Phil Spector | Artist
Harvey Phillip "Phil" Spector was an American record producer and songwriter born 1939 in New York City. He was best known for his innovative recording style and entrepreneurship in the 1960s. He was also infamous for his two trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a production style that is characterized for its diffusion of tone colours and dense orchestral sound, which he described as a "Wagnerian" approach to rock and roll. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and one of the most successful producers of the 1960s. Born in the Bronx, Spector moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and began his career in 1958, as a founding member of The Teddy Bears, for whom he penned, "To Know Him Is to Love Him", a US number-one hit. In 1960, after working as an apprentice to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Spector co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21, became the youngest-ever U.S. label owner at the time. Dubbed the "First Tycoon of Teen", Spector was considered the first auteur of the pop music industry, for the unprecedented control he had over every phase of the recording process. He produced acts such as The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Ike & Tina Turner, and typically collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche and engineer Larry Levine. The musicians from his de facto house band "The Wrecking Crew" rose to industry fame through his hit records. In the early 1970s, Spector produced the Beatles' Let It Be and several solo records by John Lennon and George Harrison. By the mid 70's, Spector had produced eighteen US Top 10 singles, for various artists. His hits included the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road", and Harrison's "My Sweet Lord". His honours include the 1973 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for co-producing Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, a 1989 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a 1997 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Following one-off productions for Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, Dion's Born to Be with You, and the Ramones' End of the Century, from the 1980s on, Spector remained largely inactive, amid a lifestyle of seclusion, drug use, and increasingly erratic behaviour. A sample of the albums Spector produced includes the Beatles' Let it Be, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, and Concert for Bangladesh, John Lennon's Imagine, Rock'n'Roll, Plastic Ono Band, Shaved Fish, and Sometime in New York, The Ronettes' Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes, and Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High. Spector's so-called Wall of Sound was a production technique yielding a dense, layered effect that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes. To attain this signature sound, Spector gathered large groups of musicians playing orchestrated parts—often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison—for a fuller sound. Spector helped establish the role of the studio as an instrument. In 2009, after two decades in semi-retirement, Spector was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, where he died, in 2021.
Artist Website: wikipedia/Phil_Spector
Featured Albums: Phil Spector
Related Artists: Ike & Tina Turner, The Crystals, The Ronettes, Jack Nitzsche, The Beatles
Collections: Music Visionaries
