Tuesday, November 12, 1991

Back to Mono box set released

Last updated 11/16/2020.

Back to Mono

Various Artists, produced by Phil Spector

Released: November 12, 1991

Recorded: 1958 to 1969

Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU

Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK, 0.5 world (includes US and UK)

Genre: pop

Tracks:

ACT “Song Title” (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

Tracks, Disc 1:

  1. TEDDY BEARS “To Know Him Is to Love Him” (9/22/58, 1 US, 2 UK, 10 RB)
  2. RAY PETERSON “Corinna, Corinna” (11/21/60, 9 US, 41 UK)
  3. BEN E. KING “Spanish Harlem” (12/31/60, 10 US, 15 RB)
  4. CURTIS LEE “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” (7/3/61, 7 US, 47 UK)
  5. GENE PITNEY “Every Breath I Take” (8/7/61, 42 US)
  6. THE PARIS SISTERS “I Love How You Love Me” (9/4/61, 5 US)
  7. CURTIS LEE “Under the Moon of Love” (10/16/61, 46 US)
  8. THE CRYSTALS “There’s No Other Like My Baby” (11/20/61, 20 US, 5 RB)
  9. THE CRYSTALS “Uptown” (3/31/62, 13 US, 18 RB)
  10. THE CRYSTALS “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)”
  11. THE BLOSSOMS (aka THE CRYSTALS) “He’s a Rebel” (9/8/62, 1 US, 19 UK, 2 RB)
  12. BOB B. SOXX & THE BLUE JEANS “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” (11/17/62, 8 US, 7 RB)
  13. THE ALLEY CATS “Puddin’ N’ Tain” (1/12/63, 43 US, 21 RB)
  14. BOB B. SOXX & THE BLUE JEANS “Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts” (2/16/63, 38 US)
  15. DARLENE LOVE “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry” (4/6/63, 39 US)
  16. THE CRYSTALS “Da Doo Ron Ron” (4/27/63, 3 US, 5 UK, 5 RB)
  17. THE CRYSTALS “Heartbreaker”
  18. VERONICA “Why Don’t They Let Us Fall in Love”
  19. DARLENE LOVE “Chapel of Love”
  20. BOB B. SOXX & THE BLUE JEANS “Not Too Young to Get Married” (6/8/63, 63 US)
  21. DARLENE LOVE “Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home” (7/20/63, 26 US)
  22. THE CRYSTALS “All Grown Up” (8/1/64, 98 US, 98 RB)

Tracks, Disc 2:

  1. THE RONETTES “Be My Baby” (8/31/63, 2 US, 4 UK, 4 RB)
  2. THE CRYSTALS “Then He Kissed Me” (8/17/63, 6 US, 2 UK, 8 RB)
  3. DARLENE LOVE “A Fine, Fine Boy” (10/19/63, 53 US)
  4. THE RONETTES “Baby, I Love You” (12/21/63, 24 US, 11 UK, 24 RB)
  5. THE RONETTES “I Wonder”
  6. THE CRYSTALS “Girls Can Tell”
  7. THE CRYSTALS “Little Boy” (2/1/64, 92 US, 92 RB)
  8. THE TREASURES “Hold Me Tight”
  9. THE RONETTES “The Best Part of Breakin’ Up” (4/4/64, 39 US, 43 UK, 39 RB)
  10. THE RONETTES “Soldier Boy of Mine”
  11. DARLENE LOVE “Strange Love”
  12. DARLENE LOVE “Stumble and Fall”
  13. THE RONETTES “When I Saw You”
  14. VERONICA “So Young”
  15. THE RONETTES “Do I Love You?” (6/20/64, 34 US, 35 UK, 34 RB)
  16. THE RONETTES “Keep on Dancing”
  17. THE RONETTES “You, Baby”
  18. THE RONETTES “Woman in Love with You”
  19. THE RONETTES “Walking in the Rain” (10/24/64, 23 US, 28 RB)

Tracks, Disc 3:

  1. THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (12/12/64, 1 US, 1 UK, 3 RB)
  2. THE RONETTES “Born to Be Together” (2/6/65, 52 US)
  3. THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “Just Once in My Life” (4/10/65, 9 US, 26 RB)
  4. THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “Unchained Melody” (7/17/65, 3a US, 1 UK, 1 AC, 6 RB, sales: 1.0 m)
  5. THE RONETTES “Is This What I Get for Loving You?”
  6. DARLENE LOVE “Long Way to Be Happy”
  7. THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “Love You for Sentimental Reasons”
  8. THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “Ebb Tide” (12/4/65, 5 US, 3 UK, 13 RB)
  9. THE MODERN FOLK QUARTET “This Could Be the Night”
  10. THE RONETTES “Paradise”
  11. IKE & TINA TURNER “River Deep, Mountain High” (5/28/66, 88 US, 3 UK)
  12. IKE & TINA TURNER “I’ll Never Need More Than This”
  13. IKE & TINA TURNER “A Love Like Yours Don’t Come Knockin’ Everyday” (10/27/66, 16 UK)
  14. IKE & TINA TURNER “Save the Last Dance for Me”
  15. THE RONETTES “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine”
  16. THE RONETTES “You Came, You Saw, You Conquered”
  17. SONNY CHARLES & THE CHECKMATES “Black Pearl” (5/10/69, 13 US, 8 RB)
  18. THE CHECKMATES “Love Is All I Have to Give” (4/5/69, 65 US)

Tracks, Disc 4 (A Christmas Gift for You):

  1. DARLENE LOVE “White Christmas”
  2. THE RONETTES “Frosty the Snowman”
  3. BOB B. SOXX & THE BLUE JEANS “The Bells of St. Mary”
  4. THE CRYSTALS “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
  5. THE RONETTES “Sleigh Ride”
  6. DARLENE LOVE “Marshmallow World”
  7. THE RONETTES “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
  8. THE CRYSTALS “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
  9. DARLENE LOVE “Winter Wonderland”
  10. THE CRYSTALS “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”
  11. DARLENE LOVE “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
  12. BOB B. SOXX & THE BLUE JEANS “Here Comes Santa Claus”
  13. PHIL SPECTOR & ARTISTS “Silent Night”

Total Running Time: 206:12

Rating:

4.529 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)

Quotable: “Spector’s Wall of Sound made even the most pedestrian teen pop seem mythic.” Blender Magazine

Awards:

About the Album:

“Two hits and ten pieces of junk, was how [producer Phil] Spector described the typical album, so the groups he produced released singles – honed to perfection and exclusively in mono.” TL “Monomaniacally massive, magical and mysterious,” BL “Spector thought that stereo sound gave listeners more control than producers; he really liked control.” TL

“This junk-free, four-disc set released in 1991 includes Ben E. King’s Spanish Harlem, The Ronettes’ Be My Baby (Brian Wilson pulled off the road and wept with joy the first time he heard it) and the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, all pinnacles of Spector’s Wall of Sound production techniques” TL in which “a huge Wagnerian slab of instruments…made even the most pedestrian teen pop seem mythic.” BL

“At the time Back to Mono was released in 1991, Phil Spector’s reputation as one of pop's great visionaries was intact, but there was no way to hear his genius. It wasn't just that there were no collections spotlighting his productions, there weren't collections of artists he produced. It wasn't until Back to Mono that there was a thorough overview of Spector's greatest work, and while it’s not without flaws, it still stands as one of the great box sets. Some may complain that there are no selections from his superstar '70s productions for John Lennon, George Harrison, Leonard Cohen, and the Ramones, but that's for the best, since their presence would have been incongruous, taking attention away from the music that forms the heart of Spector's legacy.” STE

“All of that music is here, not just on the first three discs, all devoted to singles, but also on the fourth disc, his seminal 1963 holiday album, A Christmas Gift for You,” STE “the only holiday album one ever need own.” TL Not only is it “the greatest rock Christmas album, but a crystallization of his skills.” STE

“It could be argued that the song selection overlooks some obscure fan favorites, such as ‘Do the Screw,’ but that’s simply nitpicking, because what’s here are all the great Spector records, which were hardly just great productions, they were great songs as well. As the set plays, it’s hard not to be stunned by the depth of the material and clarity of Spector’s vision…whether you’ve heard these songs hundreds of times or not at all – especially because they gain power when grouped together. Many producers have been credited as the true creative force behind many rock records, but usually that’s hyperbole. In Spector's case, it wasn’t, as this set gloriously proves.” STE

Resources and Related Links:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Phil Spector
  • BL Blender Magazine’s “100 Greatest American Albums” (10/08)
  • STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
  • TL Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light, Time Magazine’s “All-TIME 100 Albums” (11/13/06)

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