Phil Spector Series – Chapter 3 – Freelance Productions and Philles Records Launch
While back in New York, Phil was approached by Aaron Schroeder to produce a record for Gene Pitney. Pitney had recently made the Top 40 with his own “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away.” Phil agreed to produce Pitney, providing he got to select the song. For this he naturally went to Aldon Music. He selected “Every Breath I Take,” a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. With “Every Breath I Take,” Phil had produced his most powerful work to date, a precursor to what would soon be called the wall-of sound. The record was awesome, but the public did not buy it. “Every Breath I Take” / “Mr. Moon Mr. Cupid And I” [Musicor 1011] stalled on the charts at # 42 at the end of the summer of 1961. Phil also produced another song by Pitney called “Dream For Sale,” which was released on Pitney’s The Many Sides Of Gene Pitney album, but it never appeared on a single.
Phil stayed on in New York still looking for talent and songs for the yet to be announced Philles Records and Mother Bertha Music. During this time, he produced several low key records, primarily for his friend Paul Case at Hill & Range Music. Among these productions were Sammy Turner’s “Raincoat In The River” / “Falling” [Big Top3089], Karen Lake’s “I’d Like To Miss My Graduation” / “Air Mail Special Delivery” [Big Top 3077], the Ducanes’ “I’m So Happy (Tra La La)” / “Little Did I Know” [Goldisc 3024], The Creations’ “The Bells” / “Shang Shang” [Jamie1197], The Blackwells’ “Love Or Money” / “Big Daddy And The Cat” [Jamie1179] and “I” / “You Took Advantage Of Me” [Jamie 1199] and Jean DuShon’s “Talk To Me Talk To Me” / “Tired Of Trying” [Atco 6198]. The Sammy Turner and Karen Lake records were released on Big Top Records. The Duncanes record was released on George Goldner’s Goldisc label and is actually a cover of the earlier version by Lewis Lymon & The Teenchords. The Creations and Blackwells records were released on the Jamie label. While working with Hill & Range, Phil met the Crystals and rather surreptitiously signed them to the Philles label roster after rehearsing with them on a song composed by Leroy Bates called “There’s No Other (Like My Baby).” Phil’s signing of the Crystals to Philles infuriated Hill & Range, who had planned to sign them to Big Top. This basically put an end to their friendly relationship with Spector. Phil could care less, for he had already been approached by Liberty Records to head up their East coast A&R activities while also pursuing his personal involvement in Philles and Mother Bertha affairs. Phil took the offer and was paid $25,000 in advance. This provided the much needed money to advance the Philles Record cause.
“There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” / “Oh Yeah Maybe Baby” [Philles 100] by the Crystals was released as the first Philles record. It entered the charts on 11/20/61 and climbed all the way to a very impressive peak at #20. The Philles label had been successfully launched!
Meanwhile, at Liberty, Phil proved himself right off the bat by remixing and dubbing Timi Yuro’s “What’s A Matter, Baby” / “Thirteenth Hour” [Liberty 55469] which eventually became a huge hit peaking at #12 in the summer of 1962. The record, however, credited Clyde Otis as the producer. During this time, Phil also produced Troy Shondell’s “Na-Ne-No” / “Just Because” [Liberty 55445], Obrey Wilson’s “Hey There Mountain” / “Say It Again” [Liberty 55483] and Bobby Sheen’s “How Many Nights” / “How Can We Ever Be Together” [Liberty 55459]. Disputes arose about Phil’s control over recording sessions, so Phil ended his relationship with Liberty in May of 1962 - $25,000 wealthier.
While Phil was still in New York, Lester was preparing for the launch of Philles. One day he instructed one of his assistants to clean up the offices and discard unwanted dubs and demos. In the cleaning effort, the tapes for the Paris Sisters planned album were accidentally destroyed. Phil was crushed and outraged. The only things saved of the Paris Sisters sessions that he had worked so hard on were the songs that had already been earmarked for release as singles. The Paris Sisters were outraged as well and left Gregmark for MGM Records. The Paris Sisters singles were prepared for release. “I Love How You Love Me” / “All Through The Night” [Gregmark 6] was released and was a major success peaking at #5 in the fall of 1961. “He Knows I Love Him Too Much” / A Lonely Girl’s Prayer” [Gregmark 10] was released in January of 1962, and peaked at #34. “Let Me Be The One” / “What Am I To Do” [Gregmark 12] was released in May, 1962, peaking at only #87. All of the Paris Sisters records were released on Gregmark Records, as was another Spector production by Gary Crosby called “That’s Alright, Baby” / “Who” [Gregmark 11] - the same song produced earlier for Kell Osborne on Trey Records.
George Goldner then asked Phil to produce a single by Arlene Smith, the former lead singer of the Chantels. Phil agreed to do it and suggested “He Knows I Love Him To Much” as the song to release – the same song as the song he planned for the next Paris Sisters release. The Paris Sisters version made the top 40 and Arlene Smith’s record of “He Knows I Love Him Too Much” / “Love Love Love” [Big Top 3073] bombed.
Phil now turned all his attention to Philles Records. He began working on the Crystals’ follow up release. He selected a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called “Uptown.” It was recorded at Mira Sound in January, 1962, as Philles 102 and released in March. “Uptown” / “What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen” [Philles 102] climbed the charts all the way to # 13, surpassing the performance of the Crystals’ debut. Between “There’s No Other” and “Uptown,” Lester Sill released a record on the Philles label with no involvement of Phil. That record was “Here I Stand” / “You’re My Only Love” [Philles 101] by Joel Scott. Phil, who was still upset with Lester’s losing the Paris Sisters album tapes, was furious about the Joel Scott release which flopped. To make matters worse, Lester then released two more singles which flopped. They were “Malaguena” / “Chop Sticks” [Philles 103] by Ali Hasan (two instrumental tracks sounding very much like B. Bumble & The Stingers) and “Lieutenant Colonel Bogey’s Parade” / “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” [Philles 104] by Steve Douglas. That further strained the relationship between Phil and Lester.
Phil began work on the next Crystals record. It was a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin called “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)”. Philles 105 – “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” / “No One Ever Tells You” [Philles 105] was soon released, but because of its controversial lyrics and negative feedback from radio stations and their audiences, the record was quickly withdrawn by Philles. Needless to say, the record now is a highly prized item sought after by many collectors.
Phil was still doing freelance production work for other companies at this time. He had produced Connie Francis’ “Second Hand Love” / “Gonna Git That Man” [MGM 13074] for MGM which went to #7 in June of 1962. He also produced the Terry Day Columbia release “Be A Soldier” / “I Love You Betty” [Columbia 42678].
(EDITOR's NOTE: TERRY DAY, of course, is actually TERRY MELCHER, son of DORIS DAY, half of BRUCE AND TERRY, one of the members of THE RIP CHORDS, famous cohort of BRIAN WILSON and THE BEACH BOYS, producer of PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS and THE BYRDS and reported CHARLES MANSON target the night of the SHARON TATE murders! -kk)
After the withdrawal of “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss),” Phil was ready to move back to Los Angeles and devote full time to Philles and the Crystals next release. He was tired of New York with its closed circle of musicians who could not understand and could care less what he was trying to accomplish. Phil was ready to return to Los Angeles, where he would record almost exclusively from now on.
Today’s songs:
Every Breath I Take - Gene Pitney
I’m So Happy (Tra La La) – Ducanes
The Bells – Creations
He Knows I Love Him Too Much – Paris Sisters
He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) – Crystals
In an effort to showcase some of PHIL SPECTOR's lesser known productions and introduce you to some of his work that you might not otherwise be familiar with, STEVE KNEUTTEL has chosen to concentrate on more of the SPECTOR "Rarities" than on some of his biggest hit recordings as part of his regular chapters in this series. Therefore, in these special "in-between" chapters, we're going to try to cover more of his POPULAR music ... kind of a PHIL SPECTOR HIT PARADE if you will ... in an effort to better cross-appeal to both the "casual" AND the Die-Hard PHIL SPECTOR Fans out there!!!
So today, we've got a couple of PHIL's earliest and biggest hits for you.
I LOVE HOW YOU LOVE ME by THE PARIS SISTERS, a #5 Smash back in 1961 ...
THE CRYSTALS - THERE'S NO OTHER (LIKE MY BABY), which eached #19 in CASH BOX MAGAZINE in early 1962.
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