He's a Rebel

This was written by the Connecticut singer/songwriter Gene Pitney, who scored 16 Top-40 hits in the '60s as a solo artist. His biggest solo hits were "Only Love Can Break A Heart" and "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," which were both written by the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Pitney wrote it specifically for The Crystals after hearing their song "Uptown," which had a funky sting section contrived by their producer, Phil Spector. Pitney was determined to write something in a similar vein, and came up with "He's A Rebel."

The Crystals did not sing on this. While at Liberty Records as the company's West Coast A&R head in 1962, producer Phil Spector heard Pitney's demo of the song. Knowing it would be a hit, he promptly resigned and his boss, Snuff Garrett, produced a version by Vikki Carr to be released as her first single. Spector assembled his musicians to do HIS version, but the Crystals were 3000 miles away in New York City; so he recruited The Blossoms - Darlene Love, Fanita James, and Gracia Nitzsche - to sing "He's a Rebel." Spector's version of this song, credited to the Crystals but sung by the Blossoms, hit #1. Vikki Carr had to wait three more years before her first chart record in the US ("It Must Be Him").

In New York, the influential disc jockey at WINS, Murray the K, figured out that Phil Spector used a different set of Crystals on this song, and broke the story on the air. As La La Brooks tells us, Murray called her to ask about it, and she told him that the actual Crystals had nothing to do with the song. The story was far from a scandal, since producers were known to switch out musicians, sometimes having a completely different group front the band. For La La, it was a relief that the story was out, although when The Crystals toured around the world, they never explained that they didn't sing on "He's A Rebel."