Phil Spector is known for creating the "Wall of Sound", or what he called his production techniques. A wall of echo and reverb made ladies swoon and guys want to produce just like him to create an aura that no one could quite duplicate. That Wall of Sound could be heard in everything from "He's A Rebel", "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", and "Be My Baby".

For Beatles fans, Phil Spector's involvement is a touchy situation. After the failure of coming up with anything worthy from 1969's GET BACK sessions, they left the tapes to sit. The group wanted to record one last hurrah, so they went in to do ABBEY ROAD. And that was that. Realizing they still had session tapes to work with, it was agreed that perhaps Phil Spector could play with the tapes and come up with something. Technically, he "remixed" everything, adding orchestras, editing a one minute song into a two minute mini-masterpiece, and turned GET BACK into LET IT BE. There were early versions of a GET BACK album, given to a few radio stations and media, but The Beatles didn't like it and asked for all copies to be returned. Any copies that did exist were quickly bootlegged, so GET BACK as an album was reviewed in "Rolling Stone" and for months people bought an unofficial version. They knew the music in its original form. For many fans, LET IT BE was ruined, and to this day it still causes much debate. The recent LET IT BE...NAKED is based on what a proper GET BACK album could've sounded like, without the added effects from Spector.
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That was not, however, the first time Spector had been in contact with the band. According to the book "He's A Rebel" by Mark Ribowsky, Spector had met them and the Rolling Stones when he and The Ronnettes had traveled to England. Back then, The Ronnettes were the hot group from the U.S., and all of the Rolling Stones wanted to try their hand at "bagging" a Ronnette. But the group did not like how the Rolling Stones smelled (although in Bill Wyman's STONE ALONE book, none of them had any trouble "bagging" anyone else between 1963-1966, including Bill Wyman, who had his share of groupies and superstars on a daily basis). However, The Beatles were nice. The Beatles wanted to meet The Ronnettes, so they did, but Phil Spector, already known for being his own unique personality, had to be there because he didnt't want Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett out of his sight. But they met, and the two groups had a good relationship. The Beatles looked at the Ronnettes as the stars, but Phil felt he was an essential part of their formula. While Ronnie was offlimits, the other two was not. George and Paul, the bachelors of the group, enjoyed spending time with Ronnie's sister, Estelle Bennette, with George being known to have done a bit more than just chat over tea.

When The Beatles were to come over to the United States for the first time, they were not sure what to expect, so they asked Phil Spector, who was in England, to come with them. According to Spector, Paul was the one who wanted to know what to expect from America. The plane was filled with 149 people (Spector's number) who were all part of the Beatles entourage.

Before the group left the plane, they were afraid that people in America were going to kill them, since the death of President John F. Kennedy was still fresh news. Spector assured them that everything was going to be okay. The plane landed, and in minutes the Beatles walked out into a new world. Spector, whom not many people were aware of (since producers were still unknown, unheard, and unseen), was right behind them.
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Spector did not have a musical relationship with The Beatles until 1970, but the GET BACK/LET IT BE album was not the last time they would collaborate.

John Lennon was the first to work with him, having Spector produce "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" on January 26, 1970, and having it released on Apple ten days later. John had hoped that his previous single, "Cold Turkey", was going to be a hit. Wanting something that would impress fans and not alienate them, he asked then manager Allen Klein for help. Klein suggested Spector. "Instant Karma!" became John's first legitimate hit.

George Harrison would be next, as Spector sat in with him for the ALL THINGS MUST PASS sessions from late May to late August, 1970.

Lennon went right after him again for Lennon's first proper album, JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND.

It would go back and forth between John and George projects (check out the the DVD for GIMME SOME TRUTH: THE MAKING OF JOHN LENNON'S IMAGINE and you'll be able to see part of the process Lennon and Yoko Ono had with Spector in producing the album. In fact, Ono made major contributions that are often overshadowed by her alleged "weirdness"). While Ringo didn't work with Spector musically, they were good friends and were often seen drinking together at social events. Plus, Ringo was always close to John and George, and he often found himself playing drums on some of their solo work (Ringo played at George's Bangla Desh benefit concerts, the tapes of which were mixed by Harrison and Spector).

Paul, on the other hand, wanted his own sound and wanted nothing to do with Spector on a musical level. Just as Paul disagreed about how Apple was being run and who was going to manage the group, Paul was very adament about who he wanted to work with. For the most part, Paul produced Paul, at least until late 1972. McCartney was asked to do a song for the new James Bond film, and Paul wanted to go all out. He knew the one man who could do the job: George Martin. However, McCartney was pretty much his own man throughout his solo career, although he and Martin would reunite eventually.


But back to Phil Spector. Because of his relationship with The Beatles, Spector was able to reissue his classic Christmas album on Apple. Not only that, but Ronnie Spector also released a 45 in 1971, "Try Some Buy Some"/"Tandoori Chicken", both co-produced by Spector and George Harrison ("Try Some Buy Some" was written by Harrison, "Tandoori Chicken" a Harrison/Spector composition).

By this point, Spector became Apple's A&R and was essentially running Apple Records when it was obvious the Beatles could not. While John and George were clearly demanding Spector to give them a boost in the hits department (the horn section in George's "What Is Life" is a nice tough), both of them were doing independent production and session work for Apple and non-Apple artists alike. At the same time, Spector wanted to leave and do his own work. Combined with the much discussed stories of the relationship between he and Ronnie Spector, it was the perfect time for them to depart. The last time Spector worked with any of them was on part of the project John worked on in 1973, which would eventually become his ROCK & ROLL album.








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"I love how some hip-hop dudes think it's perfectly normal to rock huge diamonds and oversized pink clothing but "soft" if you eat a girl out." - discjockingmost
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