Of course I'd take Jim's sales record over Spector's....
> Just finished reading the brilliant new book 'Tearing Down
> The Wall Of Sound: The Rise & Fall of Phil Spector'
>
> In relation to the abandoned 'Falling Into You' sessions:
>
> Apparently Spector approached Celine Dion after seeing her
> on an episode of Letterman. Dion tentively agreed to work
> with him, and Spector thought he was gonna produce the
> whole album.
>
> However her husband/manager (Rene Angelil) wanted other
> producers as well, including David Foster & Jim, which
> pissed Spector off.
>
> The author (Mick Brown) describes Steinman's productions
> as 'cartoon blow-ups of Spector's Wall of Sound'.
>
> Sessions began in June 1995 at Ocean Way Studios in LA
> (same place as Bat 2), and unusually Spector paid for the
> studio time and the session musicians, using Jimmy Haskell
> to arrange.
>
> They recorded three songs, but only one was fully complete
> 'Is This What I Get For Loving You?' an old Ronettes song
> (available on the great 'Back to Mono').
>
> Apparently Celine loved the song/production but relations
> soured between Spector & Angelil, when Spector continually
> kept Celine waiting into the early hours to record her
> vocals; eventually Spector was sacked.
>
> Author goes onto say that insult was added to injury when
> River Deep was included, and produced by 'Spector imitator
> Jim Steinman'.
>
> Spector famously commented in Entertainment Weekly that
> the album songs were 'contrived & repugnant and contained
> Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey rejects, produced by
> amateurs, students & bad clones of yours truly'.
>
> As of now, Spector owns the rights to the backing tracks
> and CBS own the Celine vocal rights, and therefore the
> songs are not likely to be released.
>
> Anyways the book is a great read, finishing at the present
> day, and Phil Spector is a genius, but one hell of a weird
> dude.
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