Producers are a crucial part of the recording process, but in the 1960s, the music industry had never seen one like Phil Spector before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spector began his career with the group The Teddy Bears and had some success as a songwriter, but he went on to become the most successful producer of the decade and had a major impact on the music industry, in particular for his pioneering a technique known as the Wall of Sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was looking for a sound, a sound so strong that if the material was not the greatest, the sound would carry the record,” Spector once said of the technique<\/a>. “It was a case of augmenting, augmenting. It all fit together like a jigsaw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wall of Sound was a maximalist approach which Spector called \u201ca Wagnerian approach to rock & roll.” The technique used more instruments than was typical or even necessary for a recording, layering them with vocal harmonies to create a richer and more textured sound. The technique also relied on the studio space itself and used it as its own instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spector used the technique on recordings with some of the biggest girl groups of the ’60s, including The Crystals and The Ronettes, whose hit “Be My Baby” stands as a quintessential example of the Wall of Sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n