Happy Birthday Phil Spector

It's December 26th - Boxing Day in the UK - and that makes it the birthday of genius, record producer and murderer Phil Spector. He's 70 years old today.

Phil, who's currently serving 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson and won't be released until he's 88, is most famous for developing the wall of sound effect of overdubbing in the early 60s.


Lana Clarkson

Phil's first success came as a singer with The Teddy Bears and 'To Know Him is To Love Him':



This gave him a bit of money and helped him to get set up in the business. Forming his own record label, he was then able to produce smash after smash, such as the Crystals' He's A Rebel (which wasn't recorded by the Crystals at all - but by Darlene Love):



At the tail end of the sixties and early seventies, Phil worked with some of the Beatles to record some of their first solo hits, including the magnificent Power to the People:



Although he became increasingly weird and reclusive during the seventies, he was still able to pop his head up occasionally and produce classics such as the Ramones Rock'n'Roll High School.

Increasingly suffering from bipolar disorder or so he believed, things became gradually more strange for Phil until his habit of trying to keep women from leaving his palatial home by pointing a gun at them backfired when Lana Clarkson refused to be intimidated - and Phil, probably high and/or drunk, pulled the trigger.

time ta get it right man, this cat ain't cool, he's just a killer.