The Brill Building
In the middle of Manhattan, a non-descript building produced some of Rock and Roll’s iconic music of the 1950 and 60s. The period is steeped in harmonious girl bands, teen idols and probably the quintessential hallmark of this time period of Rock and Roll was the professional produced sound. The two titans of music producing hit after hit during this time period were the duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and the other was once a student of Lieber and Stoller, Phil Spector and his infamous wall of sound.
Lieber and Stoller produced such hits like Yakety Yak, Charlie Brown, and Jailhouse Rock that was full of fun, silly subjects and sappy love songs that really represented a naïve cultural that was fit for the time period. But the sound was full of layered vocals and the different sounds from instruments not normally associated with rock and roll. They were the first to have used a complicated elaborate production of music that really marked their music.
Phil Spector, a one time student of Lieber and Stoller, would take the complexity one step further sometime filling recording studios with musicians that barely had room for the musicians to breathe much less play instruments. He would record the same pieces of music several different ways in order to achieve the exact sound he was looking for. He would produce hits such as “Unchained Melody”, “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” that, much like Lieber and Stoller, really layered the sounds and created a rich complex symphony of music that he would call his Wall of Sound.
For me, both record producing styles were rich and I was able to only appreciate the professional produced style of Rock and Roll after it was pointed out to me. Upon reflection I thought that the music had been over produced, over done; much like taking a simple recipe for comfort food and over complicating it with other needless preparation steps and spices. Not that I did not appreciate the hits of the time, as I
Lieber and Stoller produced such hits like Yakety Yak, Charlie Brown, and Jailhouse Rock that was full of fun, silly subjects and sappy love songs that really represented a naïve cultural that was fit for the time period. But the sound was full of layered vocals and the different sounds from instruments not normally associated with rock and roll. They were the first to have used a complicated elaborate production of music that really marked their music.
Phil Spector, a one time student of Lieber and Stoller, would take the complexity one step further sometime filling recording studios with musicians that barely had room for the musicians to breathe much less play instruments. He would record the same pieces of music several different ways in order to achieve the exact sound he was looking for. He would produce hits such as “Unchained Melody”, “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” that, much like Lieber and Stoller, really layered the sounds and created a rich complex symphony of music that he would call his Wall of Sound.
For me, both record producing styles were rich and I was able to only appreciate the professional produced style of Rock and Roll after it was pointed out to me. Upon reflection I thought that the music had been over produced, over done; much like taking a simple recipe for comfort food and over complicating it with other needless preparation steps and spices. Not that I did not appreciate the hits of the time, as I