The phrase "Wall of Sound" was coined to describe the production style adopted by eclectic production wizard
Phil Spector in the early-to-mid sixties. The "Wall of Sound" formula was roughly as follows:
Stage one: Standard arrangement, one
guitar, one
piano, one
drum set, one
bass, what have you.
Stage two: For every
instrumental part, add four to seven identical instrumental parts by that same instrument, played simultaneously. Drums and piano inclusive. Apply to
vocals if appropriate. Add plenty of bells and whistles (often literally), and
horns are a must.
Stage three: Don't
multi-track it. Play it live, and stick one mic in the middle of the mess you've created.
I suppose stage four must've been "
Profit!" because the unusual result certainly earned the appeal of the public. "
River Deep, Mountain High" by
Ike and Tina Turner was arguably most representative of the "Wall of Sound" method. This is perhaps arguable because you can somewhat hear the
lead in that song--many of the tracks recorded during this period of his work had such focus on background instrumentals that the
hook was lost. Somehow, it all seemed to work anyway.