Phil Spector was born in New York on December 26, 1939. Who else but him could conceive the perfect Christmas songs album?
In fact, he conceived it.
In 1961, Phil, along with Lester Sill, founded the record label Philles Records, signing talented artists like the Ronettes, including his future wife Mrs. Spector, and the Crystals, just to name two of the most acclaimed female vocal groups of that era.
The idea to blend the wall of sound with traditional Christmas carols began to germinate in Phil's mind in the mild spring of 1963. It’s a good thing Phil was ahead of his time because completing the project turned out to be no easy feat.
Starting with the splendid cover, where, amidst a jubilation of red and green and gigantic gift boxes, the artists involved in the adventure are displayed: the Ronettes and the Crystals, Bobby Sox along with the Blue Jeans, and above all Darlene Love. Phil himself doesn't appear and leaves the spotlight to its co-stars. Writing about co-stars might seem irreverent; it’s more like a free interpretation of a quote from Atlantic Records' president Ahmet Ertegun, who said, "It’s Phil who makes the records, the artists are secondary."
It took about a month for Phil to decide that "that" shot was the shot, a month spent staging one photo session after another.
"It's like abusing a child!" LaLa Brooks bursts out: she doesn’t mean the endless, stressful photo sessions, but that exclamation captures what it's like to work with Phil. In those days, LaLa was sixteen years old and subjected, like all other “co-stars,” to a working method that years later would heavily challenge even the leather jackets and worn-out jeans of the Ramones, that’s saying something.
No, actually, LaLa is thinking of the twelve continuous hours spent without a break to tape the final version of "Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers": from one in the afternoon to one at night, in a recording studio, until the two minutes and fifty-five seconds of that track were so perfect that they could be pressed on vinyl.
Phil is a perfectionist.
Others who experienced this include: Ronnie Bennett, Phil’s future wife, deprived of the honor to perform the collection’s only original, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," because she wasn’t considered sufficiently in-character or emotional enough by her future husband; studio assistant Sonny Bono, whom Phil relentlessly railed against for the most trivial reasons, but "Sonny is so kind and sweet," LaLa still testifies, and he didn’t react to Phil’s furious outbursts; Brian Wilson, who attended the recording sessions, played piano on some tracks, even wrote a thematic piece to gift to the Ronettes, but Phil didn’t deem such contributions valuable enough and dismissed Brian without much regret.
It’s hard to work with Phil, but not impossible.
Sound engineer Larry Levine didn’t keep a secret about all the times Phil started laughing and joking and clowning around, lifting the general mood; and Darlene Love admitted that, yes, Phil was gruff, but he was one of those gruff people with a heart of gold, and in those months spent together, not a day went by without Phil having a kind thought for each of them, whether it was a smile, an affectionate word, or a small gift.
It’s hard to work with Phil, but it bears fruit.
Darlene Love ... She’s the one chosen by Phil to perform the new "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" instead of Ronnie, Phil's future wife. It’s such a formidable piece that it immediately rose to the rank of classic Christmas carol, changing Darlene's life; and David Letterman's too, if it’s true that every year, during the Christmas episode of his show, he would call her to sing that song, because "It’s not Christmas until I hear her sing it."
Phil finished his work excellently, hitting the target stated in the liner notes, which was to approach the classic Christmas songs with the same excitement of contemporary pop material. Just listening to even fragments of "Frosty The Snowman" or "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" or "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" is enough to immediately grasp the exceptional magnitude of the work created by Phil Spector, which is nothing less than the creation of a new tradition.
An astounding achievement.
In the concluding "Silent Night," Phil speaks, and together with the artists who accompanied him in these months – they aren’t co-stars, Phil is the first to realize this – wishes a future of serenity and peace for all.
"A Christmas Gift For You" hit the record store shelves across the United States on November 22, 1963. The wrong album at the wrong time.
Despite everything, it's one of the fundamental albums in the history of popular music.
For some, THE fundamental album.
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