Results for “Bert Berns”

Film directors have always been lionised by their industry and by fans who made household names of Ford, Hitchcock and Spielberg. Record producers, on the other hand, have by-and-large laboured in near-anonymity outside the music business. Ace has thoughtfully remedied that situation with an unofficial series of CDs spotlighting the studio output of visionaries who lived to bring the sounds in their heads to the grooves of a record.

Each of these auteurs relentlessly pursued his aural ideals, always with an eye on that ever-elusive next hit. Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche, Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy clearly had the magic touch, and Kim Fowley and Gary Paxton managed to grab a couple of brass rings. It’s confounding that such singular geniuses as James Brown, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson were largely unable to duplicate their mega-success with the artists they produced, but each one of these CDs offers a fascinating jaunt into the oeuvre of a titan of pop music.

The great songwriter and record producer Jerry Ragovoy died on Wednesday 13 July.

Movie soundtracks and book tie-ins also began to play a definitive part in the Ace release schedule, starting in 2004 with the Pogues and Joe Strummer featuring on the original soundtrack of Alex Cox’s “Straight to Hell Returns”. Then in 2010 came a double CD to accompany Alan Govenar’s magisterial biography of Lightnin’ Hopkins. As Roger Armstrong suggested: “Read the book, enjoy the record.” Another book tie-in came with “A Rocket In My Pocket: The Soundtrack To The Hipster's Guide To Rockabilly” which accompanied the book by the same name by Max Décharné. Chock-full of classics such as ‘The Train Kept A-Rollin'’ by Johnny Burnette & his Rock'n'Roll Trio and the title track by Jimmy Lloyd, it was a pure delight.