Phil Spector

Phil Spector’s first wife was singer Annette Merar. After their divorce, he married singer Veronica Bennett in 1968. The couple, who divorced in 1974, had adopted three children—Donté Phillip Spector, Louis Phillip Spector, and Gary Phillip Spector.

He had twin children—Nicole Audrey Spector and Phillip Spector, Jr. with his girlfriend Janis Zavala. Phillip Jr. died of leukemia in 1991.

Spector married Rachelle Short in September 2006. He filed for divorce in April 2016.

Phil Spector was born on December 26, 1939, in New York. When he was nine, his father Ben, an ironworker, committed suicide. His mother then moved the family to Los Angeles in 1953. She worked as a seamstress to make ends meet.

He attended Fairfax High School, where he learned to play the guitar and also started writing songs like ‘Don't You Worry My Little Pet’. Along with his fellow students, he formed a music group called The Teddy Bears.

During his high school days, he wrote his first number 1 hit song ‘To Know Him Is to Love Him’, which helped the group sign a contract with Imperial Records. After the Teddy Bears’ song ‘I Don't Need You Anymore’ and a few other singles did not do too well, the group disbanded in 1959.

During this period, record producer Stan Ross mentored Spector and was impressed by his record production style.

After the split of the Teddy Bears, Spector moved to New York and worked as an apprentice to lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller. He co-wrote with Jerry Leiber the Top 10 hit song ‘Spanish Harlem’ for R&B singer Ben E. King. Around this time, he also worked with Dune Records and produced a number of hits.

In 1961, he and Lester Sill, a record label executive, formed a record company called Philles Records. They signed a contract with the vocal group, the Crystals. While their first single, ‘There's No Other (Like My Baby)’ made it to number 20 on the Billboard chart, the second single ‘Uptown’ reached number 13.

For some time, Spector worked as a freelancer with various artists and some of his productions like ‘Second Hand Love’ were successful. Later, he worked as the head of A&R for Liberty Records.

The song ‘He's a Rebel’, produced under his label, reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. During this period, Lester Sill left the company and Spector became the sole owner of it.

Despite his initial success, Spector’s career started floundering in the mid-1960s. His label Philles was not giving him the expected returns. Even his desperate last attempt with the team of Ike and Tina Turner failed to bring luck to the company. As a result, Spector lost interest in his company and the recording industry and went into seclusion for three years.

Phil Spector’s first hit song ‘To Know Him Is to Love Him’ reached number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1958 and remained there for three weeks. It sold over a million copies.

In 1969, the song ‘Black Pearl,’ co-written and produced by Spector, reached number 13 on the Billboard pop chart and number 8 on the R&B chart. It was later included in Checkmates, Ltd’s album ‘Love Is All We Have to Give’.

Spector produced the Beatles’ album ‘Let It Be’ which became a huge commercial success. The single ‘The Long and Winding Road’ from the album peaked at the number 1 position in the US.