The first experience
Phil Spector had with recording an LP was, apparently, so disruptive that for many years he intended it to be his last. With
the Teddy Bears having been lured over to the Imperial label by promises of artistic freedom,
Spector was then mortified to learn that he'd been granted no more than a week in which to record the band's debut album. He managed to have that span increased to two weeks, but ultimately, he was peremptorily pulled off the project, only to see it handed over to staff producer
Jimmie Haskell.
The clash of the two titans is not to the album's benefit, although
Spector was scarcely excelling himself even before he was deposed. Contractual clashes had already forced the omission of the
Teddy Bears' biggest hit, "To Know Him Is To Love Him," and, frankly, few of the songs that replaced it didn't even come close to its heartbreaking majesty.
Rather,
The Teddy Bears Sing is dominated by none-too-special ballads, both
Spector originals and covers. "Oh Why" and "If You Only Knew" have a certain warm charm, but Annette Kleinbard's vocals never touch the heights that the single suggested were within her reach, while versions of "Unchained Melody," "Little Things Mean A Lot," and "Tammy," are lacking even a vague sense of occasion.
The end result, its maker's subsequent reputation notwithstanding, is very much a child of its time -- an album cut to capitalize on a major hit single, and so loaded down with filler that the single's really all you need. Absent the single from that brew, and
The Teddy Bears Sing isn't even that alluring. And people wonder why it's never been reissued! ~ Dave Thompson