Chapter 7-B: Phil Spector's Back ... on A & M Records:
In early April, 1969, the Billboard Charts first reported a record called “Love Is All I Have To Give” by the Checkmates Ltd. It was released on Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M label, but with something different. In addition to the usual A&M logo, there was a new logo bearing the pictures of a small odd man with a cape and high hat and the words Phil Spector Productions. Could this be? Was Phil Spector back?
It was true ... Phil had signed a deal with A&M records which now had Gold Star’s Larry Levine as its chief engineer. Many labels had courted Phil in the wake of the demise of Philles, but Phil was uninterested until he saw the Checkmates Ltd performing in Las Vegas. The group featured two lead singers, Sonny Charles and Bobby Stevens. They could easily mimic the Spector produced Righteous Brothers sound. Phil thought they had great potential under the right direction. He approached Herb Alpert about recording the Checkmates. The deal was finalized in late 1968, and in March, 1969, two records were released with the A&M and Phil Spector Productions logos. The first was “Love Is All I Have To Give” / “Never Should Have Tried” [A&M 1039] by the Checkmated Ltd. It entered the charts on April 5, 1969, and stayed on the charts for seven weeks, peaking at #65. The other record was “You Came You Saw You Conquered” / “Oh I Love You” [A&M 1040]. It was a glorious record credited to the Ronettes Featuring The Voice Of Veronica. Unfortunately, it never charted. Once these records were released, Phil never gave them a second thought – promotion was A&M’s responsibility.
The next record released with the A&M Spector logos was “Black Pearl” / “Lazy Susan” [A&M 1053] credited this time to Sonny Charles & The Checkmates Ltd. This record entered the charts on 5/10/69 for a 13 week run, peaking at #13. It was a great record that managed to succeed with minimal promotion. Phil was back at it, producing hit records. To capitalize on the success of “Black Pearl,” an album was planned. Phil produced several other songs for the album, but there were problems. It seems crediting Sonny Charles caused much dissention within the Checkmates group. Phil had no patience with the squabbling and turned the completion of the album over to Perry Botkin, Jr., who had done the arranging on “Black Pearl.’ The tracks that Spector produced did see release as singles.
A&M 1127 was “Proud Mary” / “Spanish Harlem” credited this time to The Checkmates Ltd featuring Sonny Charles. Both sides were astonishing productions. The record entered the charts on10/18/69, but only managed to reach #69 in its four week stay on the charts. Curiously, “Proud Mary” was also released on A&M 1130 with a different flip side, “Do You Love Your Baby,” produced by Even Stevens Productions (perhaps to pacify Bobby Stevens). It is often said that the Checkmates version of “Proud Mary” was the inspiration for Ike & Tina’s version released the following year – their biggest hit ever.
The A&M catalogue numbers also show another Spector Checkmates release number 1006 designated for “Spanish Harlem” / “Baby Don’t You Get Crazy.” It was obviously scheduled to be the first Spector A&M release, but, for some unknown reason, it was never released.
The Checkmates Ltd album was released as Love Is All We Have To Give [A&M SP 4183]. It featured “Love Is All I Have To Give,” “Proud Mary,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Black Pearl,” “I Keep Forgettin’” and “The Hair Anthology Suite”. The “Hair Anthology Suite” was a ménage of five songs from the musical “Hair”, and it took the whole Side 2 of the album, lasting 20 minutes.
The rest of the A&M Phil Spector Productions releases were all taken from the Philles Ike & Tina Turner sessions.
Two singles were released. This first was “River Deep – Mountain High” / “I’ll Keep You Happy” [A&M 1118] identical to the Philles 131 release. The second was “A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Every Day)” / “Save The Last Dance For Me” [A&M 1170]. Neither charted.
The River Deep – Mountain High album finally saw its first U.S. release as A&M SP 4178. The album was identical to the intended U.S. Philles album except “You’re So Fine” was replaced by “I’ll Never Need More Than This” – a good swap indeed. The album’s cover had a sticker that proclaimed “River Deep - Mountain High is a perfect record from start to finish – George Harrison.” The album cover featured a picture of Ike & Tina with photography credits given to Dennis Hopper. “Save The Last Dance For Me” is an astounding cover of the Drifters classic worth the purchase of the album by itself as is another cut from the album, a cover of Steve Alaimo’s Arthur Alexander penned “Every Day I Have To Cry”.
There were plans for A&M to release the Christmas Album as well. Even though test pressings of the album on A&M do exist, the album itself was never actually released on A&M.
Phil had fulfilled his contractual commitments to A&M. What was he going to do next? The answer to that shook the rock & roll world – Phil was going to work with the Beatles in London! That whole story will be covered in a future segment – Phil Spector Series – Part IX - The Apple Productions.
The A&M releases, the Apple Releases, and the Subsidiary Labels are not all of the Post-Philles material to be covered in this series. The next segment will cover the remaining domestic Post-Philles Productions and the segment following that will cover the Apple Records Productions.
Today's Songs:
Save The Last Dance For Me – Ike & Tina Turner
River Deep, Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner
And, from our "What's In A Name" Department ...
Black Pearl - (released as) Sonny Charles & the Checkmates
Love Is All I Have To Give - (released as) The Checkmates Ltd.
Proud Mary - (released as) The Checkmates Ltd featuring Sonny Charles
Ironically, as we were preparing the final edit for
this PHIL SPECTOR Series, we lost both IKE TURNER and MARVIN "SWEET
LOUIE" SMITH of THE CHECKMATES ... suddenly the music of BOTH of these
great artists were all over the radio again. (Sadly, we've learned
recently that sometimes THIS is what it takes in order to get some of this
music played nowadays!!!) In any event, today we salute BOTH: RIVER
DEEP, MOUNTAIN HIGH by IKE AND TINA TURNER is considered by many (SPECTOR
himself included) to be PHIL SPECTOR's CROWNING achievement as a producer ...
yet it BOMBED when it was first released. (It was probably played more
times the week of IKE TURNER's death than it was during its entire ... albeit
very brief ... chart run back in 1966. Prior to working with SPECTOR
himself, GEORGE HARRISON once called it the greatest record ever made!)
We've also got IKE AND TINA TURNER's version of THE DRIFTERS' Classic SAVE THE
LAST DANCE FOR ME, one of STEVE KNUETTEL's personal favorites. Featured
by THE CHECKMATES are their two biggest chart hits, BLACK PEARL, a PHIL SPECTOR
Classic, and LOVE IS ALL I HAVE TO GIVE, both from 1969 ... as well as their
"somewhat inspirational" version of PROUD MARY ... this one
ABSOLUTELY should have been a hit and preceded the infamous IKE AND TINA TURNER
version by a good fifteen months! (kk)
It has occurred to me, that the FH readers have (through this series) heard more Darlene Love in the last several days than they have their entire lives. Darlene definitely deserves the attention! I hope Cher's "Baby I Love You" and "Ringo, I Love You" and Harvey, Doc & The Dwellers' "Oh Baby" don't run off any of the FH readers. Absolutely dreadful music, but I must admit I was tempted to include "Ringo" in the series since it is such a collector's item. When listening to "Oh Baby" why does "Surfin' Bird" come to mind? I bet you get some really interesting feedback on today's featured tracks. It took guts to send those out!
Steve
Just some of the more interesting, lesser-known material featured in this series ... my guess is MOST people will NOT have been familiar with these ... but curious enough about them to give them a listen. (kk)
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