Every Breath I Take

"Every Breath I Take" was produced by Phil Spector at Bell Sound Studios in New York in June or July 1961, with the arrangement credited to Alan Lauber.^[1] The arrangement, according to Spector biographer Mick Brown, was a "melodramatic" combination of doo-wop backing vocals, orchestral strings, and a march-like rhythmic foundation beneath Pitney’s nasal falsetto delivery.^[2]

The recording drew an unusually large crowd all packed into the small control booth, leading Pitney to later call it "the most ridiculous session ever."^[2] Pitney, battling a severe cold, sang the entire track in falsetto; additionally, he later said, "Phil wanted to experiment, [but] he didn’t have enough control – not to the extent he had later – and there were too many people at the session, making comments."^[2] Attendees included Goffin, King, music publisher Don Kirshner, Leiber and Stoller, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil,^[2] and Burt Bacharach.^[3]

Spector's insistence on completing the entire recording in a single session, despite union musicians' fees escalating from standard scale to time-and-a-half after three hours and double scale thereafter, forced the session into overtime. Ultimately, two usable takes were made. Pitney later recalled that the recording expenses totaled $14,000 (equivalent to $147,000 in 2024), an extraordinary sum when most pop recordings cost about $500 per song ($5,000).^[2]

"Every Breath I Take" peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[4] Spector biographer Dave Thompson opined that the single's commercial success was hindered by the arrangement and the faded mainstream appeal of doo-wop despite "a strident orchestral backdrop punctuated by illuminating squalling strings, and a drum beat (from Gary Chester) that echoed like a mellow jackhammer."^[3] Writing in 2021, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described the record as "one of the few early Spector productions to hint at the more-is-more Wall of Sound approach that would make him a legend."^[5]