River Deep Mountain High Lyrics

"River Deep - Mountain High" is a 1966 single by Ike & Tina Turner. Considered by producer Phil Spector to be his best work, the single was successful in Europe, peaking at #3 in the United Kingdom, though it flopped on its original release in the United States. Spector claimed to be pleased with the response from the critics and his peers, but he then withdrew from the music industry for two years, beginning his personal decline. After Eric Burdon covered the song in 1968, it was re-released a year later, and has since become one of Tina Turner's signature songs. Written by Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, "River Deep - Mountain High" was among the first recordings that Ike & Tina Turner did for Phil Spector's Philles Records. Spector was well aware of Ike Turner's controlling attitude in the studio, and resultantly drew up an unusual contract: the River Deep – Mountain High album and single would be credited to "Ike & Tina Turner", but Ike was paid $20,000 to stay away from the studio, and only Tina Turner's vocals would be used on record.[4] The track was recorded using Spector's "Wall of Sound" production technique, and cost a then-unheard of $22,000, and required 21 session musicians and 21 background vocalists. The single entered the lower end of the Billboard 100 and stopped at #88 on the pop charts. Even though it had better fortune in the United Kingdom, peaking at #3 in the singles charts on first release, Spector was so disillusioned that he ceased involvement in the recording industry totally for two years, and only intermittently returned to the studio after that; he effectively became a recluse and began to self-destruct. Ike Turner remarked that he felt the record didn't do well in America because the sound was "pop or white", while Tina Turner's voice was R&B, so that "America mixes race in it" and this view was the recieved wisdom on the matter for a long time. However, though the writer Michael Billig observed that earlier records which had mixed black singers with a white pop sound had sold well, so it was likely to be that in 1966 the black political movement was encouraging African Americans to take a pride in their own culture, and "River Deep - Mountain High" was out of step with that movement. Personnel Lead vocals by Tina Turner Written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich Produced by Phil Spector Arranged by Jack Nitzsche Instrumentation by Leon Russell keyboards, Jim Horn Saxophone, Barney Kessel guitar, Glen Campbell guitar, Hal Blaine drums, Earl Palmer drums, Carol Kaye bass