Wall of Sound
[6][7] Among other features of the sound, Spector incorporated an array of orchestral instruments (strings, woodwind, brass and percussion) not previously associated with youth-oriented pop music.
[3] According to Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who used the formula extensively: "In the '40s and '50s, arrangements were considered 'OK here, listen to that French horn' or 'listen to this string section now.'
During the late 1950s, Spector worked with Brill Building songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller during a period when they sought a fuller sound by the use of excessive instrumentation, using up to five electric guitars and four percussionists.
[1] Later this evolved into Spector's Wall of Sound, which Leiber and Stoller considered to be very distinct from what they were doing, stating: "Phil was the first one to use multiple drum kits, three pianos and so on.
Andrew Loog Oldham coined the phrase "Phil Spector's Wall of Sound" within advertisements for the Righteous Brothers 1964 single "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".
[3] Songwriter Jeff Barry, who worked extensively with Spector, described the Wall of Sound as "by and large ... a formula arrangement" with "four or five guitars ... two basses in fifths, with the same type of line ... strings ... six or seven horns adding the little punches ... [and] percussion instruments—the little bells, the shakers, the tambourines".
[8][15][non-primary source needed] Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans' version of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" formed the basis of Spector and Levine's future mixing practices, almost never straying from the formula it established.
[3][16] Daniel Lanois recounted a situation during the recording of the track "Goodbye" from Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball: "We put a huge amount of compression on the piano and the mandoguitar, and it turned into this fantastic, chimey harmonic instrument.
[3] Levine explained that during mixing, "I [would] record the same thing on two of the [Ampex machine's] three tracks just to reinforce the sound, and then I would erase one of those and replace it with the voice.
In reference to this nuance of the song's recording, music professor Albin Zak has written: It was at this moment that the complex of relationships among all the layers and aspects of the sonic texture came together to bring the desired image into focus.
As long as Strange's unmiked guitar plugs away as one of the layered timbral characters that make up the track's rhythmic groove, it is simply one strand among many in a texture whose timbres sound more like impressionistic allusions to instruments than representations.
"[3] In order to offset the mixing problems percussion leakage caused, he applied a minimal number of microphones to the drum kits, using Neumann U 67s overhead and an RCA Type 77 on the kick to establish a feeling of presence.
"[3] Biographer David Hinckley wrote that the Wall of Sound was flexible, more complex, and more subtle, elaborating: Its components included an R&B-derived rhythm section, generous echo and prominent choruses blending percussion, strings, saxophones and human voices.
He also knew when to clear a path, as he does for the sax interlude and [Darlene] Love's vocal in "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry".
Such virtuosity was ultimately serving of Spector's own agenda—The Righteous Brothers' vocal prowess provided him a "secure and prosperous headrest", such as in Bobby Hatfield's rendering of "Unchained Melody".
Bannister writes that, during the 1980s, "Jangle and drone plus reverberation create[d] a contemporary equivalent of Spector's 'Wall of Sound' – a massive, ringing, cavernous noise and a device used by many indie groups: Flying Nun, from Sneaky Feelings' Send You to Straitjacket Fits and the JPS Experience".
[7] Author Domenic Priore observed, "The Ronettes had sung a dynamic version of The Students' 1961 hit 'I'm So Young', and Wilson went right for it, but took the Wall of Sound in a different direction.
Where Phil would go for total effect by bringing the music to the edge of cacophony – and therefore rocking to the tenth power – Brian seemed to prefer audio clarity.
[32] Similarly, when the Righteous Brothers ended their relationship with Spector and signed with Verve/MGM Records in 1966, they released "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration", which Medley produced using this approach[33][34] and also reached No.
[36][37][38] According to Billy Joel (who played piano in another Shangri-Las song, "Remember (Walking in the Sand)"), Morton aspired to become the Phil Spector of the East Coast.
[36] Another prominent example that reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 was Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water", which utilized the Wall of Sound with great effect towards the end, with the help of the Wrecking Crew.
[40] Spector's work with the Righteous Brothers also influenced the R&B band Checkmates, Ltd., with songs such as "I Can Hear the Rain", "Please Don't Take My World Away", and "Walk in the Sunlight".
[44] Bruce Springsteen also emulated the Wall of Sound in his album Born to Run, starting with the titular song, backed by the E Street Band.
[43] The E Street Band would become famous practitioners of this method, with songs such as Ronnie Spector's cover of Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (itself conceived as a tribute to the Ronettes).
Jim Steinman[45] and Todd Rundgren,[46] composer and producer of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell, respectively, utilized the Wall of Sound for the album.
[47] Steinman would later similarly utilize such instrumentation in his own productions for other songs, such as Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (produced specifically in Spector's model), to the point that his discography ranging from Air Supply ("Making Love Out of Nothing at All") to Celine Dion ("It's All Coming Back to Me Now") has been described as an "alternate-universe Wall of Sound".
