1. The Righteous BrothersYou’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
This could have been a lot of other Phil Spector tracks. There was something about that sound that spoke to my imagination. It’s pop, you know… confectionary? A confection. But at the same time there’s something really epic with this production, it’s almost like a sword-and-sandal movie, you know the timpani and bells and choirs, tambourine totally and utterly to the front. So there was something already there about the use of the studio as an instrument, which is a bit clichéd but Phil Spector and people of that era did it, it’s on other records also, obviously The Beach Boys a little bit later and Motown also. What did you grasp about it when you first heard it? I think there was an emotional impact, I don’t think I analysed it. It’s only later I thought ‘this tambourine cannot be so far in the front, how did they do that?’ especially since they didn’t do overdubs so it’s really designed like that, the huge reverb and drums. It was something architectural maybe.
