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Will of sound

Phil Spector's influence seen on three recent releases

By Todd Leopold
CNN

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• Working with Phil Spector

• The making of a hit record

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(CNN) -- In the real world, Phil Spector is surrounded by bad vibes, awaiting the September 16 beginning of his murder trial and trailed by countless stories of strange behavior.

In the music world, the sound is much better.

It's not just the joy that comes from a radio playing "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Going to Marry" or "You, Baby." It's the vibrations through pop music history, which resonate with Spector's influence.

I once kept a list of songs that paid tribute to the dramatic opening drumbeats of a single Spector-produced song, "Be My Baby." It's a chronicle of rock history: from the Four Seasons' "Rag Doll" to Elvis Costello's "No Dancing" to Richard and Linda Thompson's "Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair" to the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey." And that's just scratching the surface. (Thanks to Google and Mr. John Burger for helping to refresh my memory.)

This summer, at least three Spector-related CDs are in shops, each providing insight into what went into the "Wall of Sound," as Spector's production style was called.

Eye on Entertainment takes a listen.

Eye-opener

The first to come out was "The Jack Nitzsche Story: Hearing Is Believing 1962-1979" (Ace), devoted to the work of Spector's longtime arranger, which was released in May.

Nitzsche's arranging work predated his introduction to Spector, and he kept having hits long after Spector placed his famous "Benedict Arnold Was Right!" ad after the failure of "River Deep, Mountain High."

The tracks on the Nitzsche collection include the original "Needles and Pins" by Jackie DeShannon (co-written by Nitzsche and Sonny Bono), songs by Doris Day (!) and "Elusive Butterfly's" Bob Lind (!!), as well as tracks by Buffalo Springfield (Neil Young's incredible "Expecting to Fly"), Marianne Faithfull (a pre-Stones version of "Sister Morphine") and Graham Parker (the delicate -- like a scalpel's edge -- "You Can't Be Too Strong"). It also features Nitzsche's own "The Lonely Surfer" -- perhaps the only surf instrumental with what sounds like French horns.

The aces at Ace are also behind "Phil's Spectre II -- Another Wall of Soundalikes," which was released in July. Listening to the songs on the collection, one is struck by the number of groups that wanted to echo Spector's work with the Righteous Brothers (including the Righteous Brothers) and the sheer thrill of a Wall of Sound attempt when it worked.

Indeed, the album's standout cut is a version of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune that, in many mouths, turns into a hoary lounge-act cliche. In the hands of producer Marty Cooper and his group the Victorians (Gloria Jean Hargis and a renamed Blossoms, featuring Darlene Love), however, the song takes on an unearthly transcendence. "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," indeed: This song is a peak.

Finally, there's Rhino's exhaustive Ramones box set, "Weird Tales of the Ramones." The four-disc collection, which came out August 9, goes beyond previous Ramones compendiums (there are at least two -- "Ramones Mania" and "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology"), offering several cuts from the Spector-produced "End of the Century" and every other Ramones record.

Best of all, the history of the band is traced in comics from artists and observers including Matt Groening, Sire Records' Seymour Stein, Bill Griffith and Sergio Aragones. Johnny Ramone oversaw the compilation himself.

All are available in record stores or over the Internet.

On screen

Steve Carell stars as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," about just that. The film comes out Friday.

Wes Craven's new thriller, "Red Eye," stars Rachel McAdams as an airplane passenger unwillingly brought in to a murder plot with Cillian Murphy. Criss-cross, Rachel, criss-cross. Opens Friday.

"Supercross" is about cycle riders. Think of the ads with about 80 more minutes of bad dialogue and a few stunts. Opens Friday.

Disney's animated film "Valiant" concerns a pigeon who wants to be a big bird during World War II. Ewan McGregor, John Cleese, Jim Broadbent, Tim Curry and Rupert Everett supply voices. Opens Friday.

On the tube

"Hopeless Pictures" stars Michael McKean as a studio head, surrounded by equally absurd characters. The show premieres 10 p.m. Friday on IFC.

The show about dying is gasping its last breath ... or maybe it's ready to enter a new life (on DVD and in reruns). "Six Feet Under's" series conclusion is 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.)

Sound waves

I'd like to apologize to Rodney Crowell for not being around last week to write about his fine new album, "The Outsider" (Columbia), which came out August 16.

"Chicago at Carnegie Hall" (Rhino), which spawned my favorite Lester Bangs review of all time, is out in a new CD package Tuesday.

Paging readers

The star of the new Bret Easton Ellis novel, "Lunar Park" (Knopf), is a writer and brand name called Bret Easton Ellis, who may or may not be related to Bret Easton Ellis. The book comes out Monday.

Video center

Just after its finale, the fourth season of "Six Feet Under" comes out on DVD Tuesday. (See? It goes on and on.)

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