The Voices Of Black Women Were Essential To Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound

Phil Spector, who died on Saturday at the age of 81, has long been hailed as one of pop music's most influential producers, the man who created the wall of sound and gave us songs like "He's a Rebel," "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Be My Baby." As an African American woman who loves listening to these rock and roll classics, I usually find myself focusing on the voices of the African American women who collaborated with Spector on these and other iconic recordings and thinking about the often harrowing stories they have told about working with him. Starting with Darlene Love (who changed her surname from Wright to Love at Spector's insistence) and continuing on to Dolores "La La" Brooks of The Crystals, Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector) of The Ronettes and Tina Turner, these vocalists benefited from and helped to consolidate Spector's genius, even as they contended with the domineering behavior that is intertwined with and integral to his legacy as a masterful music producer.

In the early 1960s, when Spector was honing his craft, rock and roll was an interracial frontier, a context where African American women singers received opportunities but often found themselves working with white, male producers who exercised control over their careers. The women who brought their vocal skill to Spector's productions experienced manipulation and erasure, practices Spector routinely employed to minimize their contributions and help advance the narrative of his singular, solitary genius. Spector augmented his professional stature through recordings