The Crystals: "He's a Rebel"

October 22, 1962 (2 weeks)

Before we begin, a brief word on one of my recent interests, the issue of separating the art from the artist. I'm of the opinion that one should do so if they feel comfortable — and I'm not so sure if the matter of consistency even matters much. If you wish to cut off a problematic singer, writer or actor from your collections and playlists then by all means do so but if you'd rather not with someone else who is similar then that's fine too. All else I'll say on the matter is this: you don't owe them a thing. I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman prior to the very troubling allegations recently made against him and I'm not about to start now. If I am boycotting him now because he's a psychopath sex offender then I was previously boycotting him due to my own disinterest. Either way, it's the same thing at the end of the day.

In that spirit, I'll quickly address Phil Spector. In this case, I'm not so much separating the art from the artist but more reconnecting the art with the real artist. Spector was a producer and a very talented one at that, albeit one who could overdo it an awful lot. (It's no coincidence that perhaps "his" three finest studio albums are John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and Imagine and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, records that were made with strong individuals who he couldn't manipulate as easily and who weren't about to put up with very much of his bullshit) But he was still just the producer. The acts he worked with, especially the girl groups, should not be overlooked and it's high time they got most of the credit. So, if you feel uncomfortable listening to Phil Spector, try to remind yourself that what you're really doing is listening to The Crystals, Darlene Love and The Ronettes instead.

Yeah, about that. The Crystals may well be credited as the group behind "He's a Rebel" but they didn't actually sing on it. Liking the Gene Pitney song and deciding to get a version out of "his" own out before the competition swooped in, Spector had a group called The Blossoms step in when The Crystals weren't available. A stipulation of them recording the song was that they weren't going to receive an artist credit, presumably because 'The Crystals' was a much more bankable name. (For someone who liked to make everything about himself, Spector seemed to have enough self awareness to know that splashing his name on a 45 wasn't going to guarantee success, though someone should've reminded him of this when he put out A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector a year later)

Blossoms or Crystals, it's a terrific performance either way. It no doubt helps that the studio musicians do exceptionally well in their own right with particular highlights from Al DeLory's sparkling piano part and Steve Douglas with a powerful sax solo that is not unlike his memorable solo on The Ronettes' "Sleigh Ride". And then there's Gene Pitney's composition which is also excellent. Everyone was pulling their weight. Presumably, even the giant douchebag behind the mixing desk was contributing.

The end result is yet another top notch CHUM number one from 1962 — and we're by no means done yet. Virtually the entire song is like one big chorus — or, better yet, a series of choruses crammed together. The "he's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good..." part quickly gives way to a chord change and the utterly fab "but just because he doesn't do what everybody else does..." which then switches to "he's always good to be, always treats me tenderly..." Having a verse to follow seems to act as a breather before getting back to what we're all there for.

"Can't wait to hate listen to his next number one!" I concluded in my piece on The Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is to Love Him". How wrong I was. That's the thing with Phil Spector records: the good ones are still worth going back to and the rest I can't even be arsed enough to listen to out of spite. Those piece of shit albums he did with Leonard Cohen and the Ramones and his ghastly remixing of The Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road" (not to mention what he did with "Across the Universe" which isn't much better) can all be thrown down a bottomless pit as far as I'm concerned. As for the rest, I'll enjoy those fine Crystals, Ronettes, Righteous Brothers, Tina Turner and John Lennon songs, appreciate the work of the Wrecking Crew in backing most of them and praise the songwriting — all the while doing my best to ignore the troublesome figure who could never remain behind the scenes where he belonged.

Score: 8