The Sound Of Phil Spector (180g Vinyl LP)

In late 1961 Spector formed Philles Records with Lester Sill, buying his mentor out the following year. The slogan was ‘Tomorrow’s sound today’, and Phil Spector proceeded to live up to that boast. Three-track tape machines were then state of the art, and he perfected the method of ‘bouncing’ the tracks to get the biggest possible sound. As time went by, his ‘two-minute symphonies for the kids’ would be increasingly gilded by his ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ production including Strings, Percussion and banks of Vocals. Spector gained his second U.S. chart-topper and his first as a Producer in 1962 with the Gene Pitney penned, He’s A Rebel. Spector became increasingly obsessed by the production process. ‘My records are built like a Wagnerian opera. They start simply and end with dynamic force, meaning and purpose. I dreamed it up.’ He retired from the music business, returning only sporadically to work with first The Beatles (their Let It Be album, plus solo LPs by George Harrison and John Lennon), plus a handful of other artists including Dion, Cher and the Ramones.