The Best of the Crystals [ABKO] (CD - 1992)

Recorded at Mira Sound Studios, New York, New York and Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles, California.

Includes liner notes by David Hinckley.

Personnel: Darlene Love, Pattie Wright, Barbara Alston, La la Brooks (vocals).

Liner Note Author: David Hinckley.

Unknown Contributor Roles: The Crystals ; Brooks Arthur.

Arrangers: Hank Levine; Jack Nitzsche; Arnold Goland; Phil Spector.

The Crystals were a crucial cog in Phil Spector's mighty girl-group machine. To listen to "And Then He Kissed Me" is to hear the precise pop moment when coy innocence crumbled and gave way ever so slightly to the adult onrush of carnality. The sugary vocals of Darlene Love and company, backed by the full-scale Spector sound, are almost girlish enough to make you believe that the pattern of pop music hadn't just been irrevocably stirred up. However, the cumulative effect of the aforementioned song--along with the curiously sadomasochistic overtones of the Goffin/King smash "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)" and the bad-boy adulation of "He's a Rebel"--should be more than enough to mark the musical history being made here. minimize