Welcome!
I’m Dan Hodges and in 2003 I coined the term “Spector soul.”
My website offers you a missing history of mid-60s pop songs.
It shows how Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” impacted soul music, just as it had previously impacted girl group records as well as “Christmas” tunes.
There are so many wall of sound “soundalike” soul songs that Spector soul is a valid name for them.
The key evidence for Spector soul is my discography. In the following web pages that explain Spector soul I’ve added YouTube videos of the songs that I mention, and there are many more videos in the discography.
Below is a summary of each web page.
Introduction: How Phil Spector’s production of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” at the end of 1964, is the essential start of Spector soul.
Spector Soul vs. Righteous Brothers Soundalikes: Why artistically, as well as politically, it is correct to identify soul records with a wall of sound not only by white men but also by black men, and black and white women.
Sound & Structure: The two essential elements of a Spector soul song, and the three frequent parts of melody that form a Spector soul “template.”
Commercial Context: How the large number of Spector soul records partly results from record labels and recording artists wanting to make a buck.
Historical Context: How the most significant theme in Spector soul songs — the pain of love — results from the tumultuous times of the mid-sixties.
Before & After: How cover songs, which are Spector soul, sound different than the original versions that were released before “Lovin’ Feelin’.”
Re-writes: How lyrics were significantly changed from some pre-“Lovin’ Feelin'” original songs for Spector soul cover versions.
The Era: How the pain of love in Spector soul songs was a theme shared throughout pop music in the U.S. and Great Britain in the key years of 1965-1966.
Conclusion: How the end of Spector soul in 1968 occurs at the same time that many other kinds of music change from the intensity of the mid-sixties to the mellower sounds of the late sixties — early seventies.
Discography: The Discography page contains summaries of all the main themes and sub-themes of Spector soul songs.
Thank-you’s: My gratitude to two friends whose support was invaluable. My appreciation of historian James T. Patterson, whose book, The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America, complements my analysis of the historical context for Spector soul.
Also, I’m very grateful to Gold Star Recording Studios & The ‘Wall of Sound’ for its endorsement of my website in the following post on Facebook:
You can email me at: dmhodges@pacbell.net
PS: If you’re not familiar with “Lovin’ Feelin’,” or you want to hear it for the umpteenth time….