Phil Spector was one of the leading figures in shaping the face of popular music in the Sixties as the producer of some of the most epic popular music of that decade. Spector famously created the “Wall of Sound” with which he adorned the pop music he produced for acts such as Ike and Tina Turner, The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Crystals, and others.
The “Wall of Sound” refers to the dense background music that was created by large collections of musicians playing a wide variety of horns, woodwinds and string instruments. The Wall of Sound provided the recordings it appeared on with an epic feel previously unheard in pop recordings. By the late Sixties and Seventies, Spector was producing for the Beatles as well as solo albums for John Lennon and George Harrison as well as Leonard Cohen and Dion.
Spector was born in The Bronx, New York City, in 1939. In high school, he formed a band called “The Teddy Bears” with three friends, and together they scored a No.1 hit with the song, “To Know Him is to Love Him,” in 1958. The band never again had another hit, and they broke up in 1959. Spector had served as songwriter and producer with the Teddy Bears, and it was in this capacity that he knew lay his future in music. Spector began producing and writing songs for other artists such as Ben E. King, for whom he co-wrote the huge hit, “Spanish Harlem.”
Spector formed Philles Records in 1961, with his partner, Lester Sill, and began to scout talent to record. He recruited the girl group, The Crystals, and with Spector, the group scored a hit with “There’s No Other (Like My Baby).” The Crystals would eventually score a No. 1 hit, “He’s a Rebel,” for Spector. Soon Spector had The Ronettes and other girl groups on his Philles Records roster and was churned out hits for all of them.
By 1964, Spector had created the Wall of Sound, and was recording his acts in mono (as opposed to stereo recording) because he believed that mono recordings would be better suited to play on jukeboxes and AM radio. Spector made a number of epic recordings using the Wall of Sound on “River Deep, Mountain High” for Ike and Tina Turner and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” for The Righteous Brothers.
In the late Sixties, Spector produced the Beatles album, “Let it Be,” as well as “All Things Must Pass” for George Harrison, and “Plastic Ono Band” for John Lennon. He would continue working with Lennon and produced his albums “Imagine” (1971), “Some Time in New York City” (1972), and “Rock and Roll” (1975). By the mid-Seventies, Spector was producing for Leonard Cohen, Dion, and The Ramones.
In 2009, Spector, long known as a temperamental and eccentric figure, was convicted of murdering a woman in his Alhambra, California, mansion, in 2003. He passed away in prison in January 2021 while serving a life sentence in California.
Spector’s classic production work from the early and mid-Sixties can be heard on the following studio albums and compilations: “A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records” (1963), “Today’s Hits” (1963), “Phil Spector Wall of Sound” (1976), “The Wall of Sound” (1981), and best of all, “Phil Spector: Back to Mono (1958-1969)” (1991).