A Fine Fine Boy - Darlene Love
The thing about Elie Greenwich is, although she didn't garner the fame as a solo artist that fellow Brill building female songwriter Carole King did, she was the superior pop song writer. Apart from writing (with husband Jeff Barry and producer Phil Spector) the best Christmas pop song of all time - Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", the Barry/Greenwich partnership penned classic after classic for Spector's Phillies label : "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me", for the Crystals, "Be My Baby" and "Baby I Love You" for the Ronettes, not to mention Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" and assorted gems recorded by Darlene with and without Bob E Soxx and the Blue Jeans. They also worked prodigiously for Jerry Lieber's " Red Bird Records" label writing for girl groups: the Butterflies, the Dixie Cups (famously "Chapel of Love"), the Jelly Beans and most supremely of all, the Shangri-Las with legendary producer Shadow Morton. Their numbers with the Shangri-Las rank among the greatest tracks of the sixties: "Leader of the Pack", "Out in the Streets", "Give Us Your Blessings" and "The Train from Kansas City" - all featured elsewhere on this blog. Singly, together or with other songwriting partners, they authored numerous other great tunes for a myriad of artists, many of which got lost in the maelstrom of sixties airwave competition.
One that did was "Fine Fine Boy", written by the pair along with producer Phil Spector for the wonderful Darlene Love - one can never have too much of Darlene Love, especially when backed by the Wrecking Crew, Hal Blaine et al. Designed to be played LOUD for best effect. A classic example of Spector's famous "wall of sound" wonderfully framing Love's awesome vocal. Whoever's on the castanets must be knackered by the end. 'Scuse me while I rush off and jump around the room.
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