Hold Me Tight - Piano Only Rendition of Phil Spector's Rendition

What happens when you mix an obscure (and shoddy!) Beatles track with American Doo-wop and a spectacular arrangement played by the best Los Angeles session musicians from the 1960's? You might get something a little like the rendition of Hold Me Tight released on one of Phil Spector's many labels.

I found this song accidentally in 2014, and it was kind of the gateway for me into finding all of the gems in the Philles catalog - and there are many. IMO, few people who came after him have been able to capture music in such an artful way.

This year for my annual recital piece, I picked Hold Me Tight. After almost three years of practicing daily, I am now getting to a level of playing that I can maybe pay a little homage to this song, which was a major catalyst in wanting to learn music and pick up piano.

This year's challenge was to not only learn how to duet over myself using GarageBand and video tools, but to also reconstruct this piece entirely from ear and try to encode that doo-wop feeling into the voice of the piano. There's no sheets out there for this song, this may actually be the first time the Phil Spector version has been covered like this.

The original Spector-produced track is a truly a gorgeous soundscape and is a must-listen. Mine... you might have to let it waft a bit, but I think it still works.


Phil Spector Rendition:

   • The Treasures - Hold Me Tight (Audio)