By Gillian G. Gaar

The British Invasion introduced the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Kinks and Gerry & The Pacemakers, among others, to American audiences. And where were the women? Well, they weren’t often to be found in groups (a rare exception being Ann “Honey” Lantree, drummer with the Honeycombs, who had a No. 5 hit “Have I The Right?”).

They were solo singers who rode the British Invasion wave to chart success in the States, usually following the same pattern: After a few early hits (with a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song usually lurking in there somewhere), continental appeal cultivated by recording non-English releases, hosting a TV series, subsequent work in TV, film and legitimate theater, and a rediscovery in the ‘80s/’90s in the company of a younger, male act. Fashion was also a big part of the appeal; sporting the latest Carnaby Street wear — pop art mini dresses, beads and “kinky boots” (as a 1964 single recorded by Honor Blackman and Patrick Macnee, then starring in “The Avengers” TV show put it) — these dolly birds helped make Swinging London the pop culture center of the universe.

(Want to learn more about women in rock and roll? Check out the book “She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll)

Lulu, aka Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie. Courtesy Decca Records.

Lulu
Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie began singing with bands in her native Glasgow, Scotland, when she was barely in her teens. By the age of 15, she had signed with Decca records and notched up her first hit, a fiery cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” which reached No. 7 in the U.K. (and hit the Top 10 again when it was reissued in 1986). She had nine more U.K. Top 40 hits in the ’60s, but her only big hit in America was far milder, the theme for the film “To Sir With Love,” in which she also appeared. The song topped the U.S. charts, but in England was ironically relegated to the B-side of the single “Let’s Pretend,” which peaked at No. 11.

She also enjoyed hits in Europe with the non-English versions of her songs. In 1966, Lulu became one of the few British female singers to perform behind the Iron Curtain, when she toured Poland with the Hollies. In 1969, she won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Boom Bang-a-Bang.”

By this time, she’d begun extensive work in television, and had her own TV series (Jimi Hendrix was a guest on one memorable episode, playing “Sunshine of Your Love” instead of the scheduled “Hey Joe”). Her music also veered out of straight pop; her 1969 album “New Routes” was recorded at Alabama’s Muscle Shoals Studios and featured Duane Allman. 1974 saw her having a hit with David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World,” for which the Thin White Duke played saxophone and produced. The same year, she recorded the theme song for the James Bond film “The Man With The Golden Gun.”

After spending more of her time on live performance, radio and television, Lulu returned to recording in the ’90s with the appropriately titled “Independence,” which reached No. 11 U.K. She topped the U.K. charts in 1993 via a guest appearance on Take That’s single “Relight My Fire.” Her duet with Irish singer Ronan Keating on “We’ve Got Tonight” reached No. 4 on the U.K. charts. Lulu was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (the OBE, one step above the MBE) in 2000.

Sandie Shaw, aka the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s. AP photo.

Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw was dubbed “the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s” due to her penchant for performing in her bare feet. Born Sandra Ann Goodrich, she grew up in the London suburb of Dagenham and took to modeling and singing after leaving school. After seeing her perform at a London charity concert, singer Adam Faith recommended Goodrich to his manager, who promptly signed her, got a recording contract and rechristened her “Sandie Shaw.”

Though Shaw’s first single was not a success, she had better luck with her second outing, the Bacharach-David number “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me,” which topped the U.K. charts in 1964, when Shaw was just 17. There were 14 more U.K. Top 40 hits in the ’60s, including two more No. 1’s, “Long Live Love” and “Puppet On A String.”

Shaw’s performance of the latter song won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 — the first time a British act had won the award, though Shaw admitted she never cared for the song. The year after Eurovision, she hosted her own TV show.

Shaw never enjoyed similar success in the U.S., where only 1965’s “Girl Don’t Come” came close to reaching the Top 40 (it peaked at No. 42). But her records did well in other countries, especially her non-English recordings. Her last album of the ’60s, “Reviewing the Situation,” marked a step away from her usual musical style, including covers of “Sympathy for the Devil” and Led Zeppelin’s “Your Time is Gonna Come.”

Shaw put her singing career on hold in the ’70s when she became a mother, but she kept working creatively, writing songs and writing and illustrating children’s books. Financial mismanagement during this period meant that Shaw had to resort to waitressing when she relaunched her recording career. But things improved in the ’80s, when her cover of The Smiths’ “Hand in Glove” was a U.K. hit in 1984.

After winning back the right to her song catalogue, her early work was successfully reissued. In a more unexpected move in the ’90s, Shaw became a certified psychotherapist. Last year, bringing things full circle she recorded the theme song for the British film “Made In Dagenham.”

Cilla Black

Cilla Black and Cliff Reichard throw up votes they are counting for Britain's "Song of Europe" in 1968. AP Photo.

“Swinging Cilla” Black was born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, becoming “Cilla Black” when Mersey Beat editor Bill Harry mistakenly changed her surname from White to Black in an article. Growing up in Liverpool, she witnessed the birth of Mersey Beat first hand, and the rise of groups like The Beatles helped launch her own career. She managed to land jobs at clubs like The Cavern and Zodiac and was occasionally invited to perform with the bands. Her friendship with The Beatles led to her being signed by their manager, Brian Epstein, as his only female client.

Black’s first single, the Lennon-McCartney song “Love of the Loved” (which The Beatles themselves performed at their Decca Records audition) had a bold and brassy strut, and cracked the U.K. Top 40. Her breakthrough came the following year with “Anyone Who Had A Heart” and “You’re My World” (an English-language version of the Italian song “Il Mio Mondo)” both of which topped the U.K. charts and became international hits — except in the U.S.

Black was not destined to find stateside success. “You’re My World” would be her only single to reach the U.S. Top 40. The biggest problem was that Black had so many engagements in England, she was never able to put in the time needed to break the American market. As the book “Cilla Through The Years” puts it: “Cilla’s career in America began and ended with spasmodic television appearances, record releases which were not promoted in the best way, and a New York cabaret stint which turned into a personal triumph but did not make her a household name.”

But success continued apace in her native England. She had 19 Top 40 singles and five Top 40 albums in the U.K. over the course of her career, making her Britain’s best-selling female artist in the 1960s. From the 1970s on, she moved increasingly into television (she’d hosted her first series in the ’60s, complete with a theme song by Paul McCartney, “Step Inside Love”), though she continues to perform live. Her 1993 album “Through The Years” featured a duet with Dusty Springfield on the song “Heart and Soul.” In 1997, Black was made an OBE.

Petula Clark was dubbed "Britain's Shirley Temple." Publicity photo.

Petula Clark

Pet Clark was about a decade older than the other dolly birds of the Swinging Sixties, and she had been performing since childhood. Her popularity soared during World War II, when she sang “Mighty Lak A Rose” to calm a radio audience during an air raid. She eventually was dubbed “Britain’s Shirley Temple,” with British troops posting her picture on their tanks for good luck — ironic for a performer who would one day write an anti-war song “On The Path Of Glory.”

Clark moved naturally into recording, film and the burgeoning realm of TV. She began releasing records in the U.S. in the early ’50s without success. But her fame continued in England and across Europe, where she began touring and releasing non-English language recordings. She also began writing songs herself.
And then came “Downtown.” The song was written by Tony Hatch, who worked frequently with Clark. The number was inspired by Hatch’s first visit to New York City, and he thought of giving it to The Drifters (one can easily imagine the song having a doo-wop arrangement); instead, Clark asked if he’d give it to her.

On its release in late 1964, it gave Clark her first big U.K. chart success in two years, peaking at No. 2. In the U.S., the optimistic number about losing oneself in some groovy little nightclub “where they never close” did even better, topping the charts in 1965 and winning the Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Recording. Clark would have 14 more U.S. Top 40 hits during the decade, including “My Love” (another No. 1), “I Know A Place” (which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance) and “Don’t Sleep In The Subway.” She also briefly courted controversy when she touched Harry Belafonte’s arm when the two sang “On The Path Of Glory” during her TV special. Director Steve Binder (who would go on to direct the 1968 “Elvis” special) was asked to take the sequence out, but he refused, thus making Clark one of the first performers to break the “color bar” on U.S. TV.

U.S. chart success stopped in the ’70s, but Clark has continued to record and perform live. She briefly revived her film career at the end of the ’60s, starring in “Finian’s Rainbow” and the musical version of “Goodbye Mr. Chips.” She also took up extensive work in the theater, particularly musicals, appearing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” in England, Ireland and America. In 1998, Clark was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE, one step above the OBE).

Dusty Springfield, born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, performed with The Lana Sisters and The Springfields before finding success as a solo artist.

Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield came the closest to having parallel success in the U.K. and U.S. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien began her career in the vocal group The Lana Sisters in the late ’50s; the group had a hit in Ireland with “You’ve Got What It Takes.” O’Brien then left the group to form the trio The Springfields, along with her brother, Tom, both of whom took “Springfield” as a surname, Mary taking on the first name “Dusty,” as well. The folk trio enjoyed immediate success in both the U.K. and U.S. (their biggest U.S. hit was “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”). But Springfield wanted to pursue solo success, and she left the group in 1963.
Springfield’s first solo single, “I Only Want To Be With You,” was released in late 1963 and reached No. 4 in the U.K. It also did well in America, peaking at No. 12 at just the time The Beatles were beginning to take over the US airwaves. She had a further 14 U.K. Top 40 hits, and eight in the U.S., her biggest stateside success coming in 1966 with “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” which reached No. 4. In 1964 Britain’s New Musical Express readers poll voted her Top Female British Artist; she was awarded the World’s Top Female award by NME the following year.

Springfield was a huge fan of Motown and hosted a U.K. TV special that introduced acts on the label to the British public; she also hosted her own series. By the late ’60s, with pop increasingly out of fashion, Springfield signed to Atlantic Records and recorded her landmark album “Dusty in Memphis” at American Sound Studio in Memphis (though her nervousness meant she had to re-record her vocals in New York City). The album was a commercial failure on its release in 1969, but it has since gone on to be a well-regarded white soul classic; the single “Son Of A Preacher Man” was also a Top 10 hit in the U.S. and U.K..

As her chart success declined, Springfield moved to America, where she struggled with drug addiction. She attempted to revive her singing career, and eventually she returned to the U.K. Her efforts finally caught fire when she guested on the 1987 Pet Shop Boys’ single “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” The single reached No. 2 in both the U.S. and U.K.; her 1990 U.K.-only album “Reputation” was another chart success. Springfield continued to record and perform until she was diagnosed with cancer. Shortly before her death in 1999, she was made an OBE.

Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger leave theirhome in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Engand, on May 29, 1969. AP Photo.

In the early ’60s, Marianne Faithful was more interested in folk music than in the pop world. That changed when she met The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at a party. Taken by her striking looks, Oldham insisted Mick Jagger and Keith Richards write a song for her — he’d been trying to get them to have a songwriting partnership after the fashion of Lennon & McCartney — and Faithfull’s first single, “As Tears Go By,” was the result.

The single, released in 1964, hit the British Top 10 (No. 22 in America), and for the next few years, Faithfull had further success with folk-influenced fare like “Come And Stay With Me” and “This Little Bird” (always more successful in the U.K. than the U.S.). Faithfull was never very keen on her pop material; she also released folk albums that featured traditional material (“North Country Maid” and “Scarborough Fair,” the latter recorded prior to Simon & Garfunkel’s hit version) and even poetry (“Jabberwocky” from Lewis Carroll’s “Through The Looking Glass”).

But it was when she left her husband to be Mick Jagger’s girlfriend that she really stepped into the public eye, especially in the wake of The Rolling Stones’ drug busts in 1967. Faithfull also pursued acting and was beginning to write her own material (including “Sister Morphine”), but after her split with Jagger in 1970, she fell into serious drug addiction. Against all odds, she made a stunning comeback with the 1979 release of the classic album “Broken English.” Faithfull’s ravaged voice, the result of years of hard living, was well suited to the rawness of the punk era, and it gave her songs (whose melodies tended to be slow and brooding instead of a hard-rock assault) a decided edge.

Faithfull never again found chart success. But she has become a highly respected performer who has chosen to develop her skills by exploring numerous musical directions: recording the songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht; working with David Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti; collaborating on her 2002 album “Kissin’ Time” with Beck, Blur, Jarvis Cocker and Billy Corgan; and collaborating (separately) with P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave on 2005’s “Before the Poison.” She also continues to perform live and in theater, television and film, having appeared in Roger Waters’ production of “The Wall” staged in Berlin in 1990, and as “God” in three episodes of the hit British sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous.” Faithfull has not been one to capitalize on her Swinging Sixties period, probably because her most interesting work was released after that time.

In Britain, it started with Cliff Richard & the Shadows

(No. 31 in a continuing series on artists who should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but are not)

By Phill Marder

John Lennon once said, “Before Elvis, there was nothing.”

He also said, “before Cliff & the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music.”

Which brings us to this week’s subject…Cliff Richard & the Shadows.

If the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame truly was representative of Rock & Roll worldwide, Cliff Richard would have been inducted 20 years ago. And the Shadows probably should have gone in with him. For while Richard hasn’t had tremendous impact in the United States, what he has accomplished in Great Britain is truly mind-boggling.

Born Harry Webb, he changed his name to pure Rock & Roll, Cliff standing for Rock and Richard for his idol, the Little one. He soon became known as “the British Elvis” and the Shadows, as great as they were/are led by guitar hero Hank Marvin, had to cope with comparisons to the incomparable U.S. Ventures. But, while most artists would have been crushed by hype of that magnitude, Richard and the Shadows not only survived it, they lived up to it.

Richard’s debut single “Move It,” often referred to as Britain’s first great rock & roll recording, reached No. 2 on the U.K. charts in 1958, kept from the top spot by “Stupid Cupid” by Connie Francis. From that to his album “Bold As Brass,” which climbed to No. 4 on the Brit charts last year, Richard has dominated the British music scene for 53 years, establishing standards that probably never will be equaled.

Since we already had the real Elvis, Richard’s billing probably hurt him in the States. But his talent got him through the bombast, and he did notch a fair amount of hits in the colonies. Five albums charted between 1965 and 1981 and 19 singles scored, beginning with 1959’s “Living Doll,” which climbed to No. 30. Success in the States was sporadic, however. In 1976, he appeared poised for a breakthrough when “Devil Woman” reached No. 6. But follow-ups didn’t fare as well.

In 1979, his album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Juvenile” started his most successful run in the U.S., yielding the No. 7 single “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” and the No. 34 “Carrie,” with the follow-up LP “I’m No Hero” giving us the No. 10 single “Dreaming” and the No. 17 “A Little In Love.” In the midst of that success, he teamed with Olivia Newton-John on the No. 20 “Suddenly” from the film “Xanadu.”

When “We Don’t Talk Anymore” clicked, Richard became the first artist to reach the U.S. Hot 100’s Top 40 in each of Rock’s first four decades. Richard is the only singer to have scored a number one single in the U.K. in five consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 1990s. If “The Millennium Prayer,” a charity single his own label refused to release, had just held off a couple months, Richard would have made it six consecutive decades. It reached No. 1 in November 1999 in spite of little radio support.

Now let’s look at just some of his other U.K. achievements (most statistics compliments of the outstanding everyhit.com website):

- He ranks third in No. 1 singles with 14 behind Elvis (21) and The Beatles (17).

- The longest span of No. 1 singles (47½ years) also goes to Elvis, with Richard second with 40 1/3 years.

- Only eight acts have sold more than 10 million singles in the UK. Richard tops the list, beating Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, Michael Jackson etc.

- Richard has, by far, the most Top 40 hits in the UK with a staggering 124. And that doesn’t even include re-entries. The Shadows, with and without Richard, top the group list with 56.

- Elvis leads the British list with 76 Top 10 hits, Richard is second with 67, but Richard leads all male vocalist with the most consecutive Top 10 British hits – 23.

- “Gee Whiz It’s You” by Cliff & the Shadows reached No. 4 on the British charts in 1961 as an import only. It was released as a single outside the UK.

- The group with the most top 10 albums is The Shadows with 28, 17 featuring Richard.

- The biggest jump to No. 1 by an album on the British charts was made by The Shadows “20 Golden Greats,” which vaulted from No. 48.

- The Shadows also hold the biggest climb inside the top 40, their 1980 release “String Of Hits” going from No. 39 to No. 3 in one jump.

- The Shadows also have the longest span of hit albums for any group, 50 years and five months, trailing Elvis for all artists by just six months.

- In 1989, Richard received the The Brit Awards nod for “Outstanding Contribution,” after being named “Best British Male Solo Artist” in the first two award years, 1977 and 1982. These awards are decided by over 1000 members of the British music industry.

- Richard finished second in the Eurovision Song Contest with “Congratulations” in 1968 and third with 1973’s “Power To All Our Friends,” while the Shadows were runner-up in 1975 with “Let Me Be The One.”

- His worldwide record sales are reported to be over 260 million.

- He had his own TV show, “It’s Cliff Richard,” from 1970 until 1976 and has appeared in over 10 movies.

- In 1995, Richard was knighted, two years before Paul McCartney and also before Elton John, Mick Jagger and Tom Jones.

In 2002, the BBC sponsored a vote for the 100 Greatest Brits of all time. Richard finished 56 on the list, which was topped by Winston Churchill. John Lennon finished eighth and Paul McCartney & George Harrison also made it (once again, the drummer gets no respect). David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Bob Geldof, John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), Bono and Freddie Mercury were additional Rock representatives. The list also cited Henry VIII (the King not the song), Richard Burton (probably for giving Bob Dylan hell), Alexander Graham Bell, King Arthur and, of course, William Shakespeare. And, of course, Boy George!

In 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame was started, with five artists – Elvis, The Beatles, Madonna, Bob Marley and U2 inducted by committee. A nationwide poll then was conducted to determine five more inductees, one from each decade. Richard was the inductee from the 1950s.

After reuniting with the Shadows for a new release in 2009, Richard celebrated his 70th birthday last October with six concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, which sold out within hours of their announcement. The next two months he performed 18 concerts in Germany to over 300,000 fans. He has a tour scheduled for the Fall featuring the Temptations, the Stylistics, Candi Staton, Percy Sledge, Deniece Williams, Billy Paul, Lamont Dozier, Freda Payne, Brenda Holloway and Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

In the past 53 years, Cliff Richard has won almost every possible award connected with British music, many several times over. Considering the contributions the Brits have made to Rock & Roll – The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin etc. etc. – how can the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ignore the man credited with starting it all?

Continued from last week

By Harvey Kubernik

Former KFWB DJ and newspaper reporter Larry McCormick, in the July 5, 1965, issue of the “KFWB Hitline” once heralded Spector in the weekly Los Angeles music publication as “Success Of Phil Spector Shows Creative Genius.”

Phil Spector in "Easy Rider" (1969)

“Phil Spector is the man other record company executives wish they were,” McCormick explained. “Phil Spector is liked by few, disliked by many, misunderstood by most, and envied by practically everybody.His recent television appearances on panel shows have displayed to the world an honest, say it like it is, freak. I think he’s “out of sight” … “Fantastic” and remember…” the “Freak” will inherit the earth.”

Spector worked with Ike & Tina Turner, producing the scorching “River Deep, Mountain High” date, featuring the cosmic vocals of Tina. The record reached number 88 in the U.S. but a big Top Five hit in the U.K.

“Phil was the co-writer on the song,” Jack Nitzsche said in 1988. “Phil embellished the song and was the producer. I’ve talked to Gerry Goffin about that a lot; Phil co-writing songs that he would produce. Phil would always have the writers come over and write in the room with him, and I knew he directed it. They all say the same thing; that without Phil Spector in the room that song wouldn’t have been that way. He helped. He knew what he wanted it to be. I know Phil Spector helped write ‘River Deep, Mountain High.’ When Phil played me ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ on the piano I knew it was a great song. We did the rhythm track in two different three-hour sessions. It was amazing to watch the session.”

As a teenager at the time of the legendary “River Deep, Mountain High” waxing, Rodney Bingenheimer, now a KROQ-FM DJ, was invited to the mammoth Gold Star session.

“I knew Phil from being at Gold Star with Sony and Cher,” said Bingenheimer. “Sony used to work for Phil and he and Cher were on his earlier sessions. Brian Wilson and I never left the studio booth during the production of ‘River Deep, Mountain High.’ You don’t leave when you’re at something like this. We were transfixed. Jack (Nitzsche) and Phil (Spector) were very tight. They were like copilots on the Concorde from a flight from France…Brian didn’t say a word. He soaked it in and sat there stunned. Tina was loud and sexy. She was wearing a wig and Go-Go boots-very ‘60s. Tina’s vocals kept on soaring”

“Dennis Hopper was there,” continued Bingenheimer. “He took photos in the studio and was later involved in the artwork for the ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ album. The first person I saw at Gold Star that day was Mick Jagger. He was wearing a mink fur coat. He kept leaving the booth to use the telephone and call a girl.”

In my October 11, 1975 interview with Tina Turner for “Melody Maker,” Tina commented on “River Deep, Mountain High” and how it helped Ike & Tina land on a Rolling Stones’ tour.

“We toured for years with all the English groups and I always liked what they were singing about. The biggest change started happening when we were working around L.A. in 1966 and ran into Phil Spector,” she remembered.

“He wanted to record me and when we cut ‘River Deep, Mountain High.’ Mick Jagger who was visiting Phil at the time was in Gold Star studio. After hearing the song he wanted us to tour England in 1966 with the Rolling Stones. The English weren’t used to seeing girls with high-heeled shows and I think they were shocked a bit. Mick then came to the States in 1969 and asked us to tour America with him later in the year. That’s when it happened.”

On March 5, 2011, Universal Music Enterprises re-released Ike & Tina Turner “River Deep-Mountain High” album on CD.

Spector once said in 1969 that he only made “River Deep, Mountain High” to “do something experimental.” He also revealed at the time that “for two years he was hidden and not making records, because that’s where you really state your case.”

In an unearthed interview I found on cassette, Spector, then in a self-imposed hiatus from the recording studio, explained to John Gilliand, the late great radio broadcaster for “The Pop Chronicles” radio series: “I enjoyed all the records very much. I made them all from the heart. I made them all with art in mind, and all to reveal a picture of where I was when I made them. Never to deceive or really to make people think I was putting them on or just to be commercial. I wanted the people to say, ‘Gee…you’ve really gone for a screwed up time during that period weren’t you?’ ‘Or…Jesus…You were really Wagner-crazy then and you must have been loaded that time.’ I enjoyed that. It doesn’t bother me at all. That’s probably the only way I do reveal myself was on my records through my art.”

“I would guess ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’ really captured something for me,” Spector continued. “It said the most to me as far as a production was concerned at the time. It was made as an honest shocker and was made as an experiment. It was really not made to necessarily become number 1. That was not its goal. You see, the main force that I have that drives me is probably the same force of why Wagner wrote music. To make a forceful message, to have a forceful approach, to present his dynamic feelings through his music. This is the way I see a record. It takes me a few months to make a record and when I build a record.”

In a 1977 interview with me for “Melody Maker,” conducted jointly with music critic Robert Hilburn of “The Los Angeles Times,” Spector in his home one afternoon told us about the world after he left the confines of Fairfax High School. “My graduating theme was ‘Daring To Be Different.’ The moment I dared to, they called me different. I always thought I knew what the kids wanted to hear. They were frustrated, uptight. I would day no different from me when I was in school. I had a rebellious attitude. I was for the underdog. I was concerned that they were as misunderstood as I was.”

That memorable day Phil also re-visited “Then He Kissed Me” with us. “That was an experimental record,” he explained over a meal of steak tartar dipped in jar of mayonnaise. “John (Lennon) told me the Beatles got the idea to use a 12-string guitar (like Barney Kessel played) from that record. But I thought it was too spaced out. I was against it coming out. I was gonna can it.”

The Beach Boys also did a rendition of “Then He Kissed Me.” (“Then I Kissed Her.”) And Brian Wilson performed “Be My Baby” on his 2000 concert tour.“The man is my hero,” Brian Wilson told me in a published interview in 1977. “He gave rock ‘n’ roll just what it needed at the time and obviously influenced us a lot”

“His productions…they’re so large and emotional…Powerful…the Christmas album is still one of my favorites,” said Wilson. “We’ve done a lot of Phil’s songs: ‘I Can Hear Music,’ ‘Just Once In My Life,’ ‘There’s No Other Like My Baby,’ ‘Chapel Of Love’… I used to go to his sessions and watch him record. I learned a lot…”

“I’ve always been flattered that Brian continues to say nice things about me and keeps recording my songs,” Phil underscored to me in our 1977 dialogue inside his Beverly Hills digs. “Brian is a very sweet guy and a nice human being. I’m glad he’s coming out of his shell. I think he got caught in a trap with ‘Good Vibrations.’ I think he got condemned more than condoned. He became a prisoner instead of a poet. He had the plaudits, the accolades, and touched the masses. I know music is a very important thing to him, besides a vocation. It became cluttered the last few years. Your attitude is in the grooves, and it’s a very personal thing. But Brian thrived on competition. I remember when ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ came out. He wasn’t interested in the money, but a top ten record. He wanted to know how the song would do against the Beatles and if (AM radio station) KFWB would play it. But I never saw Brian as a competitor.”

“When you see a (Stanley) Kubrick movie,” Spector mentioned in that chat with me for the now defunct “Melody Maker,” “you tell me how many names you immediately remember in the cast. One, two? It’s the same with Fellini, and that’s what I wanted to do when I directed a recording. Singers are instruments. They are tools to be worked with.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones (on Vinyl)!

By Dave Thompson

If you’re any kind of Rolling Stones completist, but the music-buying budget isn’t what it used to be, this probably isn’t something you wanted to hear. Hot on the heels of (deep breath) Keith Richards’ autobiography and The Wingless Angels album; the deluxe edition of “Exile on Main Street” and the revamp of “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out,” the “Ladies and Gentlemen” concert DVD, “Stones In Exile” and so on and so forth, the news that two further box sets are on their way can only leave you staring hopefully at Santa, and trusting that you’ve been really nice, and not at all naughty this year.

In fact, box sets may not be quite the word we are looking for. These two packages are more like milk crates. No less than 30 slices of 180-gram vinyl, each resplendent in heavyweight sleeves, and bound in custom packaging, this is the entire Stones studio catalog reinvented for a modern age that wants to remember the golden days. Two U.K.-only EPs tap into the rarities market, two London-era hits collections let you play favorites with the sixties material, half a dozen later albums (spread across 10 sides of vinyl) allow you to rediscover the band’s Eighties, Nineties and Noughties output. And, finally, the vinyl format allows you to experience the albums as they were each once intended, including those delicious few moments of crossing the room to turn the disc over at the end of Side One.

But we’re all grownups here … we know our Stones oldies. There’s a lot of bang for your buck in these boxes, but does every record demand to be replayed? Or are there Stones LPs already on your shelf that you simply haven’t gone back to since the day you first bought them?

Mick Jagger onstage. AP photo

There are, and the box set sensibly avoids a lot of them. There are no compilations beyond “Through The Past Darkly,” which is harsh for fans of “Sucking In The Seventies” and “Flowers,” but does spare us the makeweight muddle of “Made In The Shade,” “Rolled Gold,” “40 Licks” and so forth. Live albums, too, are omitted, so there’s no need to add another copy of “Love You Live” to the list of LPs you never listen to.
And, of the rest… well, modern remastering techniques may or may not be all that they’re cracked up to be, and if you expressed any disappointment whatsoever with the London catalog’s last relaunch, as SACDs in 2002, then the vinyl’s not going to make you feel any better. The same masters were utilized this time, as well.

But, let’s assume that you do get the boxes … or, you go to your record rack and just pull down your old copies. The only question left to answer is, which albums should you play first? In that case, Goldmine’s guide to the Stones’ best vinyl starts here… >>>

The Rolling Stones
Year zero in terms of the band’s long-playing career and still one of the most exhilarating debuts any group ever made. You can hear the Stones’ hunger; you can feel producer/manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s ambition. No matter that both sides of the mixing desk were learning as they went, that the Stones had no more idea what they were doing than the man charged with ensuring they did it. Still, the end result defies all belief.

The first Stones album, the one that subtitled “England’s Newest Hit Makers,” kicks off with the latest of those hits, a Bo Diddley drive-through a Buddy Holly classic, and then motors straight into the heart of R&B 101 — the songs that every British beat band worth its salt was hammering out nightly in the length and breadth of the country, but each one given such a definitive revamp that even the originals sound wan by comparison. Bobby Troupe’s “Route 66” came on the radio while I was writing this, and it was laughable … a gentle day out on a bicycle somewhere, compared to the Stones’ celebration of speeding chrome, the wind in your hair, and a brand-new world flashing past the windscreen.

And why is that? Why, almost without exception, were the British Invaders better placed to sell American music back to the States? Because the Stones (and the rest of the Brit pack) didn’t see America as the Americans did; they saw it only through the multitudinous prisms of romance, raunch and imagination. “The Rolling Stones” is the Promised Land before the wheels came off it, a world of boundless imagination and immensity, distilled into a dozen slabs of short, sharp shock.

So pump it up, and if you’ve got it in mono … now you’re talking.

Aftermath
The Stones had already started songwriting the previous year, but “Aftermath” was the first album to prove what great writers they were — even if Keith, in his autobiography, does still wonder quite why manager Oldham decided to pair him with Jagger as a songwriting partner, when Mick and Brian Jones would have made far more sense. Oldham’s instincts were correct, though, and “Aftermath” is the album that proved it.

“Mother’s Little Helper” gets us rolling and stoned, “Stupid Girl,” “Under My Thumb,” “Out Of Time,” “Doncha Bother Me” and “Take It Or Leave It” let us know the type of boys we’re dealing with here. This has become renowned as the Stones’ misogyny album, and it might well be — certainly there’s a swaggering male arrogance here that only the early Stranglers ever came close to recapturing, but there’s also the grudging admission that man needs to be strong, because woman is ultimately stronger… “Lady Jane,” “It’s Not Easy”…

Buddy Holly resurfaces in the shape of the doomed “Flight 505,” but the king of this castle is “Going Home,” a half-side devouring blues song that almost lurches into jam territory and was, until Dylan went one better with “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” the longest single rock song ever recorded.

And that’s why you need to hear this on vinyl. Because, after a workout like that wraps up Side One, you need to stretch your legs just to get you back to reality.

Between the Buttons
In terms of songwriting, this is not the Stones’ finest hour; even the U.S. insertion of both sides of the latest single into the U.K. running order was not going to push the likes of “Miss Amanda Jones,” “Cool, Calm & Collected,” “She Smiled Sweetly” and the neo-surreal vaudeville of “Something Happened To Me Yesterday” into many people’s canon of top Stones songs. (Except for mine, I must admit, but that’s another story).

It’s the production that brings this LP to life, as Andrew Oldham finally stops trying to emulate Phil Spector and wonders what would happen if Spector emulated him. A smorgasbord of baroque belligerence, strings and things as prominent as either the band or the songs, this is the album that blows the rest of the 1960s so far out of the water. And for all the times that people have told you that the Stones’ next album, “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” was an attempt to recreate “Sgt. Pepper,” then what do you think Pepper set out to emulate? It was emulating this.

Beggars Banquet
In 1978, the Stones’ “Some Girls” album was widely regarded as a return to form, following the less-than-scintillating critical reactions to the last two or three studio sets. A decade earlier, “Beggars Banquet” fulfilled that same purpose — the big difference was, The Stones still agree with that declaration.

Their first album with producer Jimmy Miller, following the departure of Oldham from the scene, this is The Stones defining themselves as they redefined rock ’n’ roll; arguably, the next two or three years of hard-rocking blues would spiral out of “Beggars Banquet,” and if fans of a handful of pre-existing combos would dispute that, then listen to what your heroes were doing before they heard this album and what they were doing afterwards. End of debate.

Why do you want to hear this on vinyl first? Because “Sympathy For The Devil” demands it; because “Stray Cat Blues” insists on it; because “Dear Doctor” will lasso you and tie you to the stagecoach if you don’t. The secrets of “Beggars Banquet” lie not in the music, but in the spaces the music occupies, and untainted analog provides that space.

Let It Bleed
This is the first “old” Stones album I ever bought, once I’d picked up “Goat’s Head Soup” at the ripe old age of 13, and still the one that remains their quintessential disc — the menace of “Beggars Banquet” fed through a prism of knowing nastiness, layered with prophecies of the darkness that was to come.

There’s not a song on this album that sits comfortably on the psyche. Whether it’s the title track’s descent into a world of filthy basement apartments, or “Gimme Shelter”’s invocation of a world at war with itself, “Midnight Rambler” searching for new necks to break, or “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” sending innocent choirboys into the war zone, this is the album that transformed the Stones from a rock ’n’ roll band into a rock ’n’ rolling lifestyle.

And though it cannot be divorced from all the trials and tribulations that were just around the corner (this is the album they were recording when Jones died; this is the album they were promoting at Altamont) it stands so far apart from the rest of their future that everything that followed is still playing catch-up.

Sticky Fingers
The last installment of the series of interlocking sessions that began with “Beggars Banquet,” “Sticky Fingers” is the album usually held up as the band’s finest moment, by those of us who aren’t so keen on “Exile On Main Street.” And it’s a valid point. There’s nothing here so delightfully disheveled as “Ventilator Blues,” but Exile doesn’t have “Sister Morphine.” “Just Want To See His Face” is one of the band’s most evocative drifts, but “Wild Horses” is better still. And so on.

Grab the vinyl for the original Warhol zip that tore up all the records stacked on either side of this one… grab it, too, to hear “Brown Sugar” tasting just like she used to when she came out of the radio. But most of all, grab it for the sheer beauty of band and producer (Miller again) knowing exactly what they wanted to achieve.

Goats Head Soup
Are we talking about the best Stones albums? Or the best Stones vinyl? Sometimes, it’s hard to differentiate between the two. But we will — “Exile” doesn’t make this list, because it always sounded too crushed to these ears, as though the medium simply couldn’t keep up with the mud and the mayhem.

“Goat’s Head Soup,” on the other hand, does make it — and for the very same reason.

Recorded at Dynamic Sounds in Jamaica, one of the few top-line studios in the world that knew how to make the most from whatever was thrown at it, the soup is aptly named. “Coming Down Again,” “Winter” and “Can You Hear The Music” are almost drones in the distance, nyahbingi at a time before Keith had figured out what it was, so he led five suburban Englishmen through a crude approximation. “Dancing With Mr D,” “100 Years Ago” and “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” are tougher, but they have a looseness still that has defied attempts to remaster them for digital; and even the standard rockers, “Silver Train” and “Star Star,” need wax, not aluminum, to make them stand out.

Plus — and this makes more of a difference than you might expect — if you find the vinyl, you might also find the greatest giveaway the Stones ever gave, a 12-inch square picture of some real goat’s head soup. Mine’s been on the wall for almost 40 years now and it still smells delicious.

Black and Blue
The peak of the Stones 1970s achievements — not because it’s amusing to be contrary and say that one of their least-loved LPs is actually their finest, nor even because we really need 10,000 letters of complaint, all insisting that “December’s Children” knocks this into oblivion. “Black And Blue” is brilliant because it made sense at the time.

It made sense in the context of the day’s radio. It made sense in terms of the Stones’ own development. And it made sense on the dance floor. If you were alive and well in 1976, and you didn’t fall in love at least once to “Hey Negrita”… “Hand Of Fate”… “Hot Stuff;” if you didn’t break your heart to “Fool To Cry” and “Memory Motel”… and if you didn’t feel that bass pounding out of the speakers and realize that The Stones had just made the best-sounding dance album of the age… well, you obviously have no soul.

The next few years would see an entire universe of rock artists embrace the disco movement, with The Stones among the most overt of them all. By those standards, early complaints that “Black and Blue” had gone disco are left sounding rather hollow. Rather, it is funk, it is dub, it is the midnight rambler beating his belt on the mirror ball above your head. What it isn’t is a record that you should even consider listening to on compact disc. You don’t only lose the frequencies, you lose the magic as well.

Some Girls/EmotionalRescue
We promised you 10, but these two are a package, recorded more or less side by side with one another (and with the execrable “Tattoo You” too — never have so many out-takes made so many faves lists), and largely indivisible when you hit the shuffle button. “Miss You,” which opens Some Girls, is the blockbuster, and if you have the 12-inch remix then you’ll know why the vinyl is so important. But “Dance” is just as dramatic, and the rest of both albums is fabulous too, from the swagger of “When The Whip Comes Down” to the tortured blues of “Down In The Hole,” from the sheer bravado of “Where The Boys All Go” to the country honk of “Far Away Eyes,” and on to the Bee Gees in the boondocks squalor of “Emotional Rescue” itself.

We observed earlier that, when “Some Girls” emerged, a lot of people seized upon it as The Stones’ return to form after a few discs of experimentation. It was, again alongside “Emotional Rescue,” their last gasp as well — no Stones LP since this pair has been as cohesive or as compulsive as these, and the arrival of CD in time for the mid-1980s “Dirty Work” saw them able to stop caring about either quality. It’s not so important to make every track count when you know the listener has a fast forward button.

And so we end our survey at the dawn of the 1980s, and rely upon our more contrary listeners to remind us that bits of “Undercover” sounded pretty good too, or to point out the hidden nuances of “Voodoo Lounge.” Such things might well be true, and good luck to you if you find them. The rest of us… well, we might want the milk crates, but we’ve already drunk the milk.

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