Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 26 February 2001
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667179324
Genres: Rock 'N' Roll Rock
Description
The much sought-after Phil Spector-produced Dion LP coupled with his final Warner Bros album. Every school day afternoon I'd have my portable transistor pressed up to my ear from 3:45pm (school closing time) to 7:00pm (the end of the show). I was fourteen years old and my hero was Roger Scott, Capital Radio's drive time DJ. He played a record by a singer I had begun to idolise, produced by a man who made records that were like pocket symphonies. The record was five minutes forty seconds long and when it finished he played it again in its entirety. The record was BORN TO BE WITH YOU by Dion, produced by Phil Spector, and Roger Scott was right. Over the years I have realised that Dion Di Mucci has to stand at the top of my pantheon of singers whether he is tackling Doo Wop, R&B, Blues, Folk, Rock'n'Roll or Gospel, this voice is one of the truest I have ever heard. For sure that voice could have come from nowhere but the streets of New York. If singers employed Lee Strasburg's "Method", Dion would be Brando. To inhabit a song is a gift given to few performers. Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, George Jones, Billie Holiday and Bruce Springsteen have the gift, and for me Dion is the master. From No One Knows, through I Was Born to Cry, to Born To Be With You, you hear him yearning, searching for love and trying to hold on to it. Sure the quality control was sometimes lacking, but the early long players were released at a time when records were made up of singles and fillers. But from 1967's Together Again, Dion was proving himself to be, as Bruce Springsteen said, "...the real link between Frank Sinatra and rock'n'roll". Which brings me back to the record you hold in your hands. Dion had been signed to Warner Brothers since 1969 and had delivered six albums when a collaboration with a label mate was suggested. Phil Spector had recently been offered a label deal by Warners, with full artistic control and the opportunity to work with any artist on their roster. The first artist he chose was Dion. Spector and Dion were of the same generation and both born in the Bronx. Spector's first taste of success came with the Teddy Bears in 1958, the year Dion and the Belmont's hit big with I Wonder Why. Phil's eccentric behaviour both in and out of the studio has turned into rock'n'roll folklore, and Dion's first meeting with him to discuss the up and coming recordings was no different. Arriving at "the Tycoon of Teen"s Los Angeles mansion, Dion found himself in a room lit only by one light bulb. Phil was dipping in and out of the shadows and speaking at the pace of a man possessed by demons "Only you know what you have been through, only you know where you have been to, there's better things you're gonna get into, and I'm gonna be there too." Through this garbled quote, you can hear where Spector's intentions lay. The recording itself is awesome, every sound melts into another sound. Veteran 'Wrecking Crew' musicians and singers were pulled back onto the front line.
Tracklisting
Young Jessie
Wynonie Harris
Willie Hightower
Willie Headen
Wayne Cochran
Wanda Jackson
Wanda Jackson
Walter Horton
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
