Phil Spector, Rickie Page & Russ Titelman

The Spectors Three  (Los Angeles, CA)

Personnel :

Phil Spector (guitar, vocals)

Rickie Page (vocals)

Russ Titelman (guitar)


Discography :

1959 - I Really Do / I Know Why  (Trey 3001)
1960 - Mr. Robin  / My Heart Stood Still (Trey 3005)


Biography :

After the split of the Teddy Bears in 1959, Spector's career quickly moved from performing and songwriting to production. While recording the Teddy Bears's album, he had met Lester Sill, a former promotion man who was a mentor to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. His next project, the Spectors Three, was undertaken under the aegis of Sill and his partner, Lee Hazlewood. The singers were a young musician friend called Russ Titelman, a female session singer named Ricky Page, and Spector himself; the backing track was minimal. Unable to use the Teddy Bears’name, he put out under the name of the Spectors Three.

When they lip-synched on a Los Angeles television show, there was no sign of Spector: Titelman was joined by his girlfriend, Annette Merar, and another friend, Warren Entner. The public, however, failed to be impressed, and it made no impression. The B- side, 'I Know Why', featured Phil's double-tracked vocal set against Page's ' heavenly' soprano wail. The record was released on Trey, a Hazlewood-Sill label distributed by Atlantic. The Spectors Three subsequently cut one more record, 'My Heart Stood Still', but that was a flop, too. It marked the end of Spector's career as a singer, although in 1959 he cut a pleasant instrumental called 'Bumbershoot', playing guitar with LA sessionmen, including an unimpressed Howard Roberts, for Imperial, under the name Phil Harvey.


Songs :

    
I Really Do                                       I Know Why

   
Mr. Robin                                       My Heart Stood Still     

...