Phil Spector: life and times
Updated on 14 April 2009
The troubled life of legendary music producer Phil Spector, who has been found guilty of murdering actress Lana Clarkson.
Timeline: Phil Spector
- Born in The Bronx in 1940.
- In high school he picked up guitar and piano and began writing songs with a classmate.
- Formed a band, the Teddy Bears, with a third friend, and they had a Top 10 hit with To Know Him Is to Love Him. Spector was still 17 years old. The song was inspired by the inscription on the gravestone of his father Benjamin, who committed suicide in 1949.
- By the time he was 21, Spector was a millionaire.
- Pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound and racked up more than 25 US Top 40 hits between 1960 and 1965.
- In the early 60s he worked with artists including Ben E King, Gene Pitney and the Paris Sisters.
- Worked on hits including Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby and Unchained Melody.
- The 1965 song You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin, which Spector co-wrote, is listed as the record with the most US airplay in the 20th century.
- Produced the original version, which was performed by The Righteous Brothers.
- When Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High, was a commercial failure, Spector closed down his record label, Philles Records.
- Was increasingly out of the public eye but he went on to produce The Beatles' final album Let it Be, released in 1970.
- He also worked with John Lennon on Imagine and produced George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.
- Divorced Veronica Bennett, a member of the Ronettes, in 1974.
- In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- After 23 years, Spector came out of retirement in 2003 to work with UK band Starsailor on their album Silence is Easy.
- But he brought with him a reputation for eccentric recording habits and a fascination with guns.
- Reportedly brandished firearms at artists including The Ramones, Lennon, Leonard Cohen and Stevie Wonder.
- In 2003 his life took a sinister turn when he was accused of the murder of movie actress Lana Clarkson. The original trial was abandoned when jurors failed to reach a verdict.
- In 2006 he married Rachelle Short, a 28-year-old former Playboy model and aspiring actress.
- Found guilty of second degree murder in a retrial yesterday.
