Tom Moon on Phil Spector

"Whenever you hear a '60s-era production with echoey voices, five or six guitar parts, nearly as many keyboards, and perfectly aligned maracas and other percussion shaking and rattling underneath, it's safe to assume that the enigmatic Spector created it, or inspired it. The Bronx-born, L.A.-based multi-instrumentalist revolutionized record production with his elaborate multitracking, which became immortally known as the 'Wall of Sound.' … His break came in 1960, when some L.A. producers he'd been apprenticing with sent him to New York to work with the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Spector hit it off with the pair right away, co-writing 'Spanish Harlem' with Leiber. … Spector formed his first record company in 1961. … Over the next three years, Spector was responsible for twenty successive smash hits, from the Crystals' 'Da Doo Ron Ron' to the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby' to Darlene Love's 'Chapel of Love' to the Righteous Brothers' 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.' These and many more towering productions are collected in the chronologically arranged mega-anthology Back to Mono" (1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, pp. 728-729).