Would you believe that in all my 40+ years of record collecting and dealing I've never had a decent original pressing of this early Pitney/Spector masterpiece of doo-wop-style pop craft. And here I found one worth selling that comes in a beautiful copy of the release's striking picture sleeve (see scan). (This is the second pressing on the tan/black Musicor label; first pressings are on the gray label.) Besides Pitney's performance, of course, what makes this recording truly special is Phil Spector's production chops — one of his earliest "Wall of Sound" efforts. (He also produced the Pitney-penned flip.) Add to that the stunning music and lyrics by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, and you have the makings of a pop masterpiece. Note: This copy has EX+ labels, reflecting some light ringwear, mainly affecting the A label (it's a darkening of the brown paper color in a ring pattern). The vinyl grades VG, as it's significantly scuffed-looking. Fortunately, the scuffing is pretty much a surface affair, and the audio, reflecting some light styrene-related degradation in one channel, grades Near Mint on the A side and a strong EX on the flip. Have a listen to the mp3 "snippet" of the A side to hear what it sounds like. The picture sleeve has virtually no ringwear to speak of and is bright and shiny, though it does have some light "corner wrinkling" (the tendency of a sleeve to "collapse" slightly around the contours of the 45 within, over time); I grade the sleeve Near Mint overall.
