And while he and the acts on the Philles roster were rolling down the gold brick road in the mid-'60s, the wheels came off of the wagon in '66. Spector's (literally) largest production to date, Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" was a commercial flop in the U.S. (reaching only No. 88, but in the U.K. it soared to No. 3); the hypersensitive Spector closed his label and, for all intents and purposes, stopped producing.

He came out of his self-imposed exile for a series of records in the '70s, including the Beatles' swan song Let It Be, which he pieced together from live tracks. He also added a monstrous orchestral backing to Paul McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road." Keeping to former-Beatles, Spector lent his texture to George Harrison's finest, All Things Must Pass , and worked with John Lennon on the classics Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.

In retrospect, Leonard Cohen's Death of a Lady's Man from '77 is pricelessly charming. Spector wrote the music - in a classic late-'50s/early-'60s pop style - for Cohen's languid tales of torn romance, and Cohen responded with his best singing. Listening to it today, it's great to hear Cohen outside of his usual spare settings.

Spector also produced the Ramones epic End of the Century - their best-selling studio album - and in keeping with the Spector tradition, one that fans of the band either love or hate. The album made explicit the connection between early-'60s pop rock and the punk band's psyche, and holds up as both a Ramones and a Spector classic: Spector's idiosyncrasies never overwhelm the roar of "Chinese Rock" or 'Rock 'N' Roll High School," and the Spectorish "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio" rollicks with just the right retro touches. The band's remake of the Ronette's "Baby I Love You" is as touching as it is fun.

Spector has remained in seclusion for most of the last 20 years. Darlene Love won a back-royalty judgment against Spector in '97.