Phil Spector's Influence On Motown

[Boogiedown]

I hear ya Gary, two different camps for sure. But surely , up and coming Motown , whose developing roster included several female vocal groups , was researching the current trends of other girl groups , the successes of Spector's being particularly worthy of review? Has this ever been discussed, Motown's influences? In the new HDH or Dozier books do they say anything about how their full sound came to be? Any mention of Phil Spector ?

[Philles/Motown Gary]

I hear ya Gary, two different camps for sure. But surely , up and coming Motown , whose developing roster included several female vocal groups , was researching the current trends of other girl groups , the successes of Spector's being particularly worthy of review? Has this ever been discussed, Motown's influences? In the new HDH or Dozier books do they say anything about how their full sound came to be? Any mention of Phil Spector ?

John, very little is mentioned about Phil Spector in the Motown books, just as very little is mentioned about Motown in the books regarding Phil Spector and Philles Records, other than the fact that Phil loved Motown -- especially the Four Tops. [[I have both of the new HDH books, but haven't read them yet.)

I doubt if Motown paid much attention to what was happening with any of the non-Motown girl groups, including Phil's girls on the Philles roster. Philles' biggest year [[girl group-wise) was 1963. By early 1964, The Beatles and the guitar-slingin' British Invasion [[ugh!) had knocked our American girl-groups off the charts. Motown's girl groups hit their popularity stride in late 1964, by which time Phil had already dropped The Crystals, and was winding down on his productions with The Ronettes. This is when Motown stepped up their concentration on its girls -- especially The Supremes and Martha & The Vandellas. Not only that, Motown's sound was new and fresh to the point they practically reinvented the Girl Group sound. In fact, Motown managed to grow in popularity hand-in-hand with the British Invasion, leaving Phil with his only successful act left, The Righteous Brothers. After a couple of semi-successful Ronettes releases later, the Philles females had run their course and were over where the record charts were concerned. Motown, however, marched forward mightily and never looked back!