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The Crystals are an American vocal group based in new york, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era of the first half of the 1960s.
Their 1961–1964 chart hits including "Uptown", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", he's a rebel", da doo ron ron when he walked me home" and then he kissed me", featured three successive female lead singers, and were all produced by phil spector.
The latter three songs are ranked #267, #114, and #493, respectively, on rolling stone magazine's list of the 5 hundred greatest songs of all time.
replacement crystals.
Soon after "He Hit Me" flopped, Phil Spector began recording singer Darlene Love and her backing group The Blossoms under the name "The Crystals". Legend has it that the real Crystals were not able to travel from New York to Los Angeles fast enough to suit the LA-based Spector, who wanted to quickly record writer Gene Pitney's "He's a Rebel" before Vikki Carr could release her version on Liberty Records.
The Crystals were unavailable, but Love and the Blossoms were also based in L.A., so Spector recorded and released their version under The Crystals' banner. Ironically, Liberty Records president Al Bennett had previously hired Spector as a staff producer and promotion director.
The song ("He's a Rebel") had originally been offered to The Shirelles, who turned it down because of the anti-establishment lyrics. It marked a shift in girl group thematic material, where the singer loves a "bad boy", a theme that would be amplified by later groups (especially The Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack").
"He's a Rebel" is perhaps the Crystals' best-remembered song, and one of the most enduring of the girl group genre.
It was also their only US #1 hit. Their follow-up single, "He's Sure the Boy I Love", in actuality also featured Love and The Blossoms. It reached #11 on the Billboard chart, and features a spoken intro by Darlene Love.
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