Amid all the serious news this week and the not-so-serious, including the First Dog and the Yankees’ home opener in their new stadium, came the murder conviction of record producer Phil Spector on retrial, for the 2003 shooting of Lana Clarkson. It’s an ignominious end for the man who gave the world his Wall of Sound. The most famous example might be the Ronettes’ Be My Baby, which required more than 40 takes before he was satisfied, but he also worked his magic for the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and many others. He didn’t just influence a generation’s music, he helped define it.
This video about the Wall of Sound, from a 1983 documentary with comments by the writers of Be My Baby, is cued up to the pertinent spot and will play from there. To watch it from the beginning, click Replay when it ends.
Factoids: Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Bennett went on to marry and divorce Spector and apparently sees herself as another of his victims. She has her detractors too, to put it mildly, quoted in a lengthy 2007 article in the New York Post called Ron-Nuts. She has remarried but continues to use Ronnie Spector professionally and according to the Post, has little to do with the children she and Spector adopted.
