Darlene does an annual gig in the city too, but for some reason I've always gone to Ronnie's. Although I absolutely adore Darlene -- I saw her show "Portrait of a Singer" at the Bottom Line back in '94, and she even gave me her paycheck! -- I've always had a soft spot for Ronnie's brand of crazy (she carries on conversations with herself onstage), so I can hardly wait to hear what she has to say about her ex-husband's murder conviction.

While writing this I happened to notice that Darlene and Ronnie are teaming up -- something I've always wished they'd do here in the city -- for shows in Maryland and New Jersey this year (I'm so jealous -- please contact me if you go!). A promoter friend of mine had told me that he's tried to get these two together over the years but that Ronnie's diva demands always got in the way of a deal (is it any wonder I love her so?!).

If "A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector" isn't already playing in your home, then get your copy HERE.

Music Leaks

Can't Make You Love Me Lyrics Elliott Yamin	Prayer For Forgiveness Lyrics Alicia Keys
Stray Lyrics Cassie	Movie Lyrics Chris Brown
Wardrobe Lyrics Toni Braxton	Look What You've Done Lyrics Cassie
Winner Lyrics Jamie Foxx	On The Same Side Lyrics James Morrison
Solution Lyrics Claude Kelly	Don't Leave Lyrics Toni Braxton

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Philstory

As is the case with Woody Allen, sometimes the people whose work we admire most do not lead the most admirable personal lives. This Phil Spector photo essay, however, has me scared for my own life. (Via Davis McDavis)

Separated at Birth

Bonnie Franklin and Phil Spector:

"One Day at a Time" meets "Wall of Sound."