(351) DARLENE LOVE : A LOVELY PERSON TO WORK WITH : CHRISTMAS 1963

CHRISTMAS 1963

DARLENE LOVE worked a bit for me in the studio and I was lucky to have her because she had success of her own before, after, and during the period that she was a studio background singer! Like many studio singers she went uncredited for much of her work but she still has many noteworthy accomplishments. (I'm proud of my daughter Hollie and the professionalism she brings to studio work as well.)

Darlene sang lead on some of the CRYSTALS songs, produced by PHIL SPECTOR, including "He's a Rebel." She did background vocals for JOEY COOPER'S "I'm a Fool," (A song I co-wrote that we posted a Youtube video of recently). In 1968 she worked with ELVIS PRESLEY on his Welcome Back television special.

We're linking to the HISTORY OF ROCK page for DARLENE LOVE (click on the title) and here is the link for the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME; Darlene has been nominated for induction in 2011: GO TO THE LINK FOR DARLENE ON OUR SIDEBAR!

Though studio musicians and singers are behind the scenes and many never earn the fame of stage and concert performers, they truly contribute to the sound track of our lives. They are often more professional in their attitudes and abilities than some of those who do achieve fame. I come from a time when recording took place quickly and without all the computer equipment that can help turn a mediocre performance into a better one. Darlene is one of those whose voice stood the test of immediacy and of time.

(299) PHIL SPECTOR - PHILLES RECORDS

Because Phil Spector started out as a music producer, recording in New York City where I met him, and then moved to Los Angeles, where I still sat and talked to him at a deli once in a while, people don't realize that though he had an uncle in New York who gave him a lucky break, he was born and raised in Los Angeles, and from the time of his lucky break until he succeeded he worked, worked, worked.

In the early 1960's Phil was working not only for himself but for various other lables, including Liberty Records, as a producer, and as contracted.

Who could turn work down?

Not even Phil Spector.

He's famous (and infamous) now but then he was one more producer, until he developed a recording technique that relied on his own ear, as much as playing with the equipment. It was called THE WALL OF SOUND, and it was the hottest sound going, at least through 1963.

Phil Spector formed his own label with Lester Sills, Philles Records, and one of his prime objectives was to record a "girl group" called The Crystals, who had a couple hits on that label.

Darlene Love, who was with the Blossoms, a background group, who I also hired to work with me many times, was also on the scene then.

We feel fortunate to have found this video of Phil Spector in the studio with the Crystals and Darlene Love...this little video gives you some idea of the equipment we were working with then...

THANKS TO A YOUTUBER!

TRIBUTE TO JAMES DEAN - THE ORIGINAL REBEL - USING THE CRYSTALS' HE'S A REBEL

James Dean - THE ORIGINAL REBEL...

(81) GOLDSTAR and PHIL SPECTOR'S WALL OF SOUND

Now Sylvester Cross, the owner of American Music publishing, was a cheapskate. But when we were recording demos at Goldstar recording studio we were warned to stop whatever we were doing if we saw Phil Spector lurking around. Cross was convinced that Phil had a reputation for stealing other people's lyrics and licks for good reason. Phil Spector seemed way too talented to me to do so and everyone else was trying to steal his Wall of Sound technique, for which there was a lot of mystery at the time.

(We know that Phil Spector's sensational murder trial has been in the news lately and we aren't going to go there. Suffice to say, we'll leave our blog commentary here right where we are in our story, the late 1950's and very early 1960's.)

Phil was early on associated with producing girl groups like the Crystals, and the Ronettes, African-American girl groups. He married Ronnie of the Ronettes.

Here's a You Tube presentation of the Crystals and the sound of Phil's "Wall of Sound," on the Dick Clark Show. It's fast forwarding a couple years to the mod sixties. I can't help think again about the music business - entertainment - and the ground being broken when it came to integration between Blacks and Whites during these early pre-civil rights years.



(ChristineTrzyna: Does the audience in the Ronettes video reveal segregation or integration? The Go Go Dancers in the white boots key us in to the mod sixties and what is happening here, White girls dancing in the background for a Black girl group. Most interesting to me, the line of Black girls - probably from South Central Los Angeles - doing their thing in a row in the audience. I can't help but think how great it was for them to see some other African American women as stars. And more interesting to me, the girls in the audience are going wild for the girls, just like they did for the boy teen idols we all know. I mean, when do we see boys going wild for boys? Almost never!)

Ronnie almost seems like an early Tina Turner.

Phil produced "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers. This You Tube video presentation of them singing that song is a great example of the Wall of Sound, sound and what the genius Phil Spector could do.




I knew Phil Spector from New York. In Los Angeles we got together for coffee at Canters, the Jewish deli that's still operating in the Fairfax District today. He was younger than me and typically hyper, but he was also always respectful to me. I'll say this about my time with Phil. He never talked against anyone to me.