Phil Spector: A Unique Producer

When it comes to music producers, he is known as one of the best there was. So who was Phil Spector and what made him such a unique producer?

Despite the fact that his successful career was somewhat short-lived at only five years, during his hey days he worked with many of the top recording artists. Artists such as The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Teddy Bears, Ike and Tina Turner, The Beatles (both as a group and on their solo projects), Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan just to name a few. Within those five years, Phil produced over twenty-five top 40 singles, an enormous achievement. Many considered him the first auteur for musicians as a result of his masterful capability and desire to act as not only a producer but additionally

His forethought, ability to create new sounds and innovative ways of producing music is what he is best known for, developing techniques that had never been tried before. Preferring to layer sound, Phil used multiple musicians on matching instruments while also using a technique called doubling, in which two of the same instruments recorded the matching notes at the identical time. Furthermore, by positioning musicians in undersized recording spaces, their sound was picked up on multiple microphones, also a stylistic method preference for Phil. Moreover, reverb was generously added and the instrumental tracks were done prior to the vocals. To obtain the famous wall of sound he is best known for, he would then combine all of the individual tracks. All of this modus operandi created music that was not only rich in sound, but worked well for am

It’s a song that remains popular even today and was rated as one of the most played songs of the century. Written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and produced by Phil Spector, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” .was recorded in 1964. The song starts by slowly layering, building from a single vocal, adding with slight increments, first the percussion instruments, then acoustic guitars, background vocals are introduced next, followed by the remaining instruments. The song is comprised with a crescendo affect followed by a diminuendo or a decrease of intensity, repeating this format three times within the song. With “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin”, one can almost feel the crowded recording area, and another technique is the obvious reverb throughout to produce a deeply layered