It’s a whole lot easier to peer out of my apartment window and admire the view, now that the towering cluster of boxes has been emptied and removed. Looking south I am able to admire the United Nations Plaza to the left, the Empire State Building to the right, and the Brooklyn Bridge in the far distance. The move from Nashville has already paid dividends, because no matter where you meander in Manhattan there are some magnificent sights to be seen. Superstructures, statues, elevations and music industry monoliths that fair take your breath away, are seemingly around every corner. As a for instance, if I hail a cab, ride the Metro or simply take a leisurely stroll, I can make it across town to the site of Bell Sound on West 54th Street. This was the studio that generated so many celebrated recordings by the likes of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Buddy Holly, The Four Seasons and Del Shannon. The fact that the building happens to overlook Broadway is more than fitting, because The Drifters chose to cut one of their uptown classics there – namely ‘On Broadway’. Present on that august session was the then unshackled Phil Spector, who’d been brought in to supply a lead guitar break on the track as a favour to the producers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Fast forward exactly one year after the record was completed, and señor Spector could be found lurking in the musical fleshpots of London. Officially he was in town ‘to look after the interests of his artists’, which roughly translated meant that he was making sure his girlfriend Ronnie Bennett of The Ronettes, who were then touring the UK, didn’t get too friendly with any of the long-haired beat groups. Plus he was checking out the scene – hip Americans knew something important was going on, and Phil had timed his visit just as The Beatles were poised to lead the British Invasion across the Atlantic. Cub reporter Norman Jopling, whose full account of the following story deserves to one day be documented in book form, was commissioned by Phil’s host, Andrew Oldham, to undertake an interview with the maverick producer. Spector wasn’t too keen on hanging out at De Hems in Soho, a favourite haunt of the music press at the time, so Norman ended up conducting his assignment in the nearby Record Mirror offices. The co-owner of the highly successful Philles label turned out to be an intriguing study; sophisticated, brilliant, a bit mad, yet still youthfully enthusiastic with real charm. He was also quite a dandy.

Norman thought that was the last he’d see of Phil, but no. The following week Decca Records threw a press reception at their offices in Great Marlborough Street for Ben E. King, who ironically had once sung lead with The Drifters. Suddenly, in the midst of the proceedings, up rushed Andrew Oldham, a look of intense seriousness on his usually cool visage, and barked an order at Norman: “Phil’s in the boardroom! He needs to talk to us – now!” Cautiously the pair entered the hallowed province where the only other occupant was a stony-faced Spector. Phil’s beef was with Decca supremo Sir Edward Lewis, who’d visited the Philles office in Los Angeles in his absence and snuck off with a master tape of ‘Little Boy’. This was largely understandable as the track was The Crystals’ new American single, and Sir Edward was impatient for a follow-up to the top-selling ‘Then He Kissed Me’. Unfortunately ‘Little Boy’ wasn’t a particularly strong side and it had barely scraped into the US chart thereby finishing off the group’s career in that territory. Because of this, Phil was adamant that it wouldn’t be issued in the UK.

There was only one problem. Decca had already scheduled the record and sent out review copies. Despite this, Spector was convinced he could persuade Sir Edward to pull ‘Little Boy’ if an alternate single could be made available. His options however were limited because there were few, if any, new Crystals’ tracks in the can. So what advice could Norman and Andrew offer? Anxious to please, the two suggested he replace it with the as yet unreleased ‘Uptown’ which had been a U S hit a year or so earlier. Spector mulled over the prospect, agreed, relaxed, and set the wheels in motion. Within days, demo copies of ‘Uptown’ with ‘Little Boy’ on the flip were being sent out to reviewers. In the meantime, Phil returned to the States where the songwriting team of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry presented him with a new piece of material entitled ‘I Wonder’. Phil immediately cut the song with The Crystals and promptly withdrew ‘Uptown’ in the UK to make way for what he reckoned was a sure fire hit. In the event ‘I Wonder’ only just entered the Top 40 thereby heralding the end of The Crystals’ hit trail. The muddled impasse almost certainly triggered the start of Spector’s paranoia, because people were suddenly posing the worrying question – “Is the ‘Wall of Sound’ beginning to crumble?” (To be continued)