The Crystals are an American vocal group based in New York, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)”, “Uptown”, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”, “He’s a Rebel”, “Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)”, and “Then He Kissed Me”, featured three successive female lead singers, and were all produced by Phil Spector. (More from Wikipedia)
The idea for the magazine Who Put the Bomp originally was that the title of each issue would be taken from the name of a great rock song; thus, the second issue was to have been called Da Doo Ron Ron. Greg Shaw was persuaded that this was not a good idea for an ongoing publication, so the issue was named Who Put the Bomp #2, with Da Doo Ron Ron as the subtitle. This practice was dropped after the third issue, although the initials R.I.A.W.O.L. were frequently present on the front page, standing for “Rock Is a Way of Life”.
“Da Doo Ron Ron” was a #3 hit in 1963 for the girl group the Crystals; and it was written by another famous 1960’s songwriter couple, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, together with Phil Spector (now infamous for his 2009 conviction for a murder in his home in 2003). This song is a classic example of Spector’s legendary “Wall of Sound” production technique.
(May 2013)
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Phil Spector perfected his renowned “Wall of Sound” technique while making girl group records, where massive amounts of music were recorded together with a subtle echo effect. “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes and “Da Doo Ron Ron” by the Crystals are cited as being prime examples of this technique. Phil Spector himself says that he reached his peak with the recording of “River Deep, Mountain High” by Ike and Tina Turner; George Harrison has called that song “a perfect record from start to finish”.
(October 2013)
