River Deep – Mountain High

"River Deep – Mountain High"
cover art by actor Dennis Hopper
Single by Tina Turner (Credited to Ike & Tina Turner)
from the album River Deep – Mountain High
B-side	"I'll Keep You Happy"
Released	May 1966
Format	7" single
Recorded	Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles, 1965
Genre	Soul, pop
Length	3:40
Label	Philles Records 131
Writer(s)	Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich
Producer(s)	Phil Spector
Tina Turner (Credited to Ike & Tina Turner) singles chronology
I Can't Believe What You Say (For Seeing What You Do)" (1964) "River Deep – Mountain High" (non-US) (1966) "A Man Is a Man Is a Man" (non-US) (1966)

"River Deep, Mountain High"
Cover of the 1969 French single
Single by Deep Purple
from the album The Book of Taliesyn
B-side	"Listen, Learn, Read On"
Released	February 1969
Format	7" single
Recorded	October 1968 at De Lane Lea, London
Genre	Hard rock, progressive rock
Length	2:35 (single edit) 10:12 (album version)
Label	Tetragrammaton (US)
Writer(s)	Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich
Producer(s)	Derek Lawrence
Deep Purple singles chronology
"Kentucky Woman" (1968) "River Deep, Mountain High" (1969) "Black Night" (1970)

"River Deep – Mountain High" is a 1966 single performed by Tina Turner and credited to Ike & Tina Turner. Considered by producer Phil Spector to be his best work, the single was successful in Europe, peaking at number 3 in the United Kingdom, and peaking at number 16 in Australia though it flopped on its original release in the United States. Spector claimed to be pleased with the response from the critics and his peers, but he then withdrew from the music industry for two years, beginning his personal decline.

After Eric Burdon and the Animals covered the song in 1968, the original version was re-released a year later, and has since become one of Tina Turner's signature songs, though it charted even lower, "bubbling under" at number 112.

In 1999, "River Deep – Mountain High" was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Written by Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, "River Deep – Mountain High" was among the first recordings that Ike & Tina Turner did for Phil Spector's Philles Records. Spector was well aware of Ike Turner's controlling attitude in the studio, and therefore he drafted an unusual contract: the River Deep – Mountain High album and single would be credited to "Ike & Tina Turner", but Ike was paid $20,000 to stay away from the studio, and only Tina Turner's vocals would be used on the record.

The track was recorded using Spector's "Wall of Sound" production technique, cost a then-unheard-of $22,000, and required 21 session musicians and 21 background vocalists. Due to Spector's perfectionism in the studio, he made Turner sing the song over and over for several hours until he felt he had the perfect vocal take for the song. Turner recalled, "I must have sung that 500,000 times. I was drenched with sweat. I had to take my shirt off and stand there in my bra to sing."