"River Deep, Mountain High" was not Spector's last great record of the sixties, it was the little remembered "Black Pearl" by Sonny Charles and The Checkmates Ltd, and to say that I love it would be an understatement. Another fine example of imperfection can lead to great pop music, there are moments of weakness in the lyric and Sonny Charles doesn't have the best voice, but the record is sublime. The church-like backing vocals border on Gregorian chant at times, the glockenspiel dusts the proceedings with sparkles, and at appoximately one minute and twenty-six seconds in, the string section of heaven provides some of the most beautiful encouragement I've ever heard.
Credited to Spector, Toni Wine, and Irwin Levine, it wasn't the most lucrative composition of any of them - for Wine that would probably be "Groovy Kind of Love" and for Levine, "This Diamond Ring" - but, as good those two compositions are (and the jury will remain forever out on the former), neither reached the sonic heights that Spector provided "Black Pearl".
And check out all the noodling going on throughout that nearly one minute long fade-out.
No comments:
Post a Comment