Phil Spector Series - Part 2 - New York & The Brill Building
In 1960, New York was the center of the recording industry. It was where the most important record companies, publishers and studios were. It was exactly where Phil Spector wanted to be - in New York City working with Leiber and Stoller, who had established themselves as the two most influential rock and roll people in the industry. Spector wasted no time once he settled in New York. He immediately started getting familiar with the occupants of the Brill Building. The Brill Building was the center of the record business in New York – writers, publishers, record executives were all there. Perhaps the most influential person in the New York rock and roll music publishing business was Don Kirshner. Kirshner was partners with composer and musician Al Nevins in a song writing and publishing company called Aldon Music. Aldon music was directly across the street from the Brill Building at 1650 Broadway. Some of their writers included Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and many others. Phil was determined to become totally emersed in the Brill Building activities of Aldon Music and Hill & Range and all the other publishers centered around the Brill Building. Among the individuals Phil made special efforts to meet were Paul Case of Hill & Range, Jerome (Doc) Pomus and Nino Tempo. Under Leiber & Stroller’s direction, Spector began working on writing with Phil Teitelbaum (aka Terry Phillips). The duo wrote several songs together, but only a few were actually recorded. One record Phil produced was by Johnny Nash with a Spector / Phillips song on both sides. That record was “A World Of Tears” / “Some Of Your Lovin’” [ABC Paramount 10181]. At the same session, Phil also produced Johnny Nash’s version of the Heartbeats’ “A Thousand Miles Away” which was paired with the non-Spector produced song “I Need Someone To Stand by Me” and released as the single “A Thousand Miles Away” / “I Need Someone To Stand by Me” [ABC Paramount 10212]. Leiber and Stoller also assigned Phil to work with Ray Peterson and his manager Stan Shulman who had just started their new Dunes label funded by their recent success with “Tell Laura I Love Her”. The resulting record was the top 10 hit “Corrina Corrina” / “Be My Girl” [Dunes 2002]. Spector’s name appeared in writing credits for another big hit shortly afterwards. That hit was Ben E. King’s solo debut - “Spanish Harlem” / “First Taste Of Love” which was produced by Leiber & Stoller. Phil had written “Spanish Harlem” with Jerry Leiber and “First Taste Of Love” with Doc Pomus. Both sides of the record charted peaking at #10 and # 53 respectively. New York was proving to be the perfect place for Spector to be.
In December, Lester Sill called Spector to come back to Los Angeles to work on a new project with the Paris Sisters. Spector called Stan Ross at Gold Star to book the session with Stan as engineer. He also lined up several of his old music friends to participate in the session, including Russ Titleman and Michael Spencer. The songs selected for the new record were “Be My Boy” and “I’ll Be Crying Tomorrow”. Both songs were credited to the writing team of Phil Spector and Cory Sands. Cory Sands was a pseudonym for Phil’s sister Shirley who really had little or nothing to do with the composition of the songs. Sill and Hazlewood released “Be My Boy” / “I’ll Be Crying Tomorrow” [Gregmark 2] on their newly formed Gregmark label. “Be My Boy,” (which was a rewording of the Ray Peterson song “Be My Girl,”) charted at #56 in April of 1961.
Phil’s next project was another record for Stan Shulman’s Dunes label. The resulting record was Curtis Lee’s “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” / “Gee How I Wish You Were Here” [Dunes 2007]. It became a huge success peaking at #7 in July of 1961. Curtis Lee had written “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” with the then unknown Tommy Boyce.
The backup group hired for the “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” session was The Halos of “Nag” fame. Spector followed up that record with another two sided production for Curtis Lee’s “Under The Moon Of Love “ (also co-written by Tommy Boyce) / “Beverly Jean” [Dunes 2008] which topped out at # 46 in 1961. “Under The Moon Of Love” was a Gary U.S. Bonds sounding record and was the hit side even though “Beverly Jean” was also a very good doo-wopish record.
Phil’s friend at Hill & Range, Paul Case, had arranged for Phil and Terry to write songs for Elvis’ new movie, “Blue Hawaii,” as well as songs for Connie Francis and Bobby Darin. This was a real coup for Phil and Terry, but it was kept a secret from Leiber and Stoller, to whom they were contracted. Leiber and Stoller found out. When Trio Music (Leiber & Stoller) demanded 50 percent of the publishing rights to their employees’ work, the deal fell through. Phil sued to void his contract with Leiber & Stoller. The contract was voided but the friendship between Spector, Leiber and Stoller did not end. At this time, Spector began doing freelance work for Atlantic records where he continued to work with Leiber & Stoller, Ahmet Ertegun, Tom Dowd and Jerry Wexler.
While working with Atlantic, Phil produced several records, but none of them became hits. The records produced for Atlantic included Billy Storm’s “Sure As You’re Born” / “In The Chapel In The Moonlight” [Atlantic 2076] and “When You Dance” / “Dear One” [Atlantic 2098], the Top Notes’ “Hearts Of Stone”/ “The Basic Things” [Atlantic 2097] and “Twist And Shout” / “Always Late” [Atlantic 2115], Ruth Brown’s “Anyone But You” / “It Tears Me All To Pieces” [Atlantic 2104], Lavern Baker’s “Hey Memphis” / “Voodoo Voodoo” [Atlantic 2119] and the Castle Kings’ “You Can Get Him Frankenstein” / “Loch Lomond” [Atlantic 2107]. The most interesting of these were the two sides by the Castle Kings and Billy Storm’s “When You Dance”. “When You Dance” was an incredibly good reworking of the Turbans hit featuring an outstanding falsetto performance by Storm. Perhaps the most famous of the Atlantic tracks is the original version of “Twist And Shout” by The Top Notes, but the record is far inferior to the later version by the Isley Brothers. “Hey Memphis” is a great answer record to Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister”. Needless to say, Spector quickly tired of his relationship with Atlantic and wanted to move on where he had more control over whom, what and how he produced.
Meanwhile Lester Sill was looking for a new song for the Paris Sisters to follow up the chart success of “Be My Boy”. He flew to New York and with Phil visited Aldon Music to find the right song. They found the perfect song, “I Love How You Love Me” written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber. Phil flew back to Los Angeles to produce the record. It was Phil’s intention to produce an entire album by the Paris Sisters. He spent over six weeks on the project. During that six weeks, he had reacquainted himself with Annette Merar, Russ Titleman’s girlfriend. The two became nearly inseparable.
It was also at this time when the partnership of Sill and Hazlewood was beginning to dissolve. Ultimately the two parted company and went their own directions. This was perfect for Spector. Sill offered him a deal he could not refuse – a 50-50 partnership in a new label and his own publishing company. Phil jumped at the chance and soon the new companies were launched. Philles Records was named by combining Phil and Lester’s first names and Mother Bertha Music was named after Phil’s mother. While Lester worked on getting the companies set up, Phil returned to New York to wind down his affairs there, to scout out talent and songs for his new label and to establish his role as a freelance producer.
Today’s songs:
Corinna Corrina – Ray Peterson
Pretty Little Angel Eyes - Curtis Lee
Beverly Jean – Curtis Lee
When You Dance – Billy Storm
Loch Lomond – Castle Kings
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