When I was a little boy my parents would sometimes go to a supper club on Hornby Street called the Cave. Many, many people played the Cave over the years, including Gypsy Rose Lee, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Johnny Cash, James Brown and, more than the above combined, Ike & Tina Turner (no relation).

Recently, while cleaning my study, I came upon a box of cassettes, one of which I had never seen before, a homemade number marked “PHIL SPECTOR”. Because I was curious, and because I felt like a drive, I popped the tape into the car’s cassette deck and listened to what turned out to be a history of Spector’s musical productions, from Gene Pitney to the Ramones.

When “River Deep, Mountain High” (1966) came up I recognized Tina Turner’s voice but not the song, the Ike & Tina (re)recording being a straight ahead twelve-bar blues compared to the more ambitious Spector version, with its ascending diatonic scale and shifting time signatures.

In researching “River Deep, Mountain High” I learned that a) the song cost $22,000 to record ($20,000 of it paid to Ike Turner -- to keep him out of the studio) b) it was a worldwide hit -- except in the United States c) in response to the song’s U.S. failure (which Ike attributed to its “whiteness”), the duo rerecorded it, and had a hit d) Spector, either despondent over the song’s initial U.S. failure and/or Ike’s successful version, took two years off the music business and, by many accounts, began to display the behaviours he is known for today.

For those interested, YouTube carries an arresting black-and-white promotional "video" of the Spector version, one that, despite its underground parking lot setting and cop car (head)lighting, looks more like Paris than Philadelphia.

RIVER DEEP, MOUNTAIN HIGH
(Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector)

When I was a little girl
I had a rag doll
Only doll I've ever owned
Now I love you just the way I loved that rag doll
But only now my love has grown

And it gets stronger, in every way
And it gets deeper, let me say
And it gets higher, day by day

And do I love you my oh my
Yeah river deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

When you were a young boy
Did you have a puppy
That always followed you around?
Well I'm gonna be as faithful as that puppy
No I'll never let you down

Cause it grows stronger, like a river flows
And it gets bigger baby, and heaven knows
And it gets sweeter baby, as it grows

And do I love you my oh my
Yeah river deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

I love you baby like a flower loves the spring
And I love you baby just like Tina loves to sing
And I love you baby like a school boy loves his pet
And I love you baby, river deep mountain high
Oh yeah you've gotta believe me
River deep, mountain high
Do I love you my oh my, oh baby
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby