Fantastic production, yep,... but for me the best of Be My Baby it's the whole
arrengement: the first two seconds are soooo recognazible!... and without any chord, it's made only by the persusion!
The guys have lots of examples of easy recognazible intros in their career but this one is at least as known as any of them, ... possible more.
Phil was:
one of the best
producers of pop history (I don't like him very much but it's a fact)
he was a very successful
composer (he usually composed the songs he produced and he'd got several hits)
he was a
musician too (before he was a producer he was in a band: a foursome called The Sleepwalkers -he played guitar and piano ang mad harmonies with them- and then in a trio called The Teddy Bears and with them he composed his first hit: To Know Him Is To Love Him)
and he was very
innovative (it's a big lie that the guys were the first ones in using an orchestra for a pop song -A Day In The Life- because it was Phil, precisaly for Be My Baby),
but for me he was a better
arrenger than even a producer.
P.S. He was an
actor too (Easy Rider - 1969)