Music Legends—Phil Spector
The legendary record producer and now convicted murderer, Phil Spector, is the subject of a 2011 HBO-TV movie starring Al Pacino, to be written and directed by famed author/screenwriter/director David Mamet.The movie also stars Dame Hellen Mirren who plays Spector’s longtime friend and lawyer Linda Kenney Baden. "Controversy has surrounded the as yet untitled biopic which is being made by HBO, the studio behind ‘True Blood,‘ ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Sopranos,’ before filming has even concluded. Helen has been threatened with awards snubs and worse for refusing to pull out of the film...Friends of Lana Clarkson, who Spector was found guilty of shooting dead in 2009, are protesting about the project, which is being directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director and Spector supporter David Mamet. Mamet, of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ fame believes Spector was wrongly jailed for murder." —CelebSeniorLaundry.com 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 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 Some Home)" and the Crystals' "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." In 1964 Tom Wolfe 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 youstart 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... 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 song writer 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, Moutain 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. "Harvey Kubernik is a Los Angeles native and a Southern California resident. Kubernik has been an active music journalist since 1972, and a record producer since 1979. He is a former West Coast Director of A&R for MCA Records. While at the label he suggested the pairing of engineer turned producer, Jimmy Iovine, to helm Tom Petty's debut album for the company and also instrumental in the signing of John Hiatt to MCA. Comment on Phil SpectorYour Comments on Phil Spector are Welcomed. |
profiled Spector dubbing him "the first tycoon of teen...He worked with the 
, his history on the Laurel Canyon musical legacy, was published by Sterling/Barnes & Noble in 2009. The volume incorporates over 350 rare and unseen music-related visuals and artifacts and spotlights over 200 Henry Diltz photos. Doors’ Ray Manzarek penned the book's introduction and Lou Adler wrote the Afterword to Kubernik's endeavor.
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