And the unforgettable, much covered “Da Doo Ron Ron” from The Crystals.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-qqi7-Q19k

Damaged soul? Really? Not as damaged as the woman he murdered.

Yes, I know he murdered a woman. That is horrible. I don’t know what caused Spector to kill, to become completely unwound. From Wikipedia, “... he was convicted for the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson[3] and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector

I don’t know if he was on drugs or mentally ill.i have not yet read the Wikipedia page and I cannot recall the details. It was awful. I seem to recall that Spector was more than a tad crazy acting and threatening before he murdered Ms. Clarkson.

At a time when both technology and music trends allowed for a long list of recorded music innovations, his contribution was the thick and heavily arranged, full of reverb Wall of Sound. There was no magic involved and what was being done and how was immediately apparent and reproduceable by anyone else in the recorded music business. It became his one trick pony but with no exclusivity.

By accounts I've heard, Spector was one loony, out of control sicko who lost any semblance of normal personality and conduct a very, very long time ago. A serious head case. Long before the murder, he was known to pick up women, take them to his castle-looking home in the Hollywood area, and subject them to various types of abuse and torture. He'd pay them for their silence.

Just as one example of how his influence faded, he was involved with some element of final production and mixing for the Beatles album Let It Be. McCartney hated what was done and some 30 years later, he started a project that involved taking the Let It Be masters and mixes and stripping out everything Spector had done. The resulting album was released in 2003 with the title "Let It Be....Naked" and it's a huge improvement. With all the artificial effects and heavy handedness taken out, it's a bright Beatles performance that much better displays their individual and collective excellence. I recommend it.

Thanks, augment and Elmer. Well said, Elmer.

I think I have the Let it Be album.

If you like the original Let It Be, you'll LOVE the Naked version.

Something I wanted to mention-

The recording business wasn't a paragon of honesty or truthfulness in Spector's prime years and he was as underhanded and misleading a person in it as any. There was a song that he wanted to record for a group called The Crystals and I don't remember the specifics - either the recording work was in progress and was lacking vocals, or they weren't available, or something. Spector has a business relationship with a very talented singer whose stage name was Darlene Love. He recorded her on the song - "He's A Rebel" and released it under the name of the Crystals. Love's role was unpublicized.

I learned about this at a Darlene Love concert awhile ago. I don't remember exactly when it was but I think it was more than 5 but less than 10 years ago. She told the story to introduce the song. She's a woman with an incredible voice who made major, often uncredited, contributions to many popular songs while working for Spector. She thought he was a crazy person but, as I think she said, "any job is better than no job". Her uncredited roles long ago were made public. She's been inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame, deservedly so.

Here's a more recent version of her singling that song. Edit to add - In looking at this video, I spot who I think to be Frankie Avalon dancing in the crowd. Look and see if you see him. And yes, it was a great concert. She has a special talent with her voice and a very engaging on-stage personality.

Ronnie Spector said he was dangerous long before he murdered that woman.

he always gave me the creeps.

Thanks, Elmer. For years surrounding the time of the murder of Lana Clarkson and the aftermath, I was dealing with some huge distractions. I knew little about Spector and wasn’t able to follow what was later revealed about him. In the last day or so, I’ve noted articles in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and elsewhere. Creepy, indeed. So one crazy, dangerous sob. See Wikipedia entry about Ronnie Spector. Really insane was that he ”surprised” her with two adopted boys for ?a birthday present. They all felt trapped, afraid and held hostage.

Before Spector and Motown there was so much bland, unimaginative “music.” (Aside — Remember Bob Dylan’s comments on the banal placid music of the 50’s in the documentary. Exactly my sentiments.) As a young adolescent then teen living in east Duck Pond with few rock and roll stations and only 2 tv stations, listening to the newer music was oxygen. I pantomimed, danced with the refrigerator handle and doorknobs.

A lot of those performers were barely paid or acknowledged.

i think I spotted Frankie Avalon boogieing about. Thanks for pointing that out. Is this him?

Yes, that was the person I saw who I thought resembled Avalon.

I grew up near places and knowing people involved with most aspects of the entertainment business. Music and the recording industry were big. Even as a teenager, I'd heard from kids whose parents were in the recording industry what a freak show Spector was.

I wouldn't come down too hard on music of the 50s and early 60s, all stages in the evolution in the development of rock and roll. Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and so many others (especially black blues artists) who contributed flavorings to what became rock and roll and are cited by the biggest names as being their inspiration. Did you know that the Rolling Stones spent years as a white blues band, trying to break through without much success?

Anyway, Spector was a technical innovator. Not a necessarily a major pioneer but one among the dozens and dozens whose contributions were important. The vast majority of whom, except for those who overdid and even overdosed on drugs, are mostly normal people. Creative people can be quirky but not necessarily full of themselves or mentally ill.

Elmer, interesting.

“ I wouldn't come down too hard on music of the 50s and early 60s, all stages in the evolution in the development of rock and roll. Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and so many others (especially black blues artists) who contributed flavorings to what became rock and roll and are cited by the biggest names as being their inspiration. Did you know that the Rolling Stones spent years as a white blues band, trying to break through without much success?”

I wasn’t referring to Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and so many others (especially black blues artists) who contributed flavorings to what became rock and roll ..

Love those guys. Add many others like Fats Domino. And I have great affection for a lots of the blues artists, many of whom were discovered re-discovered in the 60s and 70s. I have LPs that I’ve played to white powder (I don’t know too many people personally who melt over the heart and soul of some of these artists like I do though). Mississippi John Hurt and Mississippi Fred McDowell, among others.

I also used to listen to a lot of “country” music when on a boat with an enormous antenna — I could get WWVA our and clear. And I like a lot of the traditional and mountain music. So much of this music had honest heart and soul. One afternoon in the 80s I went into a second-hand record store across from BU and hit a payload of albums — Stanley Brothers, Johnson Mountain Boys, Seldom Seen; and , Ha, a bunch of the first Joan Baez traditional LPs pre political when she had the most amazing voice.

The music from circa 1950’s that did nothing for me, even though it was “popular” was stuff like (please don’t anyone hit me) songs from Perry Como, The McGuire Sisters. It was so overly produced, sterile and seemed as unimaginative as a lot of people I had to endure, and a lot of the fake, polished commercial patent leather feeling nonsense that had (for lack of competition) more popularity than quality. I did not (could not stomach) pat, over-produced know-it-all, vacant radio shows like Paul Harvey either.

edited for clarity

I agree with that - what was boring and essentially white music, a style that came out of the vanilla (less jazz influenced) big band sounds of the war years. There was white music and black music, white radio stations and black ones. The real contribution Elvis made was to cross the color barrier to listen to and sing music in styles that previously would have been black music. That let the cat out of the bag. Then like a good vegetable soup, influences of all kinds came into the popular music scene, folk included, to produce an end result where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. The influence of black musicians and blues styles can't be overstated.

I can listen in small doses to blue grass, mountain music, traditional music like the Carter family did, but not too much. Country and western music I can't stomach at all other than older stuff - Hank Williams, Hank Snow and then later on Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. Nothing newer.