Trivia

Produced records for Gene Pitney, Ike Turner and Tina Turner, Ben E. King, The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers, The Checkmates, The Crystals, The Ronettes, Ramones and Yoko Ono, among others.

His studio band was affectionately known as the Wrecking Crew; session regulars included Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Al De Lory, Jim Gordon, Jim Horn, Carol Kaye, Leon Russell, Tommy Tedesco, Nino Tempo, and Sonny Bono, himself learning the producer's trade, as Spector had learned from Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Brian Wilson sometimes "borrowed" Wrecking Crew members for his own recordings with The Beach Boys.

On February 3, 2003, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after Lana Clarkson was shot to death in his home in Alhambra, CA. In April 2007 he went on trial in Los Angeles. On April 13, 2009, he was convicted of second-degree murder. On May 29 he was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison (he would have not be eligible for parole until 2028, when he would have been 88 years old. If he didn't get parole then, by California law his sentence would have become a life term). He is serving his sentence at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran. He was also ordered to pay $16,800 in funeral expenses and more than $9,700 to a state victim's assistance fund.

Gave Cher her first recording experience at 16, after Sonny Bono proposed his "girlfriend" as a session singer.

One night at his home he held the punk band Ramones at gunpoint and forced them to perform.

While producing Ike Turner and Tina Turner in the mid-1960s, Spector actually worked only with Tina; Ike was reportedly paid $10,000 not to attend the sessions.

The character of Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) is based loosely on stories about Spector.

His father committed suicide when Phil was only nine years old. On his tombstone were the words: "To Know Him Is To Love Him", which he eventually used as the title of one of his most famous songs.

Kept a bodyguard/driver since his late teens, after he was attacked in a men's-room prank that got out of hand.

He was the son of Bertha and Benjamin Spector. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant. His mother was born in France, under the same surname, to Russian Jewish parents, Clara (Cohen) and Harry Aaron Spector.

Spector served an "apprenticeship" under Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in New York, learning from them while they were producing The Drifters; Spector plays the guitar solo at the end of "On Broadway".

First met The Beatles in early 1964, on the airplane carrying them to New York for their first US visit; by late 1969, he'd long been interested in producing them. Allen Klein brought Spector to England, where he hit it off well with John Lennon and George Harrison. After helping produce Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!" (written and recorded all in one day, and a #3 hit in the US), Spector was given the tapes of the ill-fated "Get Back" project, which nobody involved wanted to touch, as a "band audition". While "Let It Be" was a successful and reasonably consistent album, his changes to the group's sound drew considerable fire from the critics, and particularly from Paul McCartney, who was furious about the overdubs made to "The Long and Winding Road". Nevertheless, both Lennon and Harrison continued to work with Spector on solo projects, and Spector later co-produced Yoko Ono's album "Season of Glass", in the months after Lennon's death.

Grew up in The Bronx, NY, until age fourteen, when his family moved to Los Angeles.

Spector and Brian Wilson collaborated on one backing track for a single, which was never completed; the music bed they recorded was used later for a public-service announcement featuring Jay and the Americans.

Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 (under the category Non-Performer).

Is portrayed by Rob LaBelle in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) and Al Pacino in "Phil Spector".

Is mentioned in the song, "Life Is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me", by Reunion.

Created the "Wall of Sound" effect that became widely copied by many groups of the 1960s and 1970s.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997.

Dan Kessel and David Kessel, Spector's production coordinators and musicians/vocalists in his infamous Wrecking Crew since 1974, are stepsons of legendary actor Mickey Rooney.

He was voted the 63rd Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

It is not generally known, but he had a brief association with Atlantic Records in the early 1960s, where he produced, among others, three of R&B's greatest divas, Ruth Brown, La Vern Baker and Broadway star Jean DuShon. Miss DuShon was brought to Atlantic by the late Ahmet Ertegun, who had seen her performing at the Roundtable. He paired her with Spector and they recorded "Talk to Me" backed with DuShon-penned, "Tired of Trying".

Founded, with Lester Sill, Philles Records. The company name was a pluralized portmanteau of Phillip and Sill.

Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise have discussed working on a biopic about the producer.

Children: Gary, Louis, Donte, Nicole Spector and Phillip.

As a young man he claimed that he trained himself to sleep only two to three hours a night.

Graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, California.

When he came to New York he slept on the couch in the offices of Leiber & Stoller who sent him an airline ticket.