Producer/Murderer Phil Spector Dead At 81
• Phil Spector, the legendarily eccentric and revolutionary music producer who transformed rock music with his signature “Wall of Sound” overdubbing method and was later was convicted of murder, has died at 81.
A statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Spector died Saturday, Jan. 16 of natural causes at a hospital in California’s Central Valley, but TMZ recently reported that Spector had been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
According to published reports, Spector was convicted of shooting aspiring actress Lana Clarkson in 2003 in the foyer of his castle-like mansion in the hills above Alhambra, CA. He claimed it was “accidental suicide.” After a 2007 mistrial, Spector was retried in 2009, convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. He had spent his recent years in a prison hospital east of Stockton, CA.
As our former colleague Chris Morris notes in his comprehensive Variety coverage, Spector’s lucrative run of ’60s hits on his Philles Records label with The Crystals, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, Darlene Love, The Righteous Brothers (You’ve Lost The Lovin’ Feeling”) and The Ronettes, later marrying Ronettes led singer Ronnie Spector. He also wrote and produced “River Deep, Mountain High” for Ike & Tina Turner. Later in his career Spector oversaw the controversial remix of The Beatles‘ Let It Be album, followed by George Harrison’s 1970 solo masterpiece All Things Must Pass and John Lennon‘s “Imagine” in 1971. His elaborately layered production methods greatly influenced a number of artists over the years, most prominently The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.
The Washington Post described Spector’s role as “a creative director more than a producer, choosing musical material, orchestrating arrangements, conducting vocalists and session musicians, and sometimes exhausting them with his heavy-handed oversight of the recording process. “When you see a Kubrick movie, you tell me how many times you immediately remember the cast,” he told Melody Maker in 1977. One? Two? It’s the same with Fellini, and that’s what I wanted to do when I directed a recording. Singers are instruments. They are tools to be worked with.”
