How the grandson of Russian-speaking immigrants in New York became a world legend: producer Phil Spector died

Phil Spector, one of the most famous music producers of the 81th century, died at the age of 19. At the time of his death, he was serving a prison sentence for murder, but died in an external hospital. Prior to that, the man was diagnosed with Covid-XNUMX, writes with the BBC.

In a statement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation indicated that the death was due to "natural causes" on the evening of January 16th. The official conclusion on the causes of death of the producer will be made public after the pathological examination. However, it is known that four weeks ago he was diagnosed with Covid-19, after which he was transferred to a hospital. Some media reported that the death was the result of complications from the coronavirus.

In 2009, Phil Spector was sentenced to life in prison for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

Coming from an immigrant family

Harvey Phillip Spector was born in December 1939 in the New York Bronx to a first-generation Jewish family of immigrants whose parents were from Russia and Ukraine.

When Phil was eight years old, his father Ben committed suicide, which left an indelible mark on the boy's soul. An epitaph was left on his father's grave: “To know him was to love him”.

It was these words in a slightly modified version (“To Know Him Is To Love Him”) 11 years later, in 1958, became the name of the song that Phil released with his first rock band The Teddy Bears. The song immediately became a hit and hit the American and British charts.

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Subsequently, many other artists have recorded it, including Nancy Sinatra, Dolly Parton, The Beatles (in the version “To Know Her Is To Love Her”), Amy Winehouse and many others.

World-changing invention and celebrity clients

Spector went down in the history of music as the creator of a special sound recording technology called the “wall of sound”, which gave the recorded track a very dense, loud sound.

Spector was the producer of many famous musicians from the 1960s and 70s, including the Beatles, John Lennon, Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner.

Spector himself played the guitar and sang, but a strong stage fear made him concentrate not on touring, but on writing new songs and producing music.

In 1960, with Lester Sill, Spector founded his own record label, Philles Records, which allowed him to experiment more in the recording industry.

He began to record numerous overlays of various musical parts, achieving a symphonic, "Wagnerian" sound in rock music, as Spector himself said, producing "little rock 'n' roll symphonies for children."

“I understood that Beethoven was much more significant than anyone else who simply performed his music. And I wanted to be the same, ”Spektor once admitted.

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The desire for grandeur, both in music and in life, ultimately served the Spector in a bad way.

Although he has built a colossal reputation in pop and rock music and has produced landmark albums such as the Beatles' Let It Be or John Lennon's Imagine, rumors of his eccentric behavior began to spread far beyond the impenetrable walls. recording studios.

He became a legend shunned

His second wife, Ronnie (lead singer of the American group Ronettes), in her autobiography "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness" described the years of agony that she had to endure in her marriage with Spector, who threatened to kill her and put her in a golden coffin with glass lid that he kept in the basement.

His aggressive behavior began to spread to the musicians with whom he happened to work. He once shot into the air while working in the studio with John Lennon on the album Rock 'n' Roll; on another occasion, Spector held the barrel of a pistol to Leonard Cohen's temple during the recording of “Death of a Ladies' Man," and, at gunpoint, took the punk band Ramones hostage during the recording of their album “End of the Century”.

This behavior culminated in the 2003 murder of film actress Lana Clarkson at his California mansion.

The defendant stated that it was an accident and Clarkson simply “kissed the gun on the barrel,” but several women who spoke at the trial said that Spector had in the past threatened them with weapons when they rejected his harassment.

The producer himself has repeatedly admitted in interviews with various publications that he is “only partially in his mind” and suffers from mental disorder.

“I have been tormented all my life. I've never been at peace with myself. I've never been happy, ”Phil Spector said in an interview with the British newspaper Daily Telegraph a few weeks before Lana Clarkson's assassination.