His Kiss" was the first, months ahead of both Ramona King's and Bettey Everett's (the hit)]

For The Roses: Bobby Darin

5-63     Bobby Darin-18 Yellow Roses/Not                         For Me (Capitol 4970)(Arr.)

    Bobby called me. My wife sang with the Blossoms, and they worked some of his dates. He always appreciated that high-powered thing that Spector was doing but he liked Donny Kirshner better, he thought that was where it was at. He hired me for "18 Yellow Roses" and we became friends.

Wonder Bread On The Side

2-64     Stevie Wonder-Castles In The Sand (Tamla 54090)(Arr.)

    String overdubs. I really didn't have much to do with that. I'd done stuff with Brenda Holloway, on Era-Brenda and Patrice. Hal Davis did that, so when he went to Motown that was one of the first things he got to do something with, so he gave it to me to do strings on.

A Credit Loss Playing The Marketts

11-63     Marketts-Out of Limits (WB 5391)                     (uncr.)

    It credits Ray Pohlman. I came in and did that arrangement-it was called "Outer Limits" at that time, after the TV show-but they wanted to add something to the record, so they took my chart-I couldn't make the next date-and gave it to Ray Pohlman and he added a French horn or something, and they credited him for the record. I don't really give a shit, but I did at the time.

The Lonely Surfer-Jack As Solo Artist

7-63     The Lonely Surfer/Song for a Summer Night (Reprise 20.202)
11-63     Rumble/Theme for a Broken     Heart (Reprise 20.225)
4-65     Puerto Vallarta/Senorita from                               Detroit (Reprise 0364)
1-76     Theme from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest/The Last Dance (Fantasy 760)
10-63     The Lonely Surfer (Reprise 6101)
    Dance to the Hits of the Beatles- Reprise 6115
?-66     Chopan '66-Reprise 6200
?-73     St. Giles Cripplegate (Reprise M S 2092)

    It all came about because of all those Spector hits and all that arranging. Jimmy Bowen said, "you want to do an instrumental?" - I did a lot of stuff. It was fun. I was never thinking of making hit records though, I was just playing with the orchestras. I never had a chance to do that so I did it.
[Nonetheless, "Lonely Surfer", with its novel French horn dominated arrangement, was the first easy-listening surfing hit, and "Rumble" was an interesting orchestral treatment of the Link Wray classic. St. Giles Cripplegate is a rather fascinating neoclassical orchestral LP]

4-63     Davey Summers-Calling All Cars/(Vim 101 & Zen 107)(Arr.)
2-62     Crosby-That's Alright Baby/Who (Gregmark P1)(Arr.)(A-side wr. by P Spector)
    Jamie Horton-Oh Love/Go Shout It From a Mountain (Joy 269)(Arr.& Con.)
    Jamie Horton-Only Forever/(Joy)(Arr.)
    Brenda & Patrice-?/? (Era)(Arr.)
    Castells-?/? (Era)(Arr.)
1-63     Moments-Walk Right In/ (Era)(Arr.)
    Billy Storm-I Can't Help It/Educated Fool(Infinity 023)(Arr.)
    Greensleeves-Like Greensleeves/Horse Opera (Capella 502)(Arr.)
2-63     Joel Hill-I Ran/Secret Love (Monogram 510)(Arr.)
    Dorothy Berry-The Girl Who Stopped the Duke of Earl/I'm Determined (BNH 1)(Arr.)
["Richard Berry's wife," recalls Jack. Richard of course wrote "Louie Louie"]
Dorothy was a brilliant singer who made excellent records with David Gates later]
    Yolanda & the Castanets-What About Me/Meet Me After School (Tandem 2002)(Arr.) 10-62    
    Yolanda & Charmaines-There Oughtta be a Law/Hootchy Cootchy Girl (Smash 1777)(Arr.uncr.)
[Last two entries probably same group]
12-63     Nino Tempo & April Stevens-Whispering (Atco 6281)(Arr.)
2-64     Nino Tempo & April Stevens-Stardust (Atco 62861)(Arr.)(uncredited on both)
2-64     Escorts-No City Folks Allowed/The Hurt (RCA 8327)(A-side Arr.)
    Bobby Crawford-Please Wake Up Joan/ (?)(Arr.)

    Gary Crosby, "Who"? That was Lee Hazelwood, that was before I met Phil Spector. Did he write that? ("That's Alright Baby"). I didn't even know that.
    The Moments-the same as the Shacklefords (Marty Cooper's longterm, generally unsuccessful folk group), without Lee Hazelwood and Marty Cooper. My wife Gracia, that was her, and Albert Stone, that was all the same people on all those records. The only singers in town... who would work without a contract!
    [Other wrap-up notes: the Joel Hill is the same guy who later joined Canned Heat and the Flying Burritos. It's conceivable that the unknown Bobby Crawford (Johhny's brother) record is the same Chip Taylor song Little Eva cut in 1965 as "Wake Up John," in which case it would definitely be one to seek out].

Rebel-Rousing With Spector

[Nitzsche arranged the following Philles records, 1962-1964 [early]
9-62     106-Crystals-He's A Rebel
11-62     107-Bob B. Soxx & Blue Jeans-Zip a Dee Doo Dah
12-62     108-Alley Cats-Puddin N'Tain
12-62     109-Crystals-He's Sure the Boy I Love
2-63     110-Bob B. Soxx-Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts/Dr. Kaplan's Office
3-63     111-Darlene Love-The Boy I'm Gonna Marry
4-63     112-Crystals-Da Doo Ron Ron
5-63     113-Bob B. Soxx-Not Too Young to Get Married
7-63     114-Darlene Love-Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home
8-63     115-Crystals-Then He Kissed Me
8-63     116-Ronettes-Be My Baby
10-63     117-Darlene Love-A Fine Fine Boy
12-63     118-Ronettes-Baby I Love You*
12-63     119-Darlene Love-Christmas*
1-64     119x-Crystals-Little Boy
2-64     London 9862 (UK)-Crystals-I Wonder
3-63     Philles LP 4001-Crystals-He's A Rebel
?-63     Philles LP 4002-Bob B. Soxx & Blue Jeans-Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
?-63     Philles LP 4003-Crystals-Sing the Greatest Hits
?-63     Philles LP 4004-V.A.-Today's Hits
12-63     Philles LP 4005-V.A.-A Christmas Gift *=uncredited[Nitzsche relates the circumstances of his meeting Phil Spector]

Please Mr. Postman

Philles 108 [see above listing]

    The Alley Cats...Lou Adler Brought them in, a guy named Brice Caulfield. Remember an album called Music from Lil' Brown by Africa (Ode)? That was them. Brice Caulfield - Phil would spend 12 or 15 hours on vocals, and so he had the Alley Cats in there all night long recording, like five in the morning, and Brice Caulfield started complaining just a little bit. He was a mailman, he had to leave the session and go walk that beat...

Spector Puts The Screw To Ex-Partners

Philles 111   - Crystals-(Let's Dance) The Screw (withdrawn)

    Lester Sill and Harry Finfer were Phil's partners in Philles Records. And all of a sudden Phil couldn't figure out why he needed them...They ended up with a contract saying they would have a piece of the next two Crystals records, and it was too late to stop "Then He Kissed Me." So they had a piece of that, but the follow up...they sent 50 copies to each distributor...it was just handclaps and a bass, and every time they'd stop, Phil's attorney would go "Do The Screw." That's what it was.

On Needles And Pins

5-63     Needles & Pins (wr. Nitzsche/Bono) - Jackie DeShannon (Liberty 55583) [Also recorded by the Searchers, Eliminators, Bobby Vee, Del Shannon, Gary Lewis, Little John & the Monks, Cher, Love & Tears, and doubtless many more...]

    We (Sonny Bono & Nitzsche) were all hanging out with her (Jackie DeShannon), I had that riff for a long time.
[The riff, a true classic, was an early folk-rock precursor and doubtless a major influence on the Byrds, as I ventured to say...]
    Yeah? You think so? That isn't a 12 string guitar either, it's a lot of guitars played in unison...Sonny always used to try to take credit for it. We had to keep the tape recorder running when we were recording that, and at one point Sonny says, "You taught me a whole new way to write songs tonight." I want to clip that little piece out...

Breaking It Up On The DeShannon Discography

[Nitzsche wrote "Should I Cry," "Be Good Baby," and "I Keep Wanting You" with Jackie, who recorded all of them. He worked