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Spector had a long-standing reputation for gunplay. He carried a pistol and a biographer said he often placed it on the recording console as he worked. He reportedly fired a shot in the studio during an acrimonious recording session with John Lennon.
WALL OF SOUND
Born Harvey Phillip Spector on Dec. 26, 1939, he grew up in New York City and formed the Teddy Bears with three high school friends. They scored a hit single in 1958 with a song titled after the inscription on his father’s headstone: “To Know Him Is to Love Him.”
The Teddy Bears had little other chart success and disbanded the following year, allowing Spector to shift from performing to working behind the scenes at the dawn of the ’60s. He teamed with songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, co-writing the Ben E. King hit “Spanish Harlem,” playing guitar on the Drifters’ “On Broadway” and producing several top 10 hits.
In 1961 Spector and promoter Lester Sill formed Philles Records, issuing singles with what was becoming his trademark sound but also albums such as the perennial holiday favorite, “A Christmas Gift for You.”
Spector signed Ike and Tina Turner in 1966 and released what he considered one of his masterpieces – the powerful “River Deep, Mountain High” – but it reached only No. 88 on the U.S. charts.
For a time, Spector turned his back on the record business, marrying Ronettes singer Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett, who would later say he was abusive, possessive and made her a virtual captive in their home.
Spector returned in 1969, signing a production deal with A&M Records and working with Lennon on his hit single “Instant Karma” and with the Beatles on the “Let It Be” album.
“Let it Be” was considered a major comeback for Spector, but Paul McCartney was so unhappy with it that in 2003 he oversaw the release of “Let It Be … Naked,” which removed most of Spector’s work.
Spector returned to the studio in the mid-1970s to work on records by Cher and others but by the end of the decade he had become increasingly reclusive and worked rarely after that.
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