Essential Phil Spector (Bril)  (Music, Audio CD)

2011 two CD collection that lives up to its title as a desert-island gathering of Spector's work during his peak hit-making years. It starts with his first record of note, the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is to Love Him" (1958), then moves through Spector's Brill Building productions of 1960-61, with Ray Peterson ("Corrine, Corrina"), Ben E. King ("Spanish Harlem,"), Curtis Lee ("Pretty Little Angel Eyes"), Gene Pitney ("Every Breath I Take"), and the Paris Sisters ("I Love How You Love Me"). The collection then devotes itself to the litany of 23 hits on the Philles label. From the Crystals' through Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, Darlene Love, the Ronettes, the climactic trilogy of career-defining Righteous Brothers hits and Ike & Tina Turner's show-stopping "River Deep, Mountain High". Whew!