Evaluating The Impact Of Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound

By Arron Ware, 2025

3,115w - 30 mins

Introduction

The wall of sound is a production style developed by American producer Phil Spector, which involves layering different instrumental takes to create a blended soundscape. A key component of the technique is to record further away from the instruments to create a reverb effect. This technique has notably been used in albums as diverse as George Harrison’s 1970 ‘All Things Must Pass’, The Beatles' 1970 ‘Let It Be’ and across Tame Impala’s discography.

He first began experimenting with this style in the early 60s with The Ronettes, and he would go on to produce and record acts such as The Beatles, their solo records and The Ramones.
We will explore the technique’s historical influences, alongside some of the modern genres that have put their own innovative spin on this production style. We will be discussing the merits of the technique, such as how well it has aged, how albums using it were originally received, and some of the most common criticisms against it.

Origins

Harvey Philip Spector was an American record producer, born in 1939 in New York City.


His first experience with record production was in Gold Star Studios in Hollywood with his band ‘The Teddy Bears’. This is where he would later develop his wall of sound process whilst working as a freelance producer.


The earliest musical development that played a vital role in the wall of sound was instrument layering. Hector Berlioz pioneered this with his exploration into creating new sonic textures through the use of overtones and instruments playing the same parts (Brusen, 1952). This featured heavily in his 1830 composition titled ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ which was considered to be ‘revolutionary, radical and unprecedented’ (Service, 2014). This composition has similar aspects to the wall of sound style, which showcases how these techniques originated in classical settings rather than contemporary pop. Although the wall of sound style is criticized for sounding ‘dated’, this demonstrates that the general principles behind it have longevity.


The wall of sound was primarily inspired by the hit songs of 50’s songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (Leiber and Stoller | Encyclopedia.com, no date). Their first hit was ‘Hard Times’ in 1952, followed by ‘Hound Dog’, and ‘Stand By Me’ - alongside a whole host of songs that Elvis covered. Much of their production career (including the examples featured above) features prime examples of instrument layering (Myers, 2012), similar to Spector’s style, but instead focusing on individual instruments for a subtle approach.


In the spring of 1960, Leiber and Stoller’s mentor recognised Spector’s talent in his work with ‘The Teddy Bears’, and invited him to their New York City office to act as a writer and producer (Williams, 2021). During this period, Spector had access to resources which allowed him to experiment with his own production methods. I believe his wall of sound style flourished from the writing duo’s influence and guidance, especially their greater experience in instrument layering (Myers, 2012).


In 1961, after this apprenticeship, “Spector came to form his own independent record company, Philles” (Williams, 2009). He used this as an opportunity to experiment with wall of sound techniques on artists such as The Ronettes and The Crystals.


After the widespread success of these records, Spector had the credibility to select a range of “incredibly technically gifted musicians” that would become his go-to choices; forming a collective that came to be known as ‘The Wrecking Crew’ (Kemp, 2021b) (Fry, 2022).


By assembling The Wrecking Crew, Spector was able to consistently work with a set group of musicians who were familiar with his recording process. I believe this helped him to effectively achieve the production style he envisioned, as the musicians could set up microphones with optimal placements, and were aware of how the positioning of their instruments relative to the microphone would alter the timbre of the recorded sound.


After its assembly, The Wrecking Crew became heavily sought after, especially once they worked for other popular musicians such as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys and The Monkees (Maranuchi, 2008).

Techniques in depth

The term ‘wall of sound’ was first coined by the manager and publicist for The Rolling Stones, Andrew Loog Oldham (Fry, 2022). This production style is notably characterised by a recording mindset that embraces oversaturation, as the technique often involves layering multiple takes of instruments playing the same part (Kemp, 2021). This allowed Spector to begin “building up a block of sound”. He would proceed to add space between the different elements in the composition with additional plate reverb and mixing (Record Collector, 2020).


Leiber and Stoller created the core idea behind the wall of sound, however, their methods differed from Spector. They intended to retain "much more clarity in terms of instrumental colors”, as opposed to Spector’s approach which “deliberately blended everything into a kind of mulch.” He “was the first one to use multiple drum kits, three pianos and so on.” (Moorefield, 2010). These were primary elements in the compositions, which created an active soundscape, as opposed to only applying the method to individual elements like Leiber and Stoller. Their method compared to Phil’s, although not as experimental and all encompassing, proved to be just as effective, as it tended to be more minimal and less divisive as a result.


“Spector chose to exploit the sonic qualities of the studio itself, allowing sounds to bounce around the room and blend into a dense sonic mess, rich with complex overtones” (Kemp, 2021). Spector would also position the microphones strategically; they would often be facing a wall to accentuate the natural reverberative qualities of the space. This would allow him to focus on recording the blended sound of the instruments, rather than trying to isolate each individual instrument (Fields, 2024).


After utilising the recording space, Spector would route the recorded audio into an echo chamber. This drowned out the sound of the dry signal with the signal from the echo chamber, which created a broad spatial quality to the sound (Quinn, 2019). The overall aim was to achieve a fuller and richer tone, so that when mixed well, the individual instruments would become indistinguishable to the listener (Maplethorpe, 2024).

Reception

1970: ‘Let It Be’ - The Beatles
On release, the main criticism from reviewers was that Spector resorted to his usual arsenal of orchestral and choir elements to compliment the songs. This subsequently made the songs feel more insincere and “emotionally vapid”, leaving reviewers feeling that Spector’s production had turned the songs from ‘rough gems’ to ‘costume jewellery’ (Mendelsohn, 1970). However, I believe that the production, most notably the layering, creates a distinct sound for the recordings and makes the tracks feel a lot weightier with the orchestral backing and choir being layered beneath the instruments.


Spector’s production methods were so divisive that the Spector-produced Beatles album ‘Let It Be’ had caused the Beatles to have long divided opinions about the album, until 2003 when they released a ‘de-Spectorised version’ (Starr, 2003) titled ‘Let It Be...Naked’. In this edition, they stripped the production back to the core elements of the album, completely removing any sign of Spector’s influence.


The Beatles previous producer George Martin jokingly suggested that the credits on the album should be “produced by George Martin, over-produced by Phil Spector” (Uncut and Martin, 2012). In contrast, John Lennon defended the album’s production, saying: "He was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit – and with a lousy feeling to it – ever. And he made something out of it” (Lennon, 2020). George Harrison and Ringo Starr kept their positive outlook on the album’s production (Doggett, 2011), with Starr saying "I like what Phil did … there's no point bringing him in if you're not going to like the way he does it" (The Beatles, 2000). Paul McCartney believed that Spector didn’t capture their stripped back, live-to-tape aesthetic (DeCurtis, 2018) as evident in the Let It Be documentary with many funny, spirited and communal (Gleiberman, 2024) moments scattered throughout the recording stage.





1977: ‘Death Of A Ladies Man’ - Leonard Cohen
Another example of Spector’s production negatively impacting an artist’s image can be seen in Leonard Cohen's 1977 album ‘Death of a Ladies Man’. Cohen is widely known for his “minimalist composition of his nylon string guitar, beautiful deep vocals focused on the lyrical content, and the occasional additional instrument joining the mix” (Leatham, 2022). However, when Spector produced this Cohen album, he added an array of complex instrumentation which resulted in the album sounding too bombastic. The production style felt disjointed from Cohen’s vocal performance, and this distracted from the album’s lyrical content.


Later in the recording process, Spector also hijacked creative control of the album, by mixing the songs without Cohen. He used Cohen’s unfinished vocal takes, which were intended solely to guide the backing vocalists, in the final mix. As a result of Spector’s instinctive production method, the album’s vocals forcefully undermine Cohen’s artistic intentions, as he was unable to finalise his vocal performance. Cohen was tempted to overrule the mixing, but Spector had previously threatened him at gunpoint, so he reconsidered and decided that it wasn’t worth challenging (Leatham, 2022).


On the other hand, many, including Cohen, admitted years later that Spector’s decision to retain the original tracking vocals benefitted the overall style of the album. This was due to the general theme of the lyrics being quite ‘sleazy’ (Hewitt, 2019), and this lyrical content was expressed better with a less refined vocal style.


The over-the-top instrumentation used in the wall of sound also helped to portray the overall story of the album. The bombastic style portrayed an illusion of grandeur suitable for a ladies' man, which the album is based around. This interpretation is supported by reviews which describe the production style as ‘costume jewellery’ (Mendelsohn, 1970), which favours appearance over integrity. This expresses an inflated sense of ego and self-image, which fits the concept behind the album’s titular song.





1970/2020 Mix: ‘All Things Must Pass’ - George Harrison
George Harrison’s first solo album ‘All Things Must Pass’ had a very successful release, but the wall of sound production style led to controversy that even George Harrison came to regret (Abbey Road, 2021). This created the dilemma of people loving the album but despising the production; a divide that is still present today.


In 2020, Dhani Harrison and producer Paul Hicks came together to create a new 50th anniversary mix of the album. They tried to appease the fans that wanted it to be kept close to the original, and the others who wanted it ‘de-Spectorised’ (Light, 2021). The resulting mix abolished “all the sludge fomented by Spector’s overuse of reverb and too many overdubs” (Taffel, 2021), pushing Harrison’s vocals to the forefront more than the original mix.


This practise of remixing presents an issue for listeners who consume media through streaming services, as new mixes and remasters of albums tend to be the copies that get circulated by labels on streaming services. Most remasters hosted on these services were done during the ‘loudness wars’ period of reissuing. The loudness wars began to change the sound of music on reissues to make it appear more impactful by increasing the volume of the files, therefore reducing the dynamic range, increasing the perceived loudness to the listener.


The overabundance of reissues has notably led famous artists such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd to be “remastered several times, to the point where it becomes difficult to find a reference version for any of their albums” (Deruty, 2011). Most albums had new mixes created for them to promote new and convenient formats like CD and Minidisc; these mixes were produced primarily out of greed rather than to improve the sound. In addition, the original masters are usually removed from streaming, which forces fans to listen to albums which have been remastered to sound vastly different from the original mix. For artists who have passed away, and who were unable to consent to the differences in the new remasters, the future perception of their album is forcefully altered against their will.

Benefits of using the wall of sound technique

Despite these criticisms, the wall of sound technique also has some striking qualities which I believe could benefit certain songs. Spector’s method of creating reverberation feels like it retains more tonality from the source of sound, as opposed to other methods from the era such as spring or plate reverb.


The Wall Of Sound technique became favourable because of the complex natural reverberation that created Spectors distinctive production sound, when played on AM radio it helps the songs stand out greatly due to this vastly different sound.


Another aspect of Spector’s production that benefits the recordings is that his frequent use of layering instrumentation fleshes out the sound of the mix. Especially when it comes to albums such as George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’ where Spector compensates for the ‘thinness’ of Harrison’s voice by complimenting it with a gentler approach to his wall of sound, highlighting Harrison’s ‘melodic flair’ (Decurtis, 2000) whilst still staying true to Harrison’s original vision.

Criticisms of the wall of sound technique

Spector’s wall of sound production is generally criticised for his extremely ‘reverb-heavy’ production (Browne, 2021) which some people believe make the mixes too distant or muddy. Alongside this, Spector’s productions often feature an extensive array of orchestral instrumentation which can often feel a bit tacky if not executed within a certain context of the recorded performances and artist’s intentions for the composition.

Revival

Shoegaze
The revival of this production style has its roots within the shoegaze genre, originating in the group Cocteau Twins’ 1982 album ‘Garlands’, as well as Jesus and Mary Chain. Both bands utilise all-encompassing soundscapes, which feature an array of layered instruments and vocals which were commonplace in Spector’s wall of sound productions (Young, 2006).


Shoegaze’s secondary influence, 60s psychedelia, provided the genre’s drone and noise aspects along with the amateur-ish vocal style that originated from the DIY psychedelic movement in the 60s (Halligan, 2014).


In 1991 the Irish, English group My Bloody Valentine expanded on this with their album ‘Loveless’, to many this defined the shoegaze genre. The group would layer different guitar takes, which had minor variations on basic chord progressions, and they would then overdub this with some layered vocal melodies (Fisher, 2006).


Both of these artists defined the Shoegaze genre that is still thriving and being discovered by new audiences today.





60s Pop Revival
Spector’s unique style has solidified its status as an iconic staple of 60s music innovation, not only from the vast array of modern artists that have incorporated it into their own styles (such as Tame Impala), but also from those imitating the 60s pop sound entirely, with artists such as Amy Winehouse combining this sound with instrumentation and vocal performances inspired by Motown, Blues and Jazz.


Winehouse and producer Mark Ronson managed to expand on the Phil Spector sound whilst working within the same range of genres to produce something that “plays a trick on the listener, suggesting itself as a song they have known for all of their lives” (Buchanan, 2019).


Winehouse and Ronson’s album ‘Back To Black’ has since become critically acclaimed on a global scale, this shows the timeless quality of the technique, proving that, even when done traditionally, it leaves a lot of options open to mixing a range of different styles together effectively.





Alternative/Indie
This has also become quite commonly used in Indie and Alternative music, with its beginnings in this genre stemming from the aftermath of shoegaze popularizing it has made it even more common.


Notable modern examples (post 2000s) are from groups such as Animal Collective which use the wall of sound production within an entirely new genre, Indie Pop. Their 2009 album ‘Merryweather Post Pavillion’ has been very well received, and the band have been hailed as “one of the 21st century’s most distinctive acts, and one of the most experimental to find widespread success” (Szatan, 2018). This widespread positive feedback goes to show that Spector’s production technique is timeless, with many other new artists becoming very successful whilst using it.


The modern Psychedelic Pop subgenre thrives on the wall of sound production, with artists such as Tame Impala using it as a key element on almost every one of his albums, alongside openly admitting that he has “always been in love with the wall of sound as employed by My Bloody Valentine.” (Los Angeles Times, 2010) with reviews of his latest album mentioning that Phil Spector himself would have been proud of the “enchanting layering of instruments” (Joshi, 2020).

Conclusion

The wall of sound is a technique that is very divisive with a strong cult following. Its early 60s pop ancestry demonstrated that experimental production practices could prove to be very favourable; it helped substantially to distinguish the song from other pop productions on the radio and set Brian Wilson off on a frenzy to obsessively learn how it was created.

Analyzing the history of the techniques further we can see that the layering element dates back to mid 19th century Classical compositions by Hector Berlioz.

Then in later years it went on to inspire the creation of the shoegaze genre, starting with Cocteau Twins in the early 80s until it was fully established in 1991 with My Bloody Valentines’ album ‘Loveless’. The wall of sound influence continued past the prime shoegaze era and continues to be commonly used in a wide range of genres such as Alternative and Indie, being featured by artists such as Tame Impala, Animal Collective and in a range of 60s revivals originating after Amy Winehouse released her seminal album ‘Back To Black’ in 2006.

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