Phil Spector

Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter known primarily for his orchestral pop productions and recording technique, dubbed "the Wall of Sound", and decades later for his trials and imprisonment for murder. Considered the first music producer auteur, he is the most successful American producer of the 1960s and widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history.

Born in the Bronx, Spector relocated to Los Angeles as a teenager and co-founded the Teddy Bears in 1958, writing their chart-topping single "To Know Him Is to Love Him". With Lester Sill, he co-established Philles Records in 1961, becoming the youngest U.S. label owner at the time, and exerted unprecedented artistic control over his recordings, typically working in collaboration with a rotation of songwriting teams, arranger Jack Nitzsche, and engineer Larry Levine. His studio band, later known as the Wrecking Crew, rose to industry prominence through his success with acts like the Crystals, Darlene Love, the Ronettes, and the Righteous Brothers. His second marriage, lasting 1968 to 1974, was to Ronettes singer Veronica Bennett. In the 1970s, he produced the Beatles' Let It Be, solo recordings by John Lennon and George Harrison, and Dion DiMucci's Born to Be with You, Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, and the Ramones' End of the Century. By 1980, he had semi-retired from music.

Spector ultimately produced nineteen U.S. top-ten singles, including four additional number-ones (the Crystals' "He's a Rebel", the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road", and Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"). He is credited with having a significant impact on rock music, the girl group sound, in-studio composition, and the professional function of record producers themselves. He contributed to the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, art rock/pop, noise pop, dream pop, and shoegaze. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After the 1980s, Spector remained largely inactive amid periods of reclusion, substance abuse, and erratic behavior. In 2009, he was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, where he died in 2021.

Harvey Philip Spector was born on December 26, 1939. His mother, Bertha, was a first-generation immigrant in a Russian-Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City. She had been born in France to Russian migrants George and Clara Spektor, who brought her to the United States in 1911 aged 9 months. His father, Benjamin, was born as Baruch in the Russian Empire to George and Bessie Spektus or Spektres, and brought to the U.S. by his parents in 1913 aged 10. Both families anglicized their last names to "Spector" on their naturalization papers, which were witnessed by the same man, Isidore Spector. The similarities in name and background of the grandfathers led Spector to believe that his parents were first cousins. He had a sister named Shirley, who was six years his senior; she died in 2004 in Hemet, California, at the age of 70.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.