The Phil Spector Legacy

Phil Spector, creator of the famous “Wall of Sound” production style emulated by many (most notably Brian Wilson), was born in New York as Harvey Phillip Spector. From high-school on, Spector insisted on being called Phil Spector (and even had his name legally changed in the 1960s).

Spector, along with his mother and sister, moved to Los Angeles after the death of Phil’s father by suicide when Phil was just nine years old.

By the time Spector had graduated from Los Angeles’ Fairfax  High School in 1957, he was already heavily involved in music, having started playing guitar and piano in junior high. Before his 21st birthday, he had produced a #1 hit, the recording of his composition “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” recorded by his band, The Teddy Bears.

Amazingly, “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” which was inspired by the epitaph on his father’s gravestone, was his FIRST record release and went to the top of the fledgling Billboard Charts. His career skyrocketed from there.

(In 1989 Spector won the BMI Country Song of the Year award for “To Know Him Is To Love Him” as recorded by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt performing under their collective group name “Trio”.)

From Wikipedia.com:

Spector was a millionaire at the age of twenty-one. He now began recording on the West Coast, where he developed his Wall of Sound in earnest, using session men such as guitarists Glen Campbell, Sonny Bono, and Barney Kessel, pianist Leon Russell, and drummer Hal Blaine. Within three years Spector had twenty consecutive hits, including the Crystal’s “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”; the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You,” “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up,” and “Walking in the Rain”; Darlene Love’s “(Today I Met) the Boy I’m Gonna Marry” and “Wait ’til My Bobby Gets Home”; and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans’ “Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah.” In 1963 Spector made a Christmas album, featuring Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and the Crystals’ “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” In 1964 Tom Wolfe profiled Spector dubbing him “the first tycoon of teen”…He worked with the Beatles and John Lennon, but [by that time] the magic was no longer there…His time had passed, and time itself had passed him by. Spector was [only] almost thirty.”

Most of Spector’s “Wall of Sound” recordings were made in Los Angeles at the legendary Gold Star recording studios, headed by engineer/producer David Gold.

“David Gold created the sound effect that imbued and enhanced the creation of ‘Alvin & The Chipmunks’ memorable recordings…the reason why the ‘father’ character was named ‘David.'” —Journalist/Record Producer Harvey Kubernik

He also invented the “echo chamber” that played a significant role in distinquishing Spector’s trademark sound.

Another key component to the “Wall of Sound” aural footprint was Spector’s insistence on recording in mono.

“Well, first of all, it’s all-powerful and coming out of both speakers the same…That means you are getting the full signal right at you. With the ‘Wall of Sound’ in mono you are not having to worry about stereo placement…Originally, you were or are making these records for a transistor radio. And ultimately you want it to sound really great out of that small transistor radio speaker. You’re also thinking in terms of when the needle goes down on the record. It’s going to go out through the needles as a whole signal. Whereas when you start dividing the instruments, ‘part of this on the left side, part of this on the right side, you can hear that on that on some of the Beatles’ mid career records, trying to get a stereo thing going, but you lose the full impact of the solid centered power. With mono you get a thicker piece of music on tape…

“Most current ‘Plug In’ recording effects can be attributed originally to the sounds Phil (Spector) created, developed and experimented with in the making of his classic recordings’ … The current generation of recordists who use these ‘Plug Ins’ don’t realize, when adding these technology effects to their music, they’re actually accessing Phil Spector with the touch of a button, and that they owe those sounds to him.” —David Kessel, President and CEO of Cave Hollywood Media

About his recording process, Spector has said, “I would guess ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ really captured something for me… It said the most to me as far as a production was concerned at the time. It was made as an honest shocker and was made as an experiment. It was really not made to necessarily become number 1. That was not its goal. You see, the main force that I have that drives me is probably the same force of why Wagner wrote music. To make a forceful message, to have a forceful  approach, to present his dynamic feelings through his music. This is the way I see a record.”

In the late ’90s, BMI awarded Spector its highest honor, the winner of the most radio spins ever: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” at 9 million airplays through 1997. Spector wrote the classic with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

From PhilSpector.com:

Phillip Spector (born December 25, 1940) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Coming to prominence in the early 1960s, Spector became one of the most distinctive producers in the history of popular music. He was hailed in his heyday by Tom Wolfe as the “First Tycoon of Teen.” The originator of the famous “Wall of Sound” production technique, Spector was a pioneer of the 1960s’ girl group sound and clocked in over twenty-five Top 40 hits between 1960 and 1965. In later years he worked with various artists, including Ike and Tina Turner, The Beatles, and Ramones with similar success.

Phil Spector produced records for:

The Ronettes: “Be My Baby;” “Baby I Love You;” “Walkng In The Rain:” and others.

The Crystals: “He’s A Rebel;” “He’s Sure the Boy I Love;” “Uptown;” “There’s No Other Like My Baby;” “Da Doo Ron Ron;” “Then He Kissed Me;” and others.

Ike and Tina Turner: “River Deep-Moutain High;” and others.

Curtis Lee: “Pretty Little Angel Eyes;” “Under The Moon Of Love;” and others.

The Paris Sisters: “I Love How You Love Me”

Ray Peterson: “Corrine, Corrina”

Darlene Love: “Wait ‘Til My Bobby Gets Home;” “Today I  Met The Boy I’m Gonna Marry;” and others.

Ben E. King: “Spanish Harlem;” and others.

Bob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans: “Zip A Dee Doo Dah;” and others.

The Teddy Bears: “To Know Him Is To Love Him”

The Beatles: Album “Let It Be”

George Harrison: LP “All Things Must Pass,” “My Sweet Lord”

Ringo Starr: “It Don’t Come Easy”

John Lennon: “Give Peace A Chance;” “Instant Karma;” LP and Single “Imagine,” and all other post-Beatle work.

Phil also produced the “Concert for Bangla Desh.” The first ever artist’s-for-charity work, which was also the first ever “boxed-set,” a term used for the first time in the record industry, which included, but not limited to, the following artists: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankarand Bob Dylan.

As a songwriter Phil Spector has written / co-written: “Spanish Harlem,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “Be My Baby,” “Chapel Of Love,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Baby I Love You,” “Walking In The Rain,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” “I Can Hear Music,” “Just Once In My Life,” and “To Know Him Is To Love Him” (Spector wrote, produced, and performed with The Teddy Bears, for which he was a member).

Phil Spector made a cameo appearance as a drug dealer in [the classic 1969 film] Easy Rider.

Phil was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as a non-performer.

He won a Grammy Award for producing “The Concert For Bangla Desh” album. He also won an Academy Award for producing the soundtrack album for The Beatles film, “Let It Be.”

Phil is listed in every Marquis edition of “Who’s Who” in every category, i.e.; “Who’s Who In The World,” etc, and has been for over twenty years.

Over the course of his career, Phil has been the subject of many cover story features including magazines such as Time and Rolling Stone, and has been a guest at the White House twice. Phil was also the subject of Tom Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning piece, Phil Spector, The First Tycoon Of Teen.

Editors Note: Much of this article was derived from the works of famed journalist/author/producer Harvey Kubernik author of Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon.

The Tragedy of Phil Spector

The tragedy in Spector’s life began at an early age. Phil was only nine years old when his father committed suicide, leaving him and his sister alone with his mother in a dysfunctional and by all accounts broken home. That Spector became an accomplished musician, a jazz guitarist, growing up as he did speaks to his determination to succeed. Phil was driven, without a doubt.

Even Spector’s initial triumph in the music business was cloaked in tragedy. His first number one hit, achieved when he was just nineteen, was called “To Know Him Is to Love Him.” The title was an appropriation from a ghoulish source: “To Know Him Was to Love Him” was inscribed on his father’s tombstone.

Despite Spector’s celebrity and financial success (while still a young man not yet thirty), his self-absorption prevented him from enjoying his life or his friends, or even his love interests.

And yet the darkness was always there to those who looked. The meanness, the lack of affect when it came to the feelings of others; the way he controlled women; the obsession with his looks and feelings of inadequacy; the emotional scab-picking, the jealousies, the arrant cruelties. —Bill Wyman

His relationships with women from the start were off. His first marriage was to an early L.A. girlfriend, Annette Mehar. They were living in New York at the time and had discussed getting married in L.A. — but then Spector insisted it had to be done in New York instead of Los Angeles, with little notice and no time for Annette’s family and friends to travel there. The wedding night ended in tears — and then Spector flew off to L.A. “Phil was just not available as a husband, partner, or friend,” she recalled. “As soon as we were married everything started going to hell.” The marriage lasted a year. “Phil seemed to thrive on destroying his opponent, even if it was his wife,” she reflected. Ultimately, she found out that Spector was carrying on an affair with Ronnie Bennett [Ronnie Spector], and she was dispatched with $100,000. —Vulture.com

Spector ultimately married Ronnie Bennett and produced what many consider his greatest track (and her biggest hit), “Be My Baby” for her and her girl group, the Ronnettes. But their marriage too was a disaster and Spector continued down a dark and dangerous path.

They slipped into a toxic and increasingly embittered and contentious lifestyle. She found herself married to a jealous and paranoid man who kept control of their money and the household staff. They rarely went out. Ronnie was monitored by Phil’s staff and later claimed that she was sometimes not permitted to leave the mansion. She sank into a debilitating alcoholism…Their marriage lasted until 1975; during the divorce proceedings, in response to charges that Ronnie had been drinking, her lawyer replied that it was to “shut out the continuous stream of shrieking by the respondent.” The divorce was granted, but Phil kept custody of the children, who would be cared for through childhood by various bodyguards. He wrote “Fuck You” on all of Ronnie’s alimony checks. —Vulture.com

If ever there was an indicator that tragedy would follow Spector, it was his passion for and possession of guns. At least a dozen times (perhaps many more) Spector threatened his “friends” and associates brandishing a firearm. It has even been reported that he held a gun to the sightless superstar Stevie Wonder (WTF, right?).

Spector’s spectacular success with music, and with the marketing of his own image as something of a star-maker, put him in the company of the most elite artists in the world, including the Beatles. During the bands conflicted break-up period of the late sixties, Spector was intimately involved with the band, as producer of their penultimate album release, Let It Be, as well as George Harrison’s Grammy-nominated All Things Must Pass LP. Spector also produced Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band project and started working with Lennon on an album of rock and roll cover songs. He notably also produced Lennon’s classic Imagine. But the gunplay was always frighteningly close at hand.

[D]uring Lennon’s so-called “Lost Weekend” period, when he spent 18 months carousing in Los Angeles while he was separated from Ono…the mix between the drunken, unfocused star and the conniving, mentally disturbed producer hit a flashpoint. The sessions were thrown out of A&M’s studio after Spector brandished a gun; in the second, he did it again—and the gun went off. In the end, few usable tracks were left. When Lennon tried to get some of his session tapes back, a messenger sent to pick up the tapes at Spector’s office was greeted by the producer himself — wielding an axe.

The gun incidents with Lennon weren’t unusual. “I would say Hitlerian, the atmosphere was one of guns,” Leonard Cohen, who shared a manager with Spector, later said. “I mean, that’s what was really going on, guns. The music was subsidiary, an enterprise. People were armed to the teeth … you were slipping over bullets, and you were biting into revolvers in your hamburger. There were guns everywhere.”

Spector had a reunion lunch one day with Annette Kleinbard, the main voice on “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” who by that time had changed her name to Carol Connors. While they were leaving the Polo Lounge, Spector got into an altercation with a woman outside. He pulled a gun on her, much to Kleinbard’s horror. —Vulture.com

Throughout the 70s and 80s Spector was embroiled in legal battles with labels and ex-wives, while also battling his own powerful demons.

His excessive, some would say insane, lifestyle led to incessant trauma.

In 1974, Spector barely survived a car crash in Hollywood. He was thrown through the windshield of a car and nearly declared dead at the scene of the accident; it took hours of surgery to keep him alive – as well as more than 700 stitches in his head to his face and more than 400 to the back of his head. — Rolling Stone

Tragedies served as bookends to Spector’s life. His father killed himself when Phil was nine…and Spector’s son by girlfriend Janis Zavalos died of leukemia at the same age, nine. Death haunted Spector.

It was widely accepted among Spector’s acquaintances that the death of his son left him bereft. “The most obscene and vile word in the language,” Spector would say later, “is dead.” —Bill Wyman

Spector was reclusive throughout much of the 80s and 90s but his erratic behavior continued. And trouble followed him. He was sued by his ex-wife Ronnie and her band the Ronnettes and was forced to pay 2.6 million dollars in unpaid royalties.

If Death-Wish had a face it might look a lot like Phil Spector.

He had become a gloomy figure around this time. “People tell me they idolize me, want to be like me, but I tell them, ‘Trust me, you don’t want my life,’” he said. “I’ve been a very tortured soul.” —Bill Wyman

By this time, Spector’s bask in the limelight had come and gone, but of course the end of his life had to be the most tragic and notorious of all.

On February 3, 2003, Spector shot and killed an actress by the the name of Lana Clarkson at his mansion, named the Pyrenees Castle, in Alhambra, California. Her body was found near the entrance to the fortress, purse on her shoulder, with a single gunshot wound to her mouth.

Spector told Esquire in July 2003 that Clarkson’s death was an “accidental suicide” and that she “kissed the gun.” —Wikipedia

The Harvey Phillip Spector murder trial lasted two years but ultimately Spector was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life in the California state prison system.

While incarcerated, Spector died of natural causes on Saturday, January 16, 2021. He was 81 years old.