Search - Phil Spector :: The Essential Phil Spector

THE ESSENTIAL PHIL SPECTOR is a brand-new 34-song, double-CD collection that lives up to its title as a desert-island gathering of Spector's work during his peak hit-making years. It starts with his first record of note, the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is to Love Him" (1958), then moves through Spector's Brill Building productions of 1960-61, with Ray Peterson ("Corrine, Corrina"), Ben E. King ("Spanish Harlem," the launch of his solo career), Curtis Lee ("Pretty Little Angel Eyes"), Gene Pitney ("Every Breath I Take"), and the Paris Sisters ("I Love How You Love Me").
THE ESSENTIAL PHIL SPECTOR then devotes itself to the litany of 23 hits on the Philles label. From the Crystals' "There s No Other Like My Baby," through Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, Darlene Love, the Ronettes, the climactic trilogy of career-defining Righteous Brothers hits ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "Unchained Melody," "Ebb Tide"), and Ike & Tina Turner's show-stopping "River Deep, Mountain High" (1966). THE ESSENTIAL PHIL SPECTOR finishes up with the superb "Black Pearl" by Sonny Charles and the Checkmates LTD (1969).
New liner notes are written by two acknowledged authorities on Phil Spector. Domenic Priore, '60s West Coast rock aficionado, compilation producer, annotator, and author of Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Holly¬wood (2007), penned the essay for THE ESSENTIAL PHIL SPECTOR.