Phil Spector

Phil Spector was unrepentant about his work on Let It Be, and adopted a typically combative approach when asked about Paul McCartney's objections.

Paul had no problem picking up the Academy Award for the Let It Be movie soundtrack, nor did he have any problem in using my arrangement of the string and horn and choir parts when he performed it during 25 years of touring on his own. If Paul wants to get into a pissing contest about it, he's got me mixed up with someone who gives a shit.

Let It Be was a huge commercial success, topping the charts in the UK and US. The Long And Winding Road was also a number one single in the US. John Lennon later defended Spector's work on the album, suggesting that the songs would have remained unreleased without his input.

When Spector came around, it was like, 'Well, alright, if you want to work with us [laugh], go and do your audition, man.' And he worked like a pig on it. He'd always wanted to work with The Beatles and he was given the shittiest load of badly recordeed shit - and with a lousy feeling to it - ever. And he made something out of it. It wasn't fantastic, but I heard it, I didn't puke. I was so relieved after six months of this black cloud hanging over.

Spector later worked with both John Lennon and George Harrison. In 1970 he produced the raw, stripped-down John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album, and Harrison's ornate and orchestrated triple album All Things Must Pass.

In 1971 he was appointed director of A&R for Apple Records, a post which he held for just one year. With Lennon he co-produced the Power To The People single, and the chart-topping Imagine album. Spector also worked on Harrison's Bangla-Desh and his wife Ronnie Spector's Try Some, Buy Some, and recorded the chart-topping triple album The Concert For Bangla Desh - for which he used up to 44 microphones during the live performances.

Phil is, I believe, a great artist. But like all great artists, he's very neurotic. But we've done quite a few tracks together, Yoko and I, and she'd be encouraging me in the other room and all that. And we were just lagging, and Phil moved in and brought in a new life to it because we were getting heavy.

Further work with Lennon included the 1971 single Happy Xmas (War Is Over) and the 1972 album Some Time In New York City. The following year he began work on Lennon's Rock 'N' Roll album, although the pair's relationship drew to an end during the sessions amid accusations of wild behaviour. Spector is said to have brandished a gun in the studio, and later disappeared with the tapes; Lennon eventually completed the album himself.

Spector became increasingly reclusive after suffering severe head injuries in a car accident in March 1974. Earlier in the year he had established the Warner-Spector label, and the following year he set up the Phil Spector International label with Polydor.

Recordings with Cher, Dion, Leonard Cohen and The Ramones followed, with varying degrees of success, but critical and commercial acclaim - as with many of his recordings - grew in the years after their release. A 1977 compilation of his Philles recordings caused a reappraisal of many of his earlier songs.

In 1981 he worked with Yoko Ono, producing Season Of Glass, her first album after the death of John Lennon. However, his reclusive nature increased during the 1980s and 1990s, resulting in few recordings. In 1989 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On 3 February 2003 Spector was arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of 40-year-old nightclub hostess and actress Lana Clarkson of Los Angeles was found at his California mansion. Clarkson, who had been shot, was pronounced dead at the scene. On 20 November Spector was indicted for her murder, and in September the following year was ordered to stand trial in Los Angeles.

Spector claimed that Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide". He was released on $1 million bail while awaiting trial, which began in March 2007. He was charged with second-degree murder, but in September 2007 the judge declared a mistrial after the jury announced that it could not reach a verdict.

In April 2009, following a five-month retrial, a second jury unanimously found the 68-year-old Spector guilty of second-degree murder.

Related articles:

• Mixing, editing: The Long And Winding Road, I Me Mine, Across The Universe
• Mixing: The Long And Winding Road, Let It Be, Get Back, Maggie Mae
• Mixing: For You Blue, Teddy Boy, Two Of Us
• Mixing: For You Blue
• Mixing, editing: I've Got A Feeling, Dig A Pony, One After 909, I Me Mine, Across The Universe