Song of the Day 1/18: The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”
Phil Spector, the groundbreaking record producer and paranoid murderer who died yesterday at age 81, made an indelible mark on the recording industry by inventing the Wall of Sound. It doesn’t sound that complicated — just turn everything up to 11, right? — but when Phil Spector built his wall, he had just two tracks to work with, so he had to repeatedly mix two tracks down to one to give him more room for more instruments. This had the effect of homogenizing the sound rather than allowing individual instruments to stand out, but it’s what Spector was going for. He liked lots of strings and horns, had a serious addiction to reverb and an ear for hits.
Spector also made it a point to hire the best session players in Los Angeles, including the musicians who became known as the Wrecking Crew. He used people like Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Dr. John and drummer Hal Blaine, whose opening salvo on “Be My Baby” is the most imitated drumbeat in rock. Many critics consider this song the quintessential Spector production.
Spector will always be remembered for his work with, and exploitation of, early ’60s “girl groups.” Spector held the contracts of singers like Darlene Love and Veronica Bennett (better known by her married name, Ronnie Spector), but to keep them from becoming stars he recorded them under various group names. He was always an odd duck, and not just because of his fondness for guns. He actually quit the music biz in 1966 when the song he considered his masterpiece, “River Deep, Mountain High” failed to become a hit.
Spector returned in 1969 to working with John Lennon and George Harrison. He’ll always be remembered by Beatles fans, and reviled by many of them, for the way he gilded such lilies as “The Long and Winding Road” on the “Let It Be” album.
He continued to work through the ’70s, but semi-retired by 1980 and was little heard from until actress Lana Clarkson was shot to death in his house in 2003. Spector was convicted of murder in 2009 and was serving a 19-year-to-life sentence in California. He would have been eligible for parole in 2024.
