HARVEY PHILLIP SPECTOR, CREATOR OF 'WALL OF SOUND'

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Phil Spector, the American record producer and songwriter, who was born on a day like today in 1939.

Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939-January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed, decades later, by 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 colors 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 U.S. 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, he became the youngest-ever U.S. label owner at the time. Dubbed the First Tycoon of Teen, Spector came to be considered the first auteur of the 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, later known as 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-1970s, Spector had produced eighteen U.S. Top 10 singles, for various artists. His chart-toppers included the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin, the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road, and Harrison's My Sweet Lord. 

Spector helped establish 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 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.

In 2004, Spector was ranked number 63 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists in history.

Following one-off productions for Leonard Cohen (Death of a Ladies' Man), Dion DiMucci (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 behavior.

In 2009, after two decades in semi-retirement, 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. He later added a second l to his middle name, which he preferred over Harvey.

Spector's early musical influences included Latin music in general, and Latin percussion in particular. This is perceptible in many if not all of Spector's recordings, from the percussion in many of his hit songs: shakers, güiros (gourds), and maracas in Be My Baby and the son montuno in You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (heard clearly in the song's bridge, played by session bassist Carol Kaye, while the same repeating refrain is played on harpsichord by Larry Knechtel).

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- or a fuller sound. Spector himself called his technique a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids.

More information: Phil Spector

I felt obligated to change music to art,
the same way that Galileo proved
the Earth was round to the world a
nd that the Sun did not stand still.

Phil Spector