River Deep Mountain High/Ike & Tina Turner 1966 (London Label). Value £50

THIS album, mostly produced by Phil Spector, began as a collaboration with Tina Turner without her husband, Ike.

Spector had achieved legendary status as a producer with his technique of using musicians gathered together in a small studio, harnessing layers of percussion, strings and echo chambers, resulting in a lavish wave of rolling orchestration known as the 'wall of sound'.

Spector gave a payment of $20,000 dollars to Ike Turner to keep out of the studio but also agreed to give him a songwriting credit, so although RDMH is credited to Ike and Tina, Ike Turner never sang or played a note on the recording.

The title track is one of the most instantly recognisable pop songs of the sixties - even today it is difficult to turn the radio on and not hear it played.

It has been acknowledged as the greatest achievement of producer Spector. The song was a huge hit in the UK and most of Europe. But in America it bombed, barely making the top 100.

This rejection caused Phil Spector to abandon the rest of the album recordings and withdraw from the music business and live life almost as a recluse; although he did make sporadic forays into the music business.

Spector made five recordings with Tina on this album - the remainder were all produced by Ike Turner.

If only Phil Spector had released the song 'I'll Never Need More Than This' as a follow up, which is a masterpiece of recording, it would have been an even bigger hit record. Tina's impassioned voice with the overall production can only be described as staggering!

Cover versions of the other songs, 'Save The Last Dance For Me', 'Every Day I Have to Cry' and 'A Love Like Yours', which did chart late in 1966, all sound better than the originals and are considered to be Tina's greatest recordings, which is what makes this such a classic album.

Tina had to wait almost 20 years before she found success as a solo performer in her mid forties when most entertainers star begins to fade. Hers rose even higher and burned brighter - she went on to have hit albums, appear in films, toured extensively and sold out arena tours even when she was well into her sixties.

It is claimed that she sold the most concert tickets than any other artist, I can well believe it!