River deep, mountain high, talent outstanding

 

Depending on who you talk to, you’ll get a different reason to love Tina Turner. For those who know their classics, she’s the powerhouse singer who formed half of Ike & Tina Turner, producing seminal records like “A Fool In Love” and “Proud Mary”. For those who are slightly younger, she is that 80’s icon who produced hits like “Simply The Best” or “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. For millennials, she is the unforgettable performer of one of the best James Bond soundtracks ever, “Goldfinger” (a track that was incidentally composed by none other than Bono and The Edge). In short, the lady has had many (musical) lives, all fairly stellar…

There is no point in trying to further enumerate Miss Turner’s (too) many accomplishments, so we’ll focus on a particularly historic song of hers instead. In 1966, record producer (and later convicted murderer) Phil Spector had established himself as one of the most important trailblazers in popular music. It is a known fact that his “Wall of Sound” producing technique influenced everyone, from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, and marks an important step in what modern studio work was to become: a highly sophisticated and layered art form, far remote from the early days of Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan singing and playing into a single microphone… Although Spector had had significant success with several acts, including the Ronettes and the Crystals, he was still on the lookout for fresh talent to propel into superstardom.

Then he stumbled upon the Ike and Tina Turner duo: startled by their musical abilities and by Miss Turner’s vocal prowess, he devised a song for them that would be their signature — and his for that matter. That record was the legendary “River Deep — Mountain High“. In all its 3 minute and 40 second glory, it fully displays the best Spector had to offer and Turner had to sing: an incredibly rich mix of skilled musicians, exuberant backing vocalists and the haunting voice of Tina herself above it all. Served by one of the most symphonic pieces of popular music the 1960’s created, along with a few Supreme records, Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper…

That’s about it: there was very little you could want from the song that wasn’t already there. And Spector was convinced of that: he very much considered it his masterpiece. And history gave him reason: it features in many all-time rankings and was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1999. What is interesting, however, is that it did not fare particularly well upon release: reaching “only” #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 (albeit getting to #3 in the UK), it actually resulted in the accompanying album being shelved. But the most spectacular outcome was Spector’s own reaction: his disappointment was such that the producer effectively upended his career, only returning to the studio episodically after this, (in)famously collaborating with the Beatles and a few other top rate musicians before slowly fading away. Until he was found to have shot a young woman dead in the 2000’s, getting convicted for the murder — and dying in prison in January 2021.

You will agree that few rock songs have such a backstory…