Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer, musician, and songwriter known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by his trial and conviction for murder in the 2000s. Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a music production formula he described as a Wagnerian approach to rock and roll. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and as the first auteur of the music industry for the unprecedented control he had over every phase of the recording process. After spending three decades in semi-retirement, in 2009 he was convicted for the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
Born in The Bronx, Spector began his
career in 1958 as co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist of the Teddy Bears,
penning their U.S. number-one single "To Know Him Is to Love Him". In
1960, he co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21 became the youngest
ever U.S. label owner to that point. Throughout
the 1960s, he wrote, co-wrote, or produced records for acts such as the
Ronettes, the Crystals, and Ike & Tina Turner. He typically collaborated
with arranger Jack Nitzsche, engineer Larry Levine, and a de facto house band that
later became known as "the Wrecking Crew". Spector initially retired
from the music industry in 1966.
In 1969, Spector returned to his career
and subsequently produced the Beatles'[last] album [together] Let It Be (1970),
as well as several solo records by the band's John Lennon and George
Harrison. By the mid-1970s, Spector had
produced eighteen U.S. Top 10 singles for various artists, but following work
with Leonard Cohen, Dion DiMucci, and the Ramones, he remained largely inactive
and affected by personal struggles. His
chart-toppers inclued "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin’" (co-written
and produced for the Righteous Brothers, 1964), "The Long and Winding Road"
(produced for the Beatles, 1970), and "My Sweet Lord" (produced for
Harrison, 1970). According to BMI, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is the song
that received the most US airplay in the 20th century.
Dubbed the "First Tycoon of Teen",
Spector helped engender the role of the studio as an instrument, the
integration of pop art aesthetics into music (art pop), and the genres of art
rock and dream pop. His multi-artist
compilation album A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records (1963)
is widely considered to be the finest Christmas record of all time. Spector's honors include the 1973 Grammy
Award for Album of the Year for co-producing Harrison's Concert for
Bangladesh (1971), a 1989 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
and a 1997 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked
Spector number 63 on their list of the greatest artists in history. In 2021, he died of COVID-19 in prison
at the age of 81.
Musicianship
Spector's trademark during his recording
career was the so-called Wall of Sound, 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 some instruments not generally used
for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars) playing
orchestrated parts—often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison—for
a fuller sound. Spector himself called his technique "a Wagnerian approach
to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".
While Spector directed the overall sound
of his recordings, he took a relatively hands-off approach to working with the
musicians themselves (usually a core group that became known as the Wrecking
Crew, including session players such as Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Steve
Douglas, Carol Kaye, Roy Caton, Glen Campbell, and Leon Russell), delegating
arrangement duties to Jack Nitzsche and having Sonny Bono oversee the
performances, viewing these two as his "lieutenants". Spector frequently used songs from
songwriters employed at the Brill
Building (Trio Music) and at 1650 Broadway (Aldon Music), such as the teams
of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Gerry
Goffin and Carole King. He often worked with the songwriters, receiving
co-credit and publishing royalties for compositions.
Despite the trend towards multichannel
recording, Spector was vehemently opposed to stereo releases, saying that it
took control of the record's sound away from the producer in favor of the
listener. Spector was more concerned
with the overall collage of sound than with the recording fidelity or timbral quality. Sometimes a pair of strings or horns would be
double-tracked multiple times to sound like an entire string or horn section.
But in the final product the background sometimes could not be distinguished as
either horns or strings. Spector also greatly preferred singles to albums,
describing LPs as "two hits and ten pieces of junk", reflecting both
his commercial methods and those of many other producers at the time.
Murder Conviction
On February 3, 2003, Spector shot
actress Lana Clarkson in the mouth while in his mansion (the Pyrenees Castle)
in Alhambra, California. Her body was found slumped in a chair 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". The
emergency call from Spector's home, made by Spector's driver, Adriano de Souza,
quotes Spector as saying, "I think I've killed somebody". De Souza
added that he saw Spector come out of the back door of the house with a gun in
his hand.
The retrial of Spector for murder in the
second degree began on October 20, 2008, with Judge Fidler again presiding; the
retrial was not televised. Spector was once again represented by attorney Jennifer
Lee Barringer. The case went to the jury
on March 26, 2009, and 18 days later, on April 13, the jury returned a
guilty verdict. Additionally, Spector
was found guilty of using a firearm in the commission of a crime, which added
four years to the sentence. He was
immediately taken into custody and, on May 29, 2009, was sentenced to
19 years to life in the California state prison system. At the time of his death, he was an inmate at
the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, California. He would have been eligible for parole in
2024.
Death in 2021
In 2021 [January 16th],
he died of COVID-19 in prison at the age of 81.
His legacy is mixed. Spector was a
“genius irredeemably conflicted” according to Stevie Van Zandt, a member of Bruce
Springsteen’s E Street Band and host of Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Sirius
Radio. He tweeted: "He was the ultimate example of the art always being
better than the artist" ... and "made some of the greatest records in history based on
the salvation of love while remaining incapable of giving or receiving love his
whole life."
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