A few gems
from the Philles label never made it to the general public. The
first was Philles 111 by the
Crystals, made merely as a means to end a contractual obligation
with Spector's then-partner, Lester Sill (see "Philles mysteries").
There are
at least 5 or 6 promo
copies
and one stock copy known to exist...
(In the 1970s, an unauthorized copy (bootleg) of this record was pressed by a Hollywood collector who had acquired a cracked copy of the original. It is easy to identify this record for what it is*, but for many this is the only way they have to hear the actual recording, and, thus, the demand is quite substantial - See "Philles reissues and bootlegs").
The second unreleased single was pressed prior to Christmas, 1965, and featured the latest Righteous Brothers release (though unmentioned on the label). Titled "Thanks for Giving Me the Right Time!," it does not carry a catalog number and only a small handful of these are known to exist. *** (NOTE: This record was meant to be the face of a clock that was created for Spector by Weldon Industries of Sylmar, California, and given out as a Christmas gift. The title possibly refers to the radio play on "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" which became a huge hit despite a very erroneous time given on the label.) Any platters that did not become clock faces apparently were returned and, subsequently, a few reached the public).
But, did you know...
That this
item may have originally been meant to appear
with a small-hole center!!!!
Two other Philles releases were withdrawn before or shortly after being introduced to the public. The first, Philles 105 by the Crystals, was pulled because of controversial lyrics (see "Philles label variations" for a scan of this label); the second, Philles 123 by Darlene Love, released to radio stations as a white-label or yellow-label promo, was withdrawn for a new Ronettes release, which was given the same issue number (see "Stumble and Fall" for a look at this single in 3 different forms as a stock copy!!).
Finally, there were 2 Philles LPs that the general public never saw...
The first was the final Philles LP issue, LP-4011, "River-Deep, Mountain-High" by Ike & Tina Turner. One unconfirmed story goes that Spector had a small number of these LPs pressed in anticipation of the title track going straight to #1, and Larry Levine passed them out to local radio stations (possibly without Spector's knowledge). Within the next few days, when the single had peaked at only #88 after one week on the U.S. charts, Phil immediately went around to as many of the places that Larry had gone to as possible to retrieve the LP...Alas, he recovered all but about a dozen of them. Some say he destroyed those recovered copies, but a few have emerged in recent years, sending the value for this rarity down a bit...
The second album was pressed
while Spector was doing some work with the Apple label in the
early 70's...He put together a "Greatest Hits"
compilation containing many of his Philles successes, pressed it
as "The Phil Spector Spectacular" on the Philles label
(which had, in fact, shut down years earlier), and sent a few
copies out to radio stations with an accompanying letter. Whether
he ever meant to mass-produce it or not is debatable, but, as
with Philles LP-4011, no cover was ever produced, and only about
a dozen of these albums are accounted
for today.
Too bad - this is a great album!!
* If you do not know the distinguishing feature of the bootleg "(Let's Dance) The Screw", it is that it has a thin horizontal line under the logo...All known legitimate copies have a thick line under the logo. The bootlegged copies also contain a skip in the music at about the 2-minute point, caused by the crack on the original.