Phil Spector died of covid-19 in prison last month, convicted of the murder of Lana Clarkson in February in 2003.
But that's not what this thread is about.
He co-wrote and produced a record back in 1964 recorded by The Righteous Brothers.
Lots of people covered that song, but this isn't about the covers.
BMI ranked The Righteous Brothers recording as the most-played song on American radio and television in the 20th century, having accumulated more than 8 million airplays by 1999 and nearly 15 million by 2011.
I found a number of fascinating facts regarding this recording.
Spector pioneered his signature "Wall of Sound" with this song. And this is how he created it.
Before the vocals by Hatfield and Medley were recorded, the layers of sound, began with four acoustic guitars; to which three pianos were added, followed by three basses; two trumpets, two trombones, and three saxophones. Then percussion. Finally the strings were overdubbed.
This was one of the Wrecking Crew sessions; with Don Randi on piano, Tommy Tedesco, guitar; Carol Kaye bass.
The background singers were mainly the vocal group The Blossoms, joined in the song's crescendo by Cher; (soon to be one half of the famous duo we would come to know as Sonny & Cher).
And here's a great bit of trivia:
from wikipedia: The song ran for nearly four minutes when released. This was too long by contemporary AM radio standards; radio stations at that time rarely played songs longer than three minutes because longer songs meant that fewer ads could be placed between song sets.[22] Spector, however, refused to shorten it. Spector had "3:05" printed on the label, instead of the track's actual running time of 3:45. He also added a false ending which made the recording more dramatic, and also tricked radio DJs into thinking it was a shorter song.[15][26]
Here's the December 1964 recording on youtube.
(copy and paste into your browser)
https://youtu.be/uOnYY9Mw2Fg
That was a really interesting read.