NEW YORK: Phil Spector, one of the most influential and successful producers in roc ‘n’ roll, which generated a series of beats in the early 1960s described by the manipulation of a large instrument called a sound wall, but was imprisoned for the murt of a woman at his house, he died Saturday. He was 81. The cause of Covid-19 problems, his daughter, Nicole Audrey Spector said. She was hospitalized at San Joaquin General Hospital in Camp France, California, on Dec. 31 and admitted in January, she said.
Phil Spector had been serving a 2009 prison sentence for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a nightclub hostess he brought to his home after a night of drinking in 2003. Los Angeles police found her fallen in a chair in the corridor, dead from a single bullet head injury.
Spector scored his first No. 1 goal when he was still a teenager. With the Teddy Bears, a group he founded with two school friends, he recorded the dream ballad “To Know Him Is to Love Him.” Released in August 1958, they sold more than 1 million records after the group appeared on the popular TV show “American Bandstand.”
After learning the ropes as a record producer, Spector became a one-man factory. Between 1960 and 1965 he placed 24 records in the top 40, many of them classics. His 13 top 10 singles included some of the amazing “girl group” songs of the time: “He’s a Rebel,” “Uptown,” “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron ”With the Crystals, and“ Be My Baby ”and“ Walk in the Water ”with the Ronettes.
For the Righteous Brothers he performed “Unchained Melody” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin ‘Feeling,” a No. 1 beat that became the most played song of the 20th century on radio and television, according to BMI. Spector ‘s signature was the sound wall, perfected at Gold Star Studios in LA, where he worked with engineer Larry Levine, arranger Jack Nitzsche and a team of musicians. Harvey Philip Spector was born on December 26, 1939, in the Bronx. (Spector hated his first name and went with Phil.) In addition to his daughter Nicole, the survivors include his partner, Janis Zavala.