#PHIL SPECTRE FULL#
To an extent that had never been imagined in rock & roll, Spector pumped his records full of orchestration - strings, horns, rattling percussion - that coalesced into teenage symphonies, never overwhelming the material or the passionate vocals. After producing a few hits, he founded his own label, Philles, and produced a series of brilliant smashes, primarily with girl groups the Crystals and the Ronettes. group the Teddy Bears, who landed a left-field number one with their first release, "To Know Him Is to Love Him." The Teddy Bears didn't succeed with another hit and soon disbanded, but Spector almost immediately moved to New York and became a songwriter and producer. Spector entered the record business in 1958 as songwriter, guitarist, and backup singer for the L.A. The Wall of Sound that he perfected in the early '60s led to unlimited possibilities for arrangements and sound construction in rock and pop, and his brilliant talents imprinted the discs that he produced with an artistic vision that was much more attributable to him than to the talented performers with whom he worked. As a producer, however - and, to a significant extent, songwriter, label owner, and session player - he influenced the course of rock & roll more than all but a handful of performers. Strictly speaking, Phil Spector wasn't even a performer - he was a musician, but he very rarely released records under his name.