Producer Phil Spector in Los Angeles in 2009. -
Jae C. Hong / AP / SIPA
A controversial rock'n'roll figure!
Legendary American music producer Phil Spector died of "natural death" at the age of 81 on Saturday, the California Prison Department said in a statement on Sunday.
Producer with innovative methods, at the helm behind hits like the
Beatles
album
Let It Be
, Phil Spector was imprisoned for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.
Born in the Bronx on December 26, 1939, Phil Spector moved to Los Angeles with his mother in 1953 after the suicide of his father.
In 1958, he founded the Teddy Bears with his high school friends Marshall Lieb and Annette Kleinbard.
Phil Spector becomes a millionaire at 21
At 18, he caught the attention of producer Lester Sill, who asked him to co-write the Ben E. King
Spanish Harlem hit
.
But it was as a producer that Phil Spector made his biggest impression, directing
Corinna's
hit version of Ray Peterson
, Corinna
,
Gene Pitney's
Every Breath I Take,
and
Curtis Lee's
Pretty Little Angel Eyes
.
At the end of 1961, he founded with Lester Sill, Philles Records.
He notably produces a girl group, the Crystals.
It's a success, and he becomes a millionaire at 21.
In 1963, he created four of the ten biggest hits of 1963:
Da Doo Ron Ron
and T
hen He Kissed Me
from Crystals
Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
by Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans and especially
Be My Baby
by Ronettes.
He becomes the first rock & roll superstar producer.
Phil Spector produces Beatles latest album
In 1968, he signed the baroque pop epic he considered his masterpiece,
River Deep - Mountain High
by Ike & Tina Turner.
In 1968, he appeared as a drug dealer in the classic counterculture film Easy Rider and married Ronnie Bennett.
In her 1990 memoir
Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Minijirts, and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette
, she portrayed Spector as an abusive husband prone to behavior bordering on madness.
In 1969, he produced
Let It Be,
the Beatles' last studio album.
In 1974, he narrowly escaped a terrible car accident.
Prior to his accident he had formed a new label, Warner-Spector, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, for which he recorded Cher, Harry Nilsson, Darlene Love and a young singer named Jerri Bo Keno.
Phil Spector declines Celine Dion
In 1977, he produced
Death of a Ladies Man
by Leonard Cohen.
In 1980, he revamped
End of the Century
by the Ramones.
He entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, when he had already retired.
In 1995, he agreed to produce a Celine Dion album, before retracting.
He spent the next decade in court to retain British copyright to the music and lyrics of
To Know Him Is to Love Him
.
Phil Spector is convicted of murder
“People tell me that they idolize me, want to be like me, but I tell them, 'Trust me, you don't want my life',” he confides then.
“I have been a very tortured soul.
"
In 2003, police were called to Spector's mansion in Alhambra, California, where actress Lana Clarkson was shot.
Phil Spector is arrested and charged with second degree murder.
In 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
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