Rolling Stones' "Play with Fire"
Spector played electric guitar on this one, the volume turned way down so that he didn't overwhelm Keith Richards' acoustic work. Recorded at the end of the session, with several of the principals -- Jones, Wyman, Watts -- nodded out in corners, it's a menacingly pretty tune with good advice for star-struck B-movie actresses everywhere. "You'd better watch your step, girl, or start living with your mother."
Leonard Cohen's "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On"
Bad idea #5263: Take one of rock and folk's most distinguished bards of minimalist angst. Mix with Spector's orchestral production. Stir slightly. Once the truly painful strings and swells start to strangle this track from Death of a Lady's Man, all you can do hope EMS gets there and soon.
Electric Flag's "Freakout"
The bizarre soundtrack to sixties faux-documentary You Are What You Eat features Tiny Tim covering the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Wall of Sound man himself singing backup to Butterfield offshoot Electric Flag. Spector apparently got the "Freakout" part, but left before they covered peace and love.
Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep-Mountain High"
In which we find that Ike and Phil had a lot in common. Ultra talented wives. A penchant for soaring choruses. Frequent spouse-accompanying trips to the emergency room.
The Crystals "He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)"
This great '60s girl group had to pull their Spector-produced single because, can you imagine, even then it reeked of domestic abuse. Wonder what it felt like when he pulled the trigger?
The Checkmates Ltd. "Baby Don't You Get Crazy"
The flipside to "Spanish Harlem" by this sixties soul group makes one last plea. Phil, Phil, put the gun down.
The Ronettes' "Is This What I Get for Loving You"
No one had more to put up with than Roni Spector. Spector was reportedly so jealous of his then-wife that, when he was travelling, he forbid her to drive without a full-size blow-up doll representing him sitting in the car beside her.
Darlene Love's "Stumble and Fall"
She sang backup for the Crystals, then was promoted to lead status on this orchestrated ode to bitter breakups. She stumbles, she falls, and it's all because...
The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling"
Maybe the most famous Spector-produced track ever asks why "you never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips / And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips." Er, rigor mortis?
John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band's "Instant Karma"
Spector went on to produce one of history's bounciest songs about the great wheel of life. Next incarnation -- a singing sea slug?
George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity"
My favorite ex-Beatle's voice is surprisingly unadorned in this Spector-produced track, as he asks "Isn't it a shame / how we break each other's hearts / and cause each other pain?" Not to mention allowing each other to bleed to death in the hallway.
The Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road"
Look, anyone who could murder a song this badly should have no problem pulling out an actual gun and popping someone. The Fab Four hated the tapes that would eventually become Let It Be so much that they handed the whole finishing job to Spector. He buried this sub-par track under a treacly wave of strings, earning it a near unanimous reputation at the Beatles' worst-ever song.
The Ramones' "Let's Go"
Spector reportedly pulled a gun on Dee Dee during the recording of the Ramones' End of the Century, er, capping off an increasingly stressful partnership.
Starsailor's "Four to the Floor"
Spector came out of retirement to produce four tracks for this NME-annointed rock savior last year, and apparently his fingerprints (undoubtedly bloody) are all over this massively orchestrated track. "He was amazing, had some mad ideas," bassist James Stelfox was quoted as observing. Yup. Sounds like the guy.
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