Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 28 January 2008
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667031622
Description
In the pantheon of backroom record men from the golden age of rock and soul, one would be hard pressed to find a figure at once so respected for his achievements yet universally unknown as my father, Bert Berns. Responsible for writing and producing some of the greatest songs of the era, this musical visionary's body of work is now made available for the first time in the form of a landmark two-volume collection. This first set, compiled so brilliantly by Rob Hughes, Mick Patrick and Tony Rounce, samples the initial creative output of what they describe as "one of the most gifted, charismatic and successful record producers of the 1960s - on a par with Phil Spector or the Holland/Dozier/Holland and Leiber/Stoller teams."� Born in the Bronx, New York during the Great Depression to poor European immigrants, Bert Russell Berns lived a life as dramatic as a work of fiction. Contracting rheumatic fever as a child, he then immersed himself in the sounds of the city, took up the piano and guitar, and began a long musical journey which saw him spend much of his twenties knocking around with the Beat generation in Greenwich Village and dancing the Mambo in Harlem nightclubs. Infatuated with the music emanating from Cuba, he made his way to pre-revolutionary Havana, where he converted a whorehouse into a nightclub while running guns for Castro's rebels. He returned from Cuba when he was 30 and got his first break working for a publisher at 1650 Broadway. It was from here that the entirety of his epic seven-year run took place, which saw him rise from a $50-per-week song plugger to one of the only men of his time to pull off the triple of songwriter, producer and owner of his own record labels. Chronicling the first half of this incredible run, this CD opens with two of his very first recordings from 1960 - Austin Taylor's Push Push and Hoagy Lands' Lighted Windows. Capturing both the innocence of the times and the relative innocence of his creative development, these tracks give an insight into the songwriter and producer that would soon streak like a comet across the sky. A Little Bit Of Soap, recorded the following year by the Jarmels, was his first hit record and established him as one of the hottest new writers. But, before dedicating himself exclusively to the backroom, he took a last shot at becoming a performing artist, recording You'd Better Come Home under the pseudonym Russell Byrd. Berns' destiny, however, would be determined by his next two major successes - the Isley Brothers' Twist And Shout, which the Beatles covered, and Solomon Burke's Cry To Me, which came to the attention of Atlantic Records. A year after these releases, Twist And Shout was an anthem, and Bert Berns had become the staff producer at Atlantic, where he worked with a range of artists that we feature, including the Drifters, Ben E King, Mel Torme, Little Esther Phillips and the Vibrations. His stint at Atlantic, however, was not exclusive, as he worked tirelessly p
Tracklisting
The Champs
Richard Thompson
Little Richard
Link Wray
Isaac Hayes
Elmore James
B.B. King
B.B. King
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
