Sound Of Song (2015) s01e02 Episode Script
Reeling and Rocking
1 A Day In The Life - a song with two distinct and different parts - by the greatest songwriting partnership of the 20th century.
First of all, John Lennon.
I read the news today, oh boy.
Then Paul McCartney.
# I woke up, fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head.
Yet these wonderful chords and inventive lyrics are only part of the story of the sound of this extraordinary song.
A Day In The Life was the culmination of a technological revolution which rocked the world of recorded music.
Rock and roll, popular music of the '50s and '60s, peaking with The Beatles, simply wouldn't have been possible without .
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the emergence of the music studio as a compositional tool .
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the rise of the producer as a creative force .
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and, most of all, the miraculous story of magnetic tape.
You can cut, you can edit obviously, you can slow down or speed up your tape, you can put in backwards stuff, you can put in electronic sounds which you couldn't possibly reproduce live.
MUSIC: That's All Right In this episode, I'm going to visit the studios that produced these sounds and test out the original recording techniques.
From primitive, raw rock and roll That's all right .
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to multi-layered symphonies, in highly produced pop.
# I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron.
One minute I was in the studio and I'm looking at all these musicians, so many people that were playing so many instruments.
I'm sitting there and I'm saying, "What the heck is going on?" And the intricate editing which gave us the first psychedelic record.
# I'm picking up good vibrations She's giving me the excitations I didn't really have a vision.
I took it one bar at a time, you know? I'm picking up And then Good vibrations.
It was all done in pieces.
It wasn't envisioned as one whole piece.
Good, good, good, good vibrations And all of this can be heard in what The Beatles were doing at Abbey Road when they recorded A Day In The Life and give us one of the greatest of modern songs.
RADIO TUNES CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS In 1944, US major Jack T Mullin was part of the Allied Forces preparing for the liberation of Europe.
Mullin was an amateur film-maker and electronics enthusiast from California.
And he liked to listen to the radio late at night.
RADIO TUNES After the BBC shut down at midnight, Mullin found he could tune into German radio where, night after night, he listened to the cool, crisp, clear tones of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The sound was so good he was convinced they must be playing live.
Mullin knew that broadcasts on American and British radio were interrupted by pops and crackles, the unmistakable sound of a recorded production at this time.
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS Was Hitler really commanding the orchestra to play graveyard shift renditions of Beethoven and Bach far into the night? Mullin promised himself that when he got Germany he'd find out what was going on.
When his unit arrived at an abandoned radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt, Mullin was convinced he had discovered the answer.
There he was handed more than 50 reels of magnetic tape and two large tape recorders.
These machines, the size of suitcases, were called magnetophones.
And it was they that had broadcast the crystal clear recordings Mullin had been listening to.
After the war ended, Mullin took these machines and tapes, originally manufactured by German firms AEG and BASF, back to California.
Post-war Hollywood was enjoying a golden era, producing classic hits like Hitchcock's Notorious and Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.
And Mullin's aim was to persuade the studios to use magnetic tape for recording movie soundtracks.
Mullin gave demonstrations to all the Hollywood studios and producers.
And in 1947 he was introduced to the legendary Bing Crosby.
Crosby had been at the top of the business for 20 years.
He presented a hugely successful radio show but hated having to present it live - he'd much rather be on the golf course, with chums like Bob Hope.
Sang to me He'd been lobbying the radio stations for years to let him prerecord his shows and they had always refused because the recording quality simply wasn't good enough.
So when he heard what Mullin had to offer with magnetic tape, he jumped at it.
But if Crosby was serious, he would have to back Mullin with some hard cash.
Mullin had been working with Californian electronics company, Ampex, to develop his ideas.
But they were running low on funds and needed an investor.
Crosby put his money where his mouth was.
He handed over a 50,000 personal cheque so that Ampex could begin production on a magnetic tape machine to be sold to film, TV and radio companies.
And Crosby was one of the first to get an Ampex tape machine.
He also signed up Jack Mullin as his studio engineer.
Crosby began recording his radio show onto magnetic tape in 1948.
BING CROSBY: 'I was just thinking, Ken.
'It seems like only yesterday I was playing with a little 'band like that.
We were called the Spokane Musical Dogs.
' Crosby could now record three shows in a day, which left the old crooner plenty of time to go to the golf course.
Word quickly spread and pretty soon Ampex tape recorders were being ordered up by all the main studios and broadcasters in Hollywood.
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and gentle people MUSIC: Dust My Blues by Elmore James Although the Ampex tape machine had at first arrived in Hollywood, its impact would be felt strongest in the emerging pop music scene.
A restless industry, which was always looking for the latest innovation.
Born in Germany and refined in California, this piece of kit would, in the right hands, revolutionise the sound of song.
# I got up in the morning I believe I dust It was in 1951 that one of these machines found its way into the hands of a young producer in Tennessee.
Sam Phillips was the owner of Sun Studio, a small recording station in downtown Memphis.
Phillips had been producing local R&B, gospel and country performers on old transcription discs, but he was frustrated at the poor quality of the recordings.
The work done by Sam Phillips in the studio would mark a turning point in the sound of the popular song.
Indeed, this would turn out to be one of the first temples of sound.
A small studio in downtown Memphis, a visionary producer armed with a magnetic tape recorder.
This combination would help to create the first bona fide sounds of rock and roll.
ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC Phillips began assembling an impressive array of local talent.
He recorded Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as bluesman Howlin' Wolf.
Ah-oh, smokestack lightnin' Phillips also scored a minor hit with Rocket 88, an up-tempo R&B song featuring a young Ike Turner.
MUSIC: Rocket 88 Sam Phillips' producing ethos was very simple.
He wanted to capture that authentic, raw sound that he heard performers playing in and around the bars and clubs in Memphis.
So he told his artists to play live and loud, stuck them all in one small recording room and said not to worry too much about making mistakes.
Which is just as well, as I'm going to play here.
Sun Studios still uses magnetic tape and engineer Matt Ross Spang has agreed to record me playing with legendary session musicians.
Bassist Dave Roe HE PLAYS TUNE .
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and drummer JM Van Eaton.
OK.
Are you ready? And Matt will produce this session, in the same way Phillips did.
The song we're going to play is a number by a young singer who walked into this studio one day and persuaded Sam Phillips to record him.
THEY CHAT AND LAUGH Let's try it.
On 5th July, 1954, Phillips oversaw one Elvis Presley perform That's All Right, Mama.
All right, we are rolling.
MUSIC: That's All Right, Mama # Well, that's all right, Mama # That's all right for you # That's all right, Mama # Any way you do # Well, that's all right, that's all right # That's all right now, Mama # Any way you do Mama she done told me And while we are playing, Matt is replicating a technique Philips pioneered - adding a fuller, fatter sound to the vocals - a device he dubbed slapback echo.
# That's all right now, Mama Any way you do Matt, first of all, can you take us through the desk here.
What were you doing while we were playing in there? Trying not to screw it up.
Yeah, right(!) I tried to recreate what Sam had.
While you guys were cutting an album, I'm here dialling the faders as you are doing it live.
It goes to an Ampex 350 tape machine over here.
It's all mono.
It's all cut live, right as you did it.
And then the lead vocal.
And there, you were doing something pretty special with that.
That was Sam's kind of thing.
Slapback echo.
I love it, personally.
You can work here if you don't like slapback.
You can't record here either if you don't want to do it.
Phillips found that he could produce an echo effect by manipulating the tape recorder.
# Well, that's all right, Mama # That's all right for you That's all right, Mama First he recorded the lead vocal, and then he looped a duplicate of this vocal back onto the machine, just a split second behind.
By doing this, he produced an echo effect on the voice.
# Mama she done told me # My daddy done told me too # "Son, that gal you're foolin' with # "She ain't no good for you" # Well, that's all right # That's all right # That's all right now, Mama Any way you do What do you think it was that Sam found with that echo, the fast echo, with fast music? When you go listen to a band live, you don't hear them right in front of an acoustic guitar.
You hear them either blasting really loud, right, or you hear them echoing, like if you are outside of whatever, you always hear it a little bit, there's a little bit of fantasy.
I say fantasy but there's a little bit of an otherworldly kind of thing to it.
He wanted to get that unique sound with this new rock and roll thing.
And that really gave it this thing that no-one else had.
It goes to show you how much of a genius Sam was.
I think a lot of people think he was this lucky hillbilly that just stumbled on a little space and got lucky with all these guys.
But he really was a genius with electronics, in sound and pulling a performance out of somebody.
# I need your love, baby # That's all right # That's all right now, Mama # Any way you do # That's all right now, Mama Any way you do.
THEY LAUGH This song would sell 20,000 copies, reach number four in the local Memphis charts and provide Sam Phillips with a blueprint for future success.
# It's one for the money # Two for the show # Three to get ready # Now go, cat, go # But don't you Step on my blue suede shoes The mid-1950s were an exciting time for Phillips.
Through his innovative work with the Ampex tape machine, Sun Studio would become a stable for the first wave of rock and roll stars.
# Do anything that you wanna do But uh-uh, honey, lay off of them shoes Elvis was soon joined by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, who recorded Walk The Line at Sun.
MUSIC: Walk The Line by Johnny Cash Songs like Walk The Line and Blue Suede Shoes were released on seven-inch vinyl, the 45, a reasonably new development.
It had been designed a few years earlier by the now-defunct RCA - Radio Corporation of America - as an alternative to the rather archaic sounding 78.
It was smaller, more durable, and crucially, had much better sound quality to it.
This would come to be the dominant medium on which everybody heard their pop songs.
I walk the line 'And this new format, so popular with teenagers, 'would shape pop music for years to come.
' The seven-inch single was played at 45 revolutions per minute - with an A and a B side.
But crucially, the vinyl size limited each side to three and half minutes.
# For the tie that binds # Because you're mine I walk the line The 45 format dictated the length of the pop song.
Studios, artist and producers all realised they had to make their music fit within that very short time.
So, even as rock and roll was kicking off, this sexy, raucous sound had to be confined.
This is the era of the three-minute pop song.
# Come on over, baby # Whole lotta shakin' goin' on # Yes, I say, come on over, baby Baby, you can't go wrong And many teenagers didn't even need to buy a record player.
In the 1950s, three-quarters of all pop singles were sold to jukeboxes.
We got chicken in the barn And these music machines offered their own acoustics.
A large bass speaker was located at the bottom of the jukebox.
And this made the floor vibrate, so those gathered it around could really feel the music.
Studios powered up the bass-ends on their songs, knowing it would really cut through with immense power.
# Shake, make it shake # Come on over # Whole lotta shakin' goin' on Oh, let's go And while the Memphis music scene was the creative heart-beat of rock and roll ROMANTIC ROCK AND ROLL New York in the '50s was establishing itself as the epicentre of the music business - the cosmopolitan hub of an impatient, fast-moving industry.
And much of this industry was housed in two buildings in Midtown Manhattan - the Brill Building and Aldon Music - located just a few blocks from the historic Tin Pan Alley, the traditional heart of music publishing.
But song writing was changing and a new generation were being influenced by the magnetic tape revolution.
Chief among them were songwriters Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber who were not content to just write the songs, they wanted to the direct the recording of them, which they began doing with singer Big Mama Thornton.
She didn't seem too excited about meeting two white teenagers.
LAUGHTER But we heard her sing and she knocked us out.
Went back to my house and wrote Hound Dog in about 12, 15 minutes.
We recorded that, as I recall, the following day.
Jerry and I both wanted her to growl.
And we were reluctant HE LAUGHS It was like, "You tell her.
" THEY LAUGH Because she was rather formidable, you know? It was like, "Don't be telling me how to sing the song, white boy.
" But right away, on the first take, she was growling.
# You ain't nothing but a hound dog # Been snooping round my door # You ain't nothing but a hound dog Been snooping round my door Conceived as a raw blues track, there was some debate before they settled on the final, now famous, lyrics.
Jerry wasn't fully happy with 'hound dog.
' He wanted something much stronger.
He wanted mother And I said, "I don't think they'll play that, "but I think hound dog is cool.
" He said, "Do you think so?" I said, "Yeah.
" # You ain't nothing but a hound dog Been snooping round my door Hound Dog was a hit for Big Mama and the boys.
But it was the version recorded by Elvis four years later that brought them to the attention of recording giant Atlantic.
# You ain't nothing but a hound dog Cryin' all the time They offered Leiber and Stoller a unique deal to write and produce their own records.
You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no Why did you want to be producers as well as songwriters? To protect the way we imagined the songs should sound, which were frequently more than just a melody line and a lyric line.
We had given songs to other people and they would then produce them.
It wasn't what we had in mind at all.
So we wanted to make sure it was done the way we wanted them done.
MUSIC: Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley They were also able to take advantage of the latest development in magnetic tape technology.
Atlantic were one of the first studios to start working with multi-track tape recorders.
This meant numerous separate recordings could be laid down onto the same song.
Now, for the first time, extra instrumentation, vocals and even an orchestra could be recorded separately and added to songs.
MUSIC: There Goes My Baby by The Drifters Leiber and Stoller tested out this approach on a record they made with The Drifters, a doo-wop group, led by Ben E King.
# There goes my baby Movin' on down the line There Goes My Baby begins like your average doo-wop number.
In fact, it actually does begin with Do-do-do-do-do.
And that # Bum-bum-bum-ba-do-ba-do.
# So far, so what we already know.
But just before the main vocal comes in, the great Ben E King, we hear, of all things, strings.
HE PLAYS There Goes My Baby We haven't heard that before with this sort of number.
And it adds such a dramatic extra to it.
But also, there is something else going on down the bottom end.
That rhythm HE PLAYS RHYTHM It's quite insistent.
And that's because there is more than just a drum kit there.
There is at timpani playing that beat.
Bum-ba-dum.
Bum-ba-dum.
Why did she leave me? It's a massive production for its time.
And here we can hear Stoller the songwriter becoming Stoller the producer.
What's wonderful about it is that it points the way to the future.
This is where the sound of song is going to go.
There Goes My Baby was the first R&B track to feature strings and it became a smash hit in the summer of 1959.
We conceived the records not just as a song but as an overall sound.
An overall production if you will.
Emboldened by this, Leiber and Stoller returned to the studio with the orchestra in an attempt to reproduce their success.
We went an hour over and Atlantic was furious.
This big orchestra.
Lot of money.
But ultimately, I guess they figured it worked out because two of the sides One of the sides was Spanish Harlem.
And one of the sides was Stand By Me.
LAUGHTER # When the night has come # And the land is dark # And the moon is the only light we'll see No, I won't be afraid Leiber and Stoller had created a template for pop songs which exploited the possibilities of multi-track recording to produce richer, more complex sounding records.
# Stand by me # So, darlin', darlin' Stand by me And into the 1960s, a young protege of theirs would build on this approach and produce a new, distinctive sound which created some of the biggest hits of era.
Stand by me.
MUSIC: Then He Kissed Me # Well, he walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance # He looked kinda nice and so I said I might take a chance # When he danced he held me tight # And when he walked me home that night # All the stars were shining bright And then he kissed me Today, Phil Spector is a controversial figure, to say the least.
But back then he was hailed as a genius.
He had begun experimenting with his signature sound production when he recorded The Crystals, an all-girl group, fronted by La La Brooks.
So I whispered, "I love you" He was hard on us.
Especially me as an artist doing the vocals.
But he knew exactly what he was doing.
Sometimes when I couldn't feel it, I didn't understand what he wanted and he would turn off all the lights.
It would be crazy.
And he would just have the stand with the music or lyrics and he would put a little light over the stand so I could read the lyrics, but he wanted me to think.
I knew that he was mine so I give him the love that I had La La's powerful voice was only one element of Spector's production.
He surrounded the young singer with the Wrecking Crew.
Hand-picked by Spector himself, they were the most talented session musicians in the business.
# I almost cried And then he kissed me Phil Spector is an entity all by himself.
Everyone wanted to know what magic fairy dust was that he sprinkled because everything we did with Phil became number one almost overnight.
Spector was the first to record multiple instruments simultaneously, sculpting what would become known as his Wall of Sound.
He did things that were unheard of.
Rhythm section - piano, bass, drums, guitar.
Phil Spector had three, four basses sometimes.
Three, four pianos.
Sometimes as many as seven guitars.
All playing at the same time? All together.
Wow.
That's what he called his Wall of Sound.
Through this approach, Spector was able to take a song with a nonsensical lyric # I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Somebody told me He then transformed it into a barrage of melodic power - a huge, soulful teenage symphony.
# I knew what he was doing when he caught my eye # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # He looked so quiet but my, oh, my # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # Yeah, he caught my eye # Yes, oh my, oh my # And when he walked me home Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron One minute I was in the studio and I was looking at all these musicians.
And I'm sitting there saying, "What the heck is going on?" You know? This is what was going on HE PLAYS Da Do Ron Ron To build his Wall of Sound, Spector didn't just turn up the volume, he recorded multiple instruments playing slight variations of the same song.
Just like this HE PLAYS Da Do Ron Ron And Spector knew that in the 1960s many people listened to music on transistor radios, which emitted a tinny sound.
So he would test out his songs on small speakers in the studio, to check they would really punch through.
When you first heard of the Wall of Sound did you have a kind of emotional reaction to hearing that for the first time? I think I did.
If you really look at Phil's sound on some of the songs, it may sound crazy but you can cry because there is something inside of you that hears the strings on Then He Kissed Me and Be My Baby, you know? It's a feeling that those instruments make you sensitive because they are so beautiful.
# Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Yeah, yeah Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Yeah, yeah, yeah This precocious young pop producer even gave us a new soundtrack for Christmas.
MUSIC: Winter Wonderland by Darlene Love He recorded traditional festive songs, spliced with sound effects of sleigh bells, and produced in his Wall of Sound.
# Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? # In the lane snow is glistenin' # A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight Walkin' in a winter wonderland Doing the Christmas album with Phil Spector was probably some of the greatest times I had with Phil.
Because of him saying that he was getting ready to do a rock and roll Christmas album.
"That's sacred! You can't do a rock and roll Christmas album.
" He was the first.
That was the one time he asked me what Christmas songs I liked.
And I got to choose the songs that I wanted to sing.
And that whole Christmas thing is still so much part of Christmas now.
It is.
It really is.
It's amazing because you'll be going down the street to the grocery store and you will hear it.
You will be in the bank and you'll hear it.
And you want to say, "Hey, hold on a minute! That's me! Stop!" But singers like Darlene Love always played second fiddle to the overall sound of the production itself.
They could be replaced - Spector was ruthless.
I went in and I did He's A Rebel for the group The Crystals.
I knew it was going to be theirs because he paid me and The Blossoms as backup singers.
This time I just did the lead on the song.
I didn't know it was going to be a number one record, number one.
LAUGHING: Because I probably wouldn't have done it.
Unless it would have been my record.
# He's a rebel and he'll never be any good # He's a rebel cos he never ever does what he should Just because he And then I did He's Sure The Boy I Love, which was supposed to be MY record, a Darlene Love record, and that's when he switched on me and put it out under their name.
That's when we started fighting.
Yeah.
Guess what? He did everybody.
All the way to the lawyers, managers, everybody.
With a series of number one hits, Spector's multi-layered Wall of Sound dominated the charts and he was on a creative roll.
In the summer of 1964, he began working with songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, on a new number that I think is the very pinnacle of his producing powers and encapsulates what made him such an inspired force in the studio.
Tell me about writing You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' because there is a big story there, isn't there? Yes, he said he had signed a new group of two guys from Orange County who sounded like Sam and Dave, and that he wanted to write with us for them.
The next day, we went into play it for Bobby and Bill.
It never dawned on us that they might not like it.
Right.
They were used to singing everything together.
And on this song Bill sang the verses and then Bobby came in On the chorus.
And he was not happy about not being in from the beginning.
He said to Phil, "What should I do while the big guy is singing?" You know, sarcastically.
And Phil said, "You can go to the bank.
" # You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips And there's no tenderness, like before, in your fingertips Phil played it over the phone He played you the final master over the phone? Yes.
Over the phone.
But he lowered the key because, again, it's very rangy.
Bill Medley has a very low voice.
DEEP VOICE: # You never close your eyes.
# So when he played it over the phone, I started screaming, "Phil, "you've got it on the wrong speed!" And it really sounded that way.
# Baby, I know it # You've lost that lovin' feelin' # That lovin' feelin' # You've lost that lovin' feelin' Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh-oh Spector obviously had a very good idea of the sound world that he wanted You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' to live in.
It's obviously big.
It's the Wall of Sound.
Lots of reverb and echo.
But there is more to it than that.
For a start, he didn't have any kind of introduction.
It comes straight in with the lead vocal.
HE PLAYS INTRO TO You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' From then on through, it goes up to that fantastic chorus.
HE PLAYS CHORUS Spector wants the song to go somewhere else.
And again, Spector added something here.
Not just Gone, gone, gone, whoa-whoa-whoa.
That then goes into a downwards walking motif.
And into this little sort of shuffle step.
It's a little bit like Hang On Sloopy.
# Hang on, Sloopy Sloopy, hang on.
But what it does, it takes that whole Wall of Sound down to one single idea.
That little motif is really hooky, we are in there.
And over the top of it, the vocalist can do all that lovely semi-improvised stuff which turns into a kind of jam session with the other voices.
And it means that there is somewhere for the chorus to erupt back out of again.
Kaboom, here we are! HE PLAYS You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' This song really needed Spector.
Because what he did was turn it into the quintessential experience of the man mourning for the woman he has lost.
We are right inside his mind.
We know exactly how he feels.
And that huge Wall of Sound is like echoes coming off the inside of his brain.
Gone, gone, gone.
It's a terrific collaboration between two very fine songwriters and a truly extraordinary producer.
# Bring back that lovin' feelin', cos it's gone, gone, gone And I can't go on I never dreamed the record would be as spectacular as it was.
It became the most played record of the last century.
# Bring back that lovin' feelin' Oh, that lovin' feelin' Spector was now the most prominent of a new breed of auteur producers who, along with others like Mitch Miller and Joe Meek, had established creative control over the artists they directed.
# Let's go surfin' now # Everybody's learnin' how # Come on and safari with me Come on and safari with me On the West Coast, one artist had observed the producer at work and wanted to take control of production himself.
And headin' out singing our song This musician was Brian Wilson, the creative force behind the Beach Boys, the most successful American pop band of the time, with a string of top ten hits.
Wilson had been in awe of Phil Spector and had spent time shadowing him in the studio.
Brian Wilson had scored a string of successes with his band The Beach Boys.
They combined classic Chuck Berry guitar licks with vocal harmonies and epitomised that sunny surfer sound of '60s California.
All summed up in one two and a half minute pop song.
It was the perfect formula.
MUSIC: Surfin' USA by The Beach Boys # If everybody had an ocean # Across the USA # Then everybody'd be surfin' # Like Californi-a You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies But in 1965, Wilson decided to quit touring and announced he was retreating into the studio to create a new and very different kind of record.
One that he promised would be his masterpiece.
He set himself a grand ambition - to reinvent the pop song, to explore new methods of composing and to experiment with the very art of production itself.
Let me hear the organ.
ORGAN PLAYS Stop, please.
What was in your head when you went into Good Vibrations? What were you after with Good Vibrations? My mother told me when I was a kid that dogs bark at people because they pick up vibrations.
In 1966, Mike Love was over at my house and I said, "Let's write "a song called Good Vibrations.
" He goes, "Hey, I like that.
" I started playing the piano.
Bum-ba-bum-bum.
And he goes I'm picking up a good vibrations.
You had a real change of musical direction with Good Vibrations.
Well, we wanted to grow musically so we thought we would try something different.
'Let's hear the guitars, please, in D and B.
' While The Beach Boys went on tour, Brian Wilson recruited Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew, including drummer Hal Blaine, and they began recording the instrumental tracks for Good Vibrations.
OK, that's fine.
Let's make it.
Hal, let's go, man.
Here we go.
Play hard and strong all the way.
Brian used to come to Phil Spector's studio.
And he loved what we were doing.
He wanted to get I guess, sort of, a Phil Spector-type sound.
He wanted to get that big sound that we had.
You used the Wrecking Crew that Spector used.
Why did you use them rather than The Beach Boys to play? Because I trusted the ability a little better than the group, you know? I trusted that they could play it pretty good.
Play hard and strong all the way.
Wilson's approach to Good Vibrations was unprecedented.
Beginning in February 1966, he recorded short instrumental parts of the song over and over again, holding the sessions in four separate studios.
Brian knew what he wanted.
Sometimes we would go in and play four bars of music.
And he would say, "Change the saxophone part.
"Take it down an octave.
"And let's hear the guitar up just a little bit more.
"And let me hear it.
" And we'd play it.
He'd say, "That's great.
That's exactly what I want.
" He would talk to his engineer and say, "Thank you, gentlemen.
" And we were out of there.
15 minutes sometimes.
I didn't really have a vision.
I took it one bar at a time.
You know? I'm picking up.
And then # Good vibrations.
# It was all done in pieces.
Because he experimented every note.
Now, sometimes he'd want a different group of people just to see what would happen, because he heard something.
While Wilson sculpted the sound of the instruments, he had spent little time on the words.
On the 24th August 1966, he arranged to meet the rest of the band to record their vocals.
Despite months of recording, he still hadn't quite settled on the final lyrics yet.
So Beach Boy Mike Love hastily came up with the words on the freeway driving over to Sunset Sound studio.
I was working on the arrangement for a long time and when I finally got it done, I called the guy and said, "I got the arrangement done!" They go, "Good! Let's go to the studio.
" So we met up at the studio and Mike was on one microphone going, I'm picking up And the other guy was going, Good, good, good You know, .
.
vibrations.
# I'm picking up good vibrations # She's giving me excitations # I'm picking up good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations # She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations Good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations Armed with Mike Love's lyrics, Brian begins directing the vocal sessions here had at Sunset Sound.
But even this isn't straightforward.
He insists that the band record over 25 overdubs of the same vocal lines, some no more than two or three seconds long.
# Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations Six months after he had started working on the song, Wilson oversaw the final mix for Good Vibrations in September 1966.
Na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na Now, Good Vibrations is basically an edit record.
It is a song that could only be made possible by magnetic tape.
And if you listen really closely, you can hear those edits going through.
# I hear the sound of a gentle word # On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air INSTRUMENTATION CHANGES I'm picking up good vibrations And at 1 minute 42 seconds, there is another edit to get us into this extraordinary middle eight section where you are hearing tack piano, Jew's harp - boing-boing-boing sound - flute and very low-register electro-theremin.
I mean, it is growling away down the bottom.
I love this section.
This feels like the beginnings of psychedelia.
Excitations SONG CONTINUES Tell me about the theremin.
Carl said, "Why don't we put a theremin on this?" And I went, "Theremin?! Why a theremin?" He goes, "Maybe it'll sound eerie.
" And so I came up with the "whoo-ooh!" And I did it for the theremin player.
.
.
elation You used a cello in Good Vibrations to give that HE MAKES A CHUGGING RHYTHM Yeah.
Did you not know in your head that was that sound that you wanted? Not until he played.
As soon as he played, I said, "Try doodle-ooh-doodle-ooh-do.
" And he goes, "What?" I said He goes, "I usually play symphonies, you know.
" I said, "No, this is rock and roll.
"We're going to try to make a symphonic rock and roll record.
" .
.
good vibrations And now at 2 minutes 56, another edit, another new section.
Stripped down chorus with the cello overdubbed, but now the cello has come up an octave.
It is cutting through much, much more.
THE CELLO PLUCKS # Ahhh # Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations # She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations # Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations CELLO PLAYS IN STACCATO Na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na And then quite short but very elaborate fade-out where we've got the cello again and that ethereal sound of the electro-theremin taking us out of the number.
Do, do, do, do, do Do, do, do.
STACCATO CELLO THEREMIN WARBLES SONG FADES I knew that we'd probably never top Good Vibrations, you know.
We all agreed that probably that's the best we could do.
Good vibrations is a watershed in the history of the popular song.
It cost 50,000 to make - a fortune then.
It took 90 hours to record in four different studios.
It was easily the most expensive pop single at the time.
But it's not about the money Brian Wilson spent or even the time that he took.
It is his method that is ground-breaking.
Wilson showed that a song could be made of tiny fragments of tunes or vocals, that he could re-record sections, that he could add bridges where he wanted to but that the whole thing would pull together in that final mix.
Excitations Excitations Wilson was in the vanguard of a new experimental epoch which would peak in the late '60s.
And enabling this was magnetic tape .
.
pulled from the ruins of a radio station near Frankfurt decades earlier.
# Do, do, do, do, do Do, do, do Do, do, do, do, do Now across the Atlantic, a band who themselves had first learnt their rock and roll while in Germany, heard what Wilson was doing - and wanted to take things further.
MUSIC: Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles By the end of 1966, The Beatles were the most famous band in the world.
They had conquered America and had been influenced by Brian Wilson.
It is not dying But unlike the mercurial Beach Boy, The Beatles were rooted to just one recording base - the historic EMI Studios, better known simply as Abbey Road.
And I've come to test out some of the techniques that the band pioneered here.
The Beatles really started experimenting with tape machines around the time they were recording their 1966 album, Revolver.
They recorded a strange sounds and ambient noises and dubbed these tape loops onto the psychedelic Tomorrow Never Knows.
This song more than any other Beatles number was a signpost to the direction the band was heading in.
PSYCHEDELIC LOOPING And The Beatles were among the first bands really to exploit the possibilities of a relatively new medium - the long-player or, 33rpm album, which would be the perfect vehicle to demonstrate the full range of their talents.
After Revolver, The Beatles would begin testing out songs in the studio that they could never reproduce live.
Which was convenient, because they had decided to quit touring altogether.
It is believing And it was their long-time producer, George Martin, who had recorded all their songs so far, who would oversee their experiments with magnetic tape.
.
.
colour of your dreams You can cut, you can edit.
Obviously they can slow down or speed up your tape.
You can put in backwards stuff, you can put in electronic sounds which you couldn't possibly reproduce live.
You can use combinations of instruments which are completely unbalanced but you can make them balanced.
You can put a Well, you can put a very soft flute against a huge brass chord and still make it sound loud.
Then cut up the tape, very well threw it up in the air until it settled down on the ground and joined them all together again.
So it just became likelike a .
.
a patchwork quilt.
This is the kind of think you can do on recording, which you obviously couldn't possibly do live, because it is, in fact, making up music as you go along.
In December 1966, Martin and The Beatles met at Abbey Road to begin working on Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a record which would become celebrated as the first concept album.
MUSIC: A Day In The Life by The Beatles George Martin was The Beatles' creative partner in crime and he introduced them to this idea that he called the wind-up piano.
That' nothing to do with this instrument and everything to do with magnetic tape and the speed it records and the speed it plays back.
Take, for instance, George Martin's solo on Lovely Rita on the Sgt.
Pepper album.
What he did was actually set the tape slower, record it slower and they played it back at a slightly higher speed that he knew would make the piano fit with the track.
So here's, roughly, what he originally recorded.
HE PLAYS Lovely Rita And while I was reproducing this solo originally played by George Martin himself, engineer John Barrett was recording me.
PIANO SOLO REPLAYS ON TAPE And now, if we play it back at the normal speed for this tape machine Right.
.
.
but then that's faster than we recorded it.
Mm-hm, right.
PIANO SOLO REPLAYS AT FASTER TEMPO Wow.
I'm good.
NEIL SNICKERS Why do that? I mean, it is a great sound and all the rest of it.
Why did Martin do that? It is far easier to play stuff slower more accurately and so, this sort of ornamentation and the articulation of the notes you can be more precise.
Mm-hm.
But it is more that the tonal quality becomes brighter and edgier.
There's something almost music-boxy about it, isn't there? Yeah, definitely.
I mean, across that track.
Can we hear that laid across what they did? PIANO LOOP PLAYS OVER Lovely Rita Took her out and tried to win her This was just one example of how The Beatles played with tape speeds, slowing instruments down, speeding them up and even recording guitar solos backwards.
# Took her home, I nearly made it Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two Sgt.
Pepper wouldn't have been possible without this manipulation of magnetic tape, and the overall sound was a wonderful, unpredictable collage of voices and instruments, lyrics and music.
Lovely Rita, meter maid And for one track which was recorded on these sessions but released later, they didn't simply adjust individual instruments, but the entire song.
Lovely Rita, meter maid.
There's a famous edit in Strawberry Fields where there are two different takes of Strawberry Fields and they're sort of put together.
Is that unusual? Oh There was something looking over that particular song because it was different tempos, different keys.
The likelihood of being able to change the speeds to bring them To put them both in the same tempo and in the same key, almost impossible to set up in advance.
So there were two different versions of the same song.
Completely different, yeah.
What did they have to do to bring those together? My understanding is that they sped one up, slowed one down and they just all happened to work.
# It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out It doesn't matter much We can just about hear the edit between the two versions here.
# Let me take you down cos I'm going SUBTLE TEMPO/KEY CHANGE # To Strawberry Fields # I love this song for its dreamlike quality.
Everybody who heard that track knew what it felt like to be stoned.
# Strawberry Fields forever # No-one I think is in my tree I mean, it must be high or low After dabbling with this psychedelic sound, the band wanted to get back to their rock and roll roots.
That is, I think it's not too MUSIC: Revolution by The Beatles What was different was on Revolution, the single version.
It was all recorded straight into the board.
They didn't use any amps.
When they were recording, I walked into the control room and it was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.
There was Ringo out in the studio, but all three of them were sitting around the board with their guitars, playing.
And it sounded amazing.
It was plugging straight in, just completely overloading the mic amps on the board.
MUSIC: Revolution by The Beatles Paul wanted to make the loudest recording ever and that was just crank every amp.
It would have been perfect for the amp in spinal tap where, "Oh, it goes up to 11.
" NEIL LAUGHS He would have loved that for that session.
# You tell me that it's evolution Well, you know The recordings made by The Beatles at Abbey Road are the culmination of two decades of technological revolution.
One which sparked the emergence of the music studio as a compositional tool, the producer as a creative force and the musician as a new kind of artist, sculpting and reimagining the sound of their songs.
And all this was kick-started by the discovery of magnetic tape in the dying days of World War II.
Next time, songs enter a new electronic era .
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using synthesisers .
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disco beats I never can say goodbye .
.
and even digital voices Believe in life after love.
But again, rootsy rock and roll fights back.
MUSIC: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
First of all, John Lennon.
I read the news today, oh boy.
Then Paul McCartney.
# I woke up, fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head.
Yet these wonderful chords and inventive lyrics are only part of the story of the sound of this extraordinary song.
A Day In The Life was the culmination of a technological revolution which rocked the world of recorded music.
Rock and roll, popular music of the '50s and '60s, peaking with The Beatles, simply wouldn't have been possible without .
.
the emergence of the music studio as a compositional tool .
.
the rise of the producer as a creative force .
.
and, most of all, the miraculous story of magnetic tape.
You can cut, you can edit obviously, you can slow down or speed up your tape, you can put in backwards stuff, you can put in electronic sounds which you couldn't possibly reproduce live.
MUSIC: That's All Right In this episode, I'm going to visit the studios that produced these sounds and test out the original recording techniques.
From primitive, raw rock and roll That's all right .
.
to multi-layered symphonies, in highly produced pop.
# I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron.
One minute I was in the studio and I'm looking at all these musicians, so many people that were playing so many instruments.
I'm sitting there and I'm saying, "What the heck is going on?" And the intricate editing which gave us the first psychedelic record.
# I'm picking up good vibrations She's giving me the excitations I didn't really have a vision.
I took it one bar at a time, you know? I'm picking up And then Good vibrations.
It was all done in pieces.
It wasn't envisioned as one whole piece.
Good, good, good, good vibrations And all of this can be heard in what The Beatles were doing at Abbey Road when they recorded A Day In The Life and give us one of the greatest of modern songs.
RADIO TUNES CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS In 1944, US major Jack T Mullin was part of the Allied Forces preparing for the liberation of Europe.
Mullin was an amateur film-maker and electronics enthusiast from California.
And he liked to listen to the radio late at night.
RADIO TUNES After the BBC shut down at midnight, Mullin found he could tune into German radio where, night after night, he listened to the cool, crisp, clear tones of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The sound was so good he was convinced they must be playing live.
Mullin knew that broadcasts on American and British radio were interrupted by pops and crackles, the unmistakable sound of a recorded production at this time.
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS Was Hitler really commanding the orchestra to play graveyard shift renditions of Beethoven and Bach far into the night? Mullin promised himself that when he got Germany he'd find out what was going on.
When his unit arrived at an abandoned radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt, Mullin was convinced he had discovered the answer.
There he was handed more than 50 reels of magnetic tape and two large tape recorders.
These machines, the size of suitcases, were called magnetophones.
And it was they that had broadcast the crystal clear recordings Mullin had been listening to.
After the war ended, Mullin took these machines and tapes, originally manufactured by German firms AEG and BASF, back to California.
Post-war Hollywood was enjoying a golden era, producing classic hits like Hitchcock's Notorious and Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.
And Mullin's aim was to persuade the studios to use magnetic tape for recording movie soundtracks.
Mullin gave demonstrations to all the Hollywood studios and producers.
And in 1947 he was introduced to the legendary Bing Crosby.
Crosby had been at the top of the business for 20 years.
He presented a hugely successful radio show but hated having to present it live - he'd much rather be on the golf course, with chums like Bob Hope.
Sang to me He'd been lobbying the radio stations for years to let him prerecord his shows and they had always refused because the recording quality simply wasn't good enough.
So when he heard what Mullin had to offer with magnetic tape, he jumped at it.
But if Crosby was serious, he would have to back Mullin with some hard cash.
Mullin had been working with Californian electronics company, Ampex, to develop his ideas.
But they were running low on funds and needed an investor.
Crosby put his money where his mouth was.
He handed over a 50,000 personal cheque so that Ampex could begin production on a magnetic tape machine to be sold to film, TV and radio companies.
And Crosby was one of the first to get an Ampex tape machine.
He also signed up Jack Mullin as his studio engineer.
Crosby began recording his radio show onto magnetic tape in 1948.
BING CROSBY: 'I was just thinking, Ken.
'It seems like only yesterday I was playing with a little 'band like that.
We were called the Spokane Musical Dogs.
' Crosby could now record three shows in a day, which left the old crooner plenty of time to go to the golf course.
Word quickly spread and pretty soon Ampex tape recorders were being ordered up by all the main studios and broadcasters in Hollywood.
.
.
and gentle people MUSIC: Dust My Blues by Elmore James Although the Ampex tape machine had at first arrived in Hollywood, its impact would be felt strongest in the emerging pop music scene.
A restless industry, which was always looking for the latest innovation.
Born in Germany and refined in California, this piece of kit would, in the right hands, revolutionise the sound of song.
# I got up in the morning I believe I dust It was in 1951 that one of these machines found its way into the hands of a young producer in Tennessee.
Sam Phillips was the owner of Sun Studio, a small recording station in downtown Memphis.
Phillips had been producing local R&B, gospel and country performers on old transcription discs, but he was frustrated at the poor quality of the recordings.
The work done by Sam Phillips in the studio would mark a turning point in the sound of the popular song.
Indeed, this would turn out to be one of the first temples of sound.
A small studio in downtown Memphis, a visionary producer armed with a magnetic tape recorder.
This combination would help to create the first bona fide sounds of rock and roll.
ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC Phillips began assembling an impressive array of local talent.
He recorded Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as bluesman Howlin' Wolf.
Ah-oh, smokestack lightnin' Phillips also scored a minor hit with Rocket 88, an up-tempo R&B song featuring a young Ike Turner.
MUSIC: Rocket 88 Sam Phillips' producing ethos was very simple.
He wanted to capture that authentic, raw sound that he heard performers playing in and around the bars and clubs in Memphis.
So he told his artists to play live and loud, stuck them all in one small recording room and said not to worry too much about making mistakes.
Which is just as well, as I'm going to play here.
Sun Studios still uses magnetic tape and engineer Matt Ross Spang has agreed to record me playing with legendary session musicians.
Bassist Dave Roe HE PLAYS TUNE .
.
and drummer JM Van Eaton.
OK.
Are you ready? And Matt will produce this session, in the same way Phillips did.
The song we're going to play is a number by a young singer who walked into this studio one day and persuaded Sam Phillips to record him.
THEY CHAT AND LAUGH Let's try it.
On 5th July, 1954, Phillips oversaw one Elvis Presley perform That's All Right, Mama.
All right, we are rolling.
MUSIC: That's All Right, Mama # Well, that's all right, Mama # That's all right for you # That's all right, Mama # Any way you do # Well, that's all right, that's all right # That's all right now, Mama # Any way you do Mama she done told me And while we are playing, Matt is replicating a technique Philips pioneered - adding a fuller, fatter sound to the vocals - a device he dubbed slapback echo.
# That's all right now, Mama Any way you do Matt, first of all, can you take us through the desk here.
What were you doing while we were playing in there? Trying not to screw it up.
Yeah, right(!) I tried to recreate what Sam had.
While you guys were cutting an album, I'm here dialling the faders as you are doing it live.
It goes to an Ampex 350 tape machine over here.
It's all mono.
It's all cut live, right as you did it.
And then the lead vocal.
And there, you were doing something pretty special with that.
That was Sam's kind of thing.
Slapback echo.
I love it, personally.
You can work here if you don't like slapback.
You can't record here either if you don't want to do it.
Phillips found that he could produce an echo effect by manipulating the tape recorder.
# Well, that's all right, Mama # That's all right for you That's all right, Mama First he recorded the lead vocal, and then he looped a duplicate of this vocal back onto the machine, just a split second behind.
By doing this, he produced an echo effect on the voice.
# Mama she done told me # My daddy done told me too # "Son, that gal you're foolin' with # "She ain't no good for you" # Well, that's all right # That's all right # That's all right now, Mama Any way you do What do you think it was that Sam found with that echo, the fast echo, with fast music? When you go listen to a band live, you don't hear them right in front of an acoustic guitar.
You hear them either blasting really loud, right, or you hear them echoing, like if you are outside of whatever, you always hear it a little bit, there's a little bit of fantasy.
I say fantasy but there's a little bit of an otherworldly kind of thing to it.
He wanted to get that unique sound with this new rock and roll thing.
And that really gave it this thing that no-one else had.
It goes to show you how much of a genius Sam was.
I think a lot of people think he was this lucky hillbilly that just stumbled on a little space and got lucky with all these guys.
But he really was a genius with electronics, in sound and pulling a performance out of somebody.
# I need your love, baby # That's all right # That's all right now, Mama # Any way you do # That's all right now, Mama Any way you do.
THEY LAUGH This song would sell 20,000 copies, reach number four in the local Memphis charts and provide Sam Phillips with a blueprint for future success.
# It's one for the money # Two for the show # Three to get ready # Now go, cat, go # But don't you Step on my blue suede shoes The mid-1950s were an exciting time for Phillips.
Through his innovative work with the Ampex tape machine, Sun Studio would become a stable for the first wave of rock and roll stars.
# Do anything that you wanna do But uh-uh, honey, lay off of them shoes Elvis was soon joined by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, who recorded Walk The Line at Sun.
MUSIC: Walk The Line by Johnny Cash Songs like Walk The Line and Blue Suede Shoes were released on seven-inch vinyl, the 45, a reasonably new development.
It had been designed a few years earlier by the now-defunct RCA - Radio Corporation of America - as an alternative to the rather archaic sounding 78.
It was smaller, more durable, and crucially, had much better sound quality to it.
This would come to be the dominant medium on which everybody heard their pop songs.
I walk the line 'And this new format, so popular with teenagers, 'would shape pop music for years to come.
' The seven-inch single was played at 45 revolutions per minute - with an A and a B side.
But crucially, the vinyl size limited each side to three and half minutes.
# For the tie that binds # Because you're mine I walk the line The 45 format dictated the length of the pop song.
Studios, artist and producers all realised they had to make their music fit within that very short time.
So, even as rock and roll was kicking off, this sexy, raucous sound had to be confined.
This is the era of the three-minute pop song.
# Come on over, baby # Whole lotta shakin' goin' on # Yes, I say, come on over, baby Baby, you can't go wrong And many teenagers didn't even need to buy a record player.
In the 1950s, three-quarters of all pop singles were sold to jukeboxes.
We got chicken in the barn And these music machines offered their own acoustics.
A large bass speaker was located at the bottom of the jukebox.
And this made the floor vibrate, so those gathered it around could really feel the music.
Studios powered up the bass-ends on their songs, knowing it would really cut through with immense power.
# Shake, make it shake # Come on over # Whole lotta shakin' goin' on Oh, let's go And while the Memphis music scene was the creative heart-beat of rock and roll ROMANTIC ROCK AND ROLL New York in the '50s was establishing itself as the epicentre of the music business - the cosmopolitan hub of an impatient, fast-moving industry.
And much of this industry was housed in two buildings in Midtown Manhattan - the Brill Building and Aldon Music - located just a few blocks from the historic Tin Pan Alley, the traditional heart of music publishing.
But song writing was changing and a new generation were being influenced by the magnetic tape revolution.
Chief among them were songwriters Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber who were not content to just write the songs, they wanted to the direct the recording of them, which they began doing with singer Big Mama Thornton.
She didn't seem too excited about meeting two white teenagers.
LAUGHTER But we heard her sing and she knocked us out.
Went back to my house and wrote Hound Dog in about 12, 15 minutes.
We recorded that, as I recall, the following day.
Jerry and I both wanted her to growl.
And we were reluctant HE LAUGHS It was like, "You tell her.
" THEY LAUGH Because she was rather formidable, you know? It was like, "Don't be telling me how to sing the song, white boy.
" But right away, on the first take, she was growling.
# You ain't nothing but a hound dog # Been snooping round my door # You ain't nothing but a hound dog Been snooping round my door Conceived as a raw blues track, there was some debate before they settled on the final, now famous, lyrics.
Jerry wasn't fully happy with 'hound dog.
' He wanted something much stronger.
He wanted mother And I said, "I don't think they'll play that, "but I think hound dog is cool.
" He said, "Do you think so?" I said, "Yeah.
" # You ain't nothing but a hound dog Been snooping round my door Hound Dog was a hit for Big Mama and the boys.
But it was the version recorded by Elvis four years later that brought them to the attention of recording giant Atlantic.
# You ain't nothing but a hound dog Cryin' all the time They offered Leiber and Stoller a unique deal to write and produce their own records.
You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no Why did you want to be producers as well as songwriters? To protect the way we imagined the songs should sound, which were frequently more than just a melody line and a lyric line.
We had given songs to other people and they would then produce them.
It wasn't what we had in mind at all.
So we wanted to make sure it was done the way we wanted them done.
MUSIC: Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley They were also able to take advantage of the latest development in magnetic tape technology.
Atlantic were one of the first studios to start working with multi-track tape recorders.
This meant numerous separate recordings could be laid down onto the same song.
Now, for the first time, extra instrumentation, vocals and even an orchestra could be recorded separately and added to songs.
MUSIC: There Goes My Baby by The Drifters Leiber and Stoller tested out this approach on a record they made with The Drifters, a doo-wop group, led by Ben E King.
# There goes my baby Movin' on down the line There Goes My Baby begins like your average doo-wop number.
In fact, it actually does begin with Do-do-do-do-do.
And that # Bum-bum-bum-ba-do-ba-do.
# So far, so what we already know.
But just before the main vocal comes in, the great Ben E King, we hear, of all things, strings.
HE PLAYS There Goes My Baby We haven't heard that before with this sort of number.
And it adds such a dramatic extra to it.
But also, there is something else going on down the bottom end.
That rhythm HE PLAYS RHYTHM It's quite insistent.
And that's because there is more than just a drum kit there.
There is at timpani playing that beat.
Bum-ba-dum.
Bum-ba-dum.
Why did she leave me? It's a massive production for its time.
And here we can hear Stoller the songwriter becoming Stoller the producer.
What's wonderful about it is that it points the way to the future.
This is where the sound of song is going to go.
There Goes My Baby was the first R&B track to feature strings and it became a smash hit in the summer of 1959.
We conceived the records not just as a song but as an overall sound.
An overall production if you will.
Emboldened by this, Leiber and Stoller returned to the studio with the orchestra in an attempt to reproduce their success.
We went an hour over and Atlantic was furious.
This big orchestra.
Lot of money.
But ultimately, I guess they figured it worked out because two of the sides One of the sides was Spanish Harlem.
And one of the sides was Stand By Me.
LAUGHTER # When the night has come # And the land is dark # And the moon is the only light we'll see No, I won't be afraid Leiber and Stoller had created a template for pop songs which exploited the possibilities of multi-track recording to produce richer, more complex sounding records.
# Stand by me # So, darlin', darlin' Stand by me And into the 1960s, a young protege of theirs would build on this approach and produce a new, distinctive sound which created some of the biggest hits of era.
Stand by me.
MUSIC: Then He Kissed Me # Well, he walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance # He looked kinda nice and so I said I might take a chance # When he danced he held me tight # And when he walked me home that night # All the stars were shining bright And then he kissed me Today, Phil Spector is a controversial figure, to say the least.
But back then he was hailed as a genius.
He had begun experimenting with his signature sound production when he recorded The Crystals, an all-girl group, fronted by La La Brooks.
So I whispered, "I love you" He was hard on us.
Especially me as an artist doing the vocals.
But he knew exactly what he was doing.
Sometimes when I couldn't feel it, I didn't understand what he wanted and he would turn off all the lights.
It would be crazy.
And he would just have the stand with the music or lyrics and he would put a little light over the stand so I could read the lyrics, but he wanted me to think.
I knew that he was mine so I give him the love that I had La La's powerful voice was only one element of Spector's production.
He surrounded the young singer with the Wrecking Crew.
Hand-picked by Spector himself, they were the most talented session musicians in the business.
# I almost cried And then he kissed me Phil Spector is an entity all by himself.
Everyone wanted to know what magic fairy dust was that he sprinkled because everything we did with Phil became number one almost overnight.
Spector was the first to record multiple instruments simultaneously, sculpting what would become known as his Wall of Sound.
He did things that were unheard of.
Rhythm section - piano, bass, drums, guitar.
Phil Spector had three, four basses sometimes.
Three, four pianos.
Sometimes as many as seven guitars.
All playing at the same time? All together.
Wow.
That's what he called his Wall of Sound.
Through this approach, Spector was able to take a song with a nonsensical lyric # I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Somebody told me He then transformed it into a barrage of melodic power - a huge, soulful teenage symphony.
# I knew what he was doing when he caught my eye # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # He looked so quiet but my, oh, my # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # Yeah, he caught my eye # Yes, oh my, oh my # And when he walked me home Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron One minute I was in the studio and I was looking at all these musicians.
And I'm sitting there saying, "What the heck is going on?" You know? This is what was going on HE PLAYS Da Do Ron Ron To build his Wall of Sound, Spector didn't just turn up the volume, he recorded multiple instruments playing slight variations of the same song.
Just like this HE PLAYS Da Do Ron Ron And Spector knew that in the 1960s many people listened to music on transistor radios, which emitted a tinny sound.
So he would test out his songs on small speakers in the studio, to check they would really punch through.
When you first heard of the Wall of Sound did you have a kind of emotional reaction to hearing that for the first time? I think I did.
If you really look at Phil's sound on some of the songs, it may sound crazy but you can cry because there is something inside of you that hears the strings on Then He Kissed Me and Be My Baby, you know? It's a feeling that those instruments make you sensitive because they are so beautiful.
# Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron # Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Yeah, yeah Da-do ron-ron-ron, da-do ron-ron Yeah, yeah, yeah This precocious young pop producer even gave us a new soundtrack for Christmas.
MUSIC: Winter Wonderland by Darlene Love He recorded traditional festive songs, spliced with sound effects of sleigh bells, and produced in his Wall of Sound.
# Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? # In the lane snow is glistenin' # A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight Walkin' in a winter wonderland Doing the Christmas album with Phil Spector was probably some of the greatest times I had with Phil.
Because of him saying that he was getting ready to do a rock and roll Christmas album.
"That's sacred! You can't do a rock and roll Christmas album.
" He was the first.
That was the one time he asked me what Christmas songs I liked.
And I got to choose the songs that I wanted to sing.
And that whole Christmas thing is still so much part of Christmas now.
It is.
It really is.
It's amazing because you'll be going down the street to the grocery store and you will hear it.
You will be in the bank and you'll hear it.
And you want to say, "Hey, hold on a minute! That's me! Stop!" But singers like Darlene Love always played second fiddle to the overall sound of the production itself.
They could be replaced - Spector was ruthless.
I went in and I did He's A Rebel for the group The Crystals.
I knew it was going to be theirs because he paid me and The Blossoms as backup singers.
This time I just did the lead on the song.
I didn't know it was going to be a number one record, number one.
LAUGHING: Because I probably wouldn't have done it.
Unless it would have been my record.
# He's a rebel and he'll never be any good # He's a rebel cos he never ever does what he should Just because he And then I did He's Sure The Boy I Love, which was supposed to be MY record, a Darlene Love record, and that's when he switched on me and put it out under their name.
That's when we started fighting.
Yeah.
Guess what? He did everybody.
All the way to the lawyers, managers, everybody.
With a series of number one hits, Spector's multi-layered Wall of Sound dominated the charts and he was on a creative roll.
In the summer of 1964, he began working with songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, on a new number that I think is the very pinnacle of his producing powers and encapsulates what made him such an inspired force in the studio.
Tell me about writing You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' because there is a big story there, isn't there? Yes, he said he had signed a new group of two guys from Orange County who sounded like Sam and Dave, and that he wanted to write with us for them.
The next day, we went into play it for Bobby and Bill.
It never dawned on us that they might not like it.
Right.
They were used to singing everything together.
And on this song Bill sang the verses and then Bobby came in On the chorus.
And he was not happy about not being in from the beginning.
He said to Phil, "What should I do while the big guy is singing?" You know, sarcastically.
And Phil said, "You can go to the bank.
" # You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips And there's no tenderness, like before, in your fingertips Phil played it over the phone He played you the final master over the phone? Yes.
Over the phone.
But he lowered the key because, again, it's very rangy.
Bill Medley has a very low voice.
DEEP VOICE: # You never close your eyes.
# So when he played it over the phone, I started screaming, "Phil, "you've got it on the wrong speed!" And it really sounded that way.
# Baby, I know it # You've lost that lovin' feelin' # That lovin' feelin' # You've lost that lovin' feelin' Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh-oh Spector obviously had a very good idea of the sound world that he wanted You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' to live in.
It's obviously big.
It's the Wall of Sound.
Lots of reverb and echo.
But there is more to it than that.
For a start, he didn't have any kind of introduction.
It comes straight in with the lead vocal.
HE PLAYS INTRO TO You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' From then on through, it goes up to that fantastic chorus.
HE PLAYS CHORUS Spector wants the song to go somewhere else.
And again, Spector added something here.
Not just Gone, gone, gone, whoa-whoa-whoa.
That then goes into a downwards walking motif.
And into this little sort of shuffle step.
It's a little bit like Hang On Sloopy.
# Hang on, Sloopy Sloopy, hang on.
But what it does, it takes that whole Wall of Sound down to one single idea.
That little motif is really hooky, we are in there.
And over the top of it, the vocalist can do all that lovely semi-improvised stuff which turns into a kind of jam session with the other voices.
And it means that there is somewhere for the chorus to erupt back out of again.
Kaboom, here we are! HE PLAYS You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' This song really needed Spector.
Because what he did was turn it into the quintessential experience of the man mourning for the woman he has lost.
We are right inside his mind.
We know exactly how he feels.
And that huge Wall of Sound is like echoes coming off the inside of his brain.
Gone, gone, gone.
It's a terrific collaboration between two very fine songwriters and a truly extraordinary producer.
# Bring back that lovin' feelin', cos it's gone, gone, gone And I can't go on I never dreamed the record would be as spectacular as it was.
It became the most played record of the last century.
# Bring back that lovin' feelin' Oh, that lovin' feelin' Spector was now the most prominent of a new breed of auteur producers who, along with others like Mitch Miller and Joe Meek, had established creative control over the artists they directed.
# Let's go surfin' now # Everybody's learnin' how # Come on and safari with me Come on and safari with me On the West Coast, one artist had observed the producer at work and wanted to take control of production himself.
And headin' out singing our song This musician was Brian Wilson, the creative force behind the Beach Boys, the most successful American pop band of the time, with a string of top ten hits.
Wilson had been in awe of Phil Spector and had spent time shadowing him in the studio.
Brian Wilson had scored a string of successes with his band The Beach Boys.
They combined classic Chuck Berry guitar licks with vocal harmonies and epitomised that sunny surfer sound of '60s California.
All summed up in one two and a half minute pop song.
It was the perfect formula.
MUSIC: Surfin' USA by The Beach Boys # If everybody had an ocean # Across the USA # Then everybody'd be surfin' # Like Californi-a You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies But in 1965, Wilson decided to quit touring and announced he was retreating into the studio to create a new and very different kind of record.
One that he promised would be his masterpiece.
He set himself a grand ambition - to reinvent the pop song, to explore new methods of composing and to experiment with the very art of production itself.
Let me hear the organ.
ORGAN PLAYS Stop, please.
What was in your head when you went into Good Vibrations? What were you after with Good Vibrations? My mother told me when I was a kid that dogs bark at people because they pick up vibrations.
In 1966, Mike Love was over at my house and I said, "Let's write "a song called Good Vibrations.
" He goes, "Hey, I like that.
" I started playing the piano.
Bum-ba-bum-bum.
And he goes I'm picking up a good vibrations.
You had a real change of musical direction with Good Vibrations.
Well, we wanted to grow musically so we thought we would try something different.
'Let's hear the guitars, please, in D and B.
' While The Beach Boys went on tour, Brian Wilson recruited Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew, including drummer Hal Blaine, and they began recording the instrumental tracks for Good Vibrations.
OK, that's fine.
Let's make it.
Hal, let's go, man.
Here we go.
Play hard and strong all the way.
Brian used to come to Phil Spector's studio.
And he loved what we were doing.
He wanted to get I guess, sort of, a Phil Spector-type sound.
He wanted to get that big sound that we had.
You used the Wrecking Crew that Spector used.
Why did you use them rather than The Beach Boys to play? Because I trusted the ability a little better than the group, you know? I trusted that they could play it pretty good.
Play hard and strong all the way.
Wilson's approach to Good Vibrations was unprecedented.
Beginning in February 1966, he recorded short instrumental parts of the song over and over again, holding the sessions in four separate studios.
Brian knew what he wanted.
Sometimes we would go in and play four bars of music.
And he would say, "Change the saxophone part.
"Take it down an octave.
"And let's hear the guitar up just a little bit more.
"And let me hear it.
" And we'd play it.
He'd say, "That's great.
That's exactly what I want.
" He would talk to his engineer and say, "Thank you, gentlemen.
" And we were out of there.
15 minutes sometimes.
I didn't really have a vision.
I took it one bar at a time.
You know? I'm picking up.
And then # Good vibrations.
# It was all done in pieces.
Because he experimented every note.
Now, sometimes he'd want a different group of people just to see what would happen, because he heard something.
While Wilson sculpted the sound of the instruments, he had spent little time on the words.
On the 24th August 1966, he arranged to meet the rest of the band to record their vocals.
Despite months of recording, he still hadn't quite settled on the final lyrics yet.
So Beach Boy Mike Love hastily came up with the words on the freeway driving over to Sunset Sound studio.
I was working on the arrangement for a long time and when I finally got it done, I called the guy and said, "I got the arrangement done!" They go, "Good! Let's go to the studio.
" So we met up at the studio and Mike was on one microphone going, I'm picking up And the other guy was going, Good, good, good You know, .
.
vibrations.
# I'm picking up good vibrations # She's giving me excitations # I'm picking up good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations # She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations Good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations Armed with Mike Love's lyrics, Brian begins directing the vocal sessions here had at Sunset Sound.
But even this isn't straightforward.
He insists that the band record over 25 overdubs of the same vocal lines, some no more than two or three seconds long.
# Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations Six months after he had started working on the song, Wilson oversaw the final mix for Good Vibrations in September 1966.
Na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na Now, Good Vibrations is basically an edit record.
It is a song that could only be made possible by magnetic tape.
And if you listen really closely, you can hear those edits going through.
# I hear the sound of a gentle word # On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air INSTRUMENTATION CHANGES I'm picking up good vibrations And at 1 minute 42 seconds, there is another edit to get us into this extraordinary middle eight section where you are hearing tack piano, Jew's harp - boing-boing-boing sound - flute and very low-register electro-theremin.
I mean, it is growling away down the bottom.
I love this section.
This feels like the beginnings of psychedelia.
Excitations SONG CONTINUES Tell me about the theremin.
Carl said, "Why don't we put a theremin on this?" And I went, "Theremin?! Why a theremin?" He goes, "Maybe it'll sound eerie.
" And so I came up with the "whoo-ooh!" And I did it for the theremin player.
.
.
elation You used a cello in Good Vibrations to give that HE MAKES A CHUGGING RHYTHM Yeah.
Did you not know in your head that was that sound that you wanted? Not until he played.
As soon as he played, I said, "Try doodle-ooh-doodle-ooh-do.
" And he goes, "What?" I said He goes, "I usually play symphonies, you know.
" I said, "No, this is rock and roll.
"We're going to try to make a symphonic rock and roll record.
" .
.
good vibrations And now at 2 minutes 56, another edit, another new section.
Stripped down chorus with the cello overdubbed, but now the cello has come up an octave.
It is cutting through much, much more.
THE CELLO PLUCKS # Ahhh # Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations # She's giving me excitations Oom, bop, bop, excitations # Good, good, good, good vibrations Oom, bop, bop, good vibrations CELLO PLAYS IN STACCATO Na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na And then quite short but very elaborate fade-out where we've got the cello again and that ethereal sound of the electro-theremin taking us out of the number.
Do, do, do, do, do Do, do, do.
STACCATO CELLO THEREMIN WARBLES SONG FADES I knew that we'd probably never top Good Vibrations, you know.
We all agreed that probably that's the best we could do.
Good vibrations is a watershed in the history of the popular song.
It cost 50,000 to make - a fortune then.
It took 90 hours to record in four different studios.
It was easily the most expensive pop single at the time.
But it's not about the money Brian Wilson spent or even the time that he took.
It is his method that is ground-breaking.
Wilson showed that a song could be made of tiny fragments of tunes or vocals, that he could re-record sections, that he could add bridges where he wanted to but that the whole thing would pull together in that final mix.
Excitations Excitations Wilson was in the vanguard of a new experimental epoch which would peak in the late '60s.
And enabling this was magnetic tape .
.
pulled from the ruins of a radio station near Frankfurt decades earlier.
# Do, do, do, do, do Do, do, do Do, do, do, do, do Now across the Atlantic, a band who themselves had first learnt their rock and roll while in Germany, heard what Wilson was doing - and wanted to take things further.
MUSIC: Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles By the end of 1966, The Beatles were the most famous band in the world.
They had conquered America and had been influenced by Brian Wilson.
It is not dying But unlike the mercurial Beach Boy, The Beatles were rooted to just one recording base - the historic EMI Studios, better known simply as Abbey Road.
And I've come to test out some of the techniques that the band pioneered here.
The Beatles really started experimenting with tape machines around the time they were recording their 1966 album, Revolver.
They recorded a strange sounds and ambient noises and dubbed these tape loops onto the psychedelic Tomorrow Never Knows.
This song more than any other Beatles number was a signpost to the direction the band was heading in.
PSYCHEDELIC LOOPING And The Beatles were among the first bands really to exploit the possibilities of a relatively new medium - the long-player or, 33rpm album, which would be the perfect vehicle to demonstrate the full range of their talents.
After Revolver, The Beatles would begin testing out songs in the studio that they could never reproduce live.
Which was convenient, because they had decided to quit touring altogether.
It is believing And it was their long-time producer, George Martin, who had recorded all their songs so far, who would oversee their experiments with magnetic tape.
.
.
colour of your dreams You can cut, you can edit.
Obviously they can slow down or speed up your tape.
You can put in backwards stuff, you can put in electronic sounds which you couldn't possibly reproduce live.
You can use combinations of instruments which are completely unbalanced but you can make them balanced.
You can put a Well, you can put a very soft flute against a huge brass chord and still make it sound loud.
Then cut up the tape, very well threw it up in the air until it settled down on the ground and joined them all together again.
So it just became likelike a .
.
a patchwork quilt.
This is the kind of think you can do on recording, which you obviously couldn't possibly do live, because it is, in fact, making up music as you go along.
In December 1966, Martin and The Beatles met at Abbey Road to begin working on Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a record which would become celebrated as the first concept album.
MUSIC: A Day In The Life by The Beatles George Martin was The Beatles' creative partner in crime and he introduced them to this idea that he called the wind-up piano.
That' nothing to do with this instrument and everything to do with magnetic tape and the speed it records and the speed it plays back.
Take, for instance, George Martin's solo on Lovely Rita on the Sgt.
Pepper album.
What he did was actually set the tape slower, record it slower and they played it back at a slightly higher speed that he knew would make the piano fit with the track.
So here's, roughly, what he originally recorded.
HE PLAYS Lovely Rita And while I was reproducing this solo originally played by George Martin himself, engineer John Barrett was recording me.
PIANO SOLO REPLAYS ON TAPE And now, if we play it back at the normal speed for this tape machine Right.
.
.
but then that's faster than we recorded it.
Mm-hm, right.
PIANO SOLO REPLAYS AT FASTER TEMPO Wow.
I'm good.
NEIL SNICKERS Why do that? I mean, it is a great sound and all the rest of it.
Why did Martin do that? It is far easier to play stuff slower more accurately and so, this sort of ornamentation and the articulation of the notes you can be more precise.
Mm-hm.
But it is more that the tonal quality becomes brighter and edgier.
There's something almost music-boxy about it, isn't there? Yeah, definitely.
I mean, across that track.
Can we hear that laid across what they did? PIANO LOOP PLAYS OVER Lovely Rita Took her out and tried to win her This was just one example of how The Beatles played with tape speeds, slowing instruments down, speeding them up and even recording guitar solos backwards.
# Took her home, I nearly made it Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two Sgt.
Pepper wouldn't have been possible without this manipulation of magnetic tape, and the overall sound was a wonderful, unpredictable collage of voices and instruments, lyrics and music.
Lovely Rita, meter maid And for one track which was recorded on these sessions but released later, they didn't simply adjust individual instruments, but the entire song.
Lovely Rita, meter maid.
There's a famous edit in Strawberry Fields where there are two different takes of Strawberry Fields and they're sort of put together.
Is that unusual? Oh There was something looking over that particular song because it was different tempos, different keys.
The likelihood of being able to change the speeds to bring them To put them both in the same tempo and in the same key, almost impossible to set up in advance.
So there were two different versions of the same song.
Completely different, yeah.
What did they have to do to bring those together? My understanding is that they sped one up, slowed one down and they just all happened to work.
# It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out It doesn't matter much We can just about hear the edit between the two versions here.
# Let me take you down cos I'm going SUBTLE TEMPO/KEY CHANGE # To Strawberry Fields # I love this song for its dreamlike quality.
Everybody who heard that track knew what it felt like to be stoned.
# Strawberry Fields forever # No-one I think is in my tree I mean, it must be high or low After dabbling with this psychedelic sound, the band wanted to get back to their rock and roll roots.
That is, I think it's not too MUSIC: Revolution by The Beatles What was different was on Revolution, the single version.
It was all recorded straight into the board.
They didn't use any amps.
When they were recording, I walked into the control room and it was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.
There was Ringo out in the studio, but all three of them were sitting around the board with their guitars, playing.
And it sounded amazing.
It was plugging straight in, just completely overloading the mic amps on the board.
MUSIC: Revolution by The Beatles Paul wanted to make the loudest recording ever and that was just crank every amp.
It would have been perfect for the amp in spinal tap where, "Oh, it goes up to 11.
" NEIL LAUGHS He would have loved that for that session.
# You tell me that it's evolution Well, you know The recordings made by The Beatles at Abbey Road are the culmination of two decades of technological revolution.
One which sparked the emergence of the music studio as a compositional tool, the producer as a creative force and the musician as a new kind of artist, sculpting and reimagining the sound of their songs.
And all this was kick-started by the discovery of magnetic tape in the dying days of World War II.
Next time, songs enter a new electronic era .
.
using synthesisers .
.
disco beats I never can say goodbye .
.
and even digital voices Believe in life after love.
But again, rootsy rock and roll fights back.
MUSIC: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana