Unknown photographer · Public domain

The most successful American record producer of the 1960s, he built the dense, orchestral "Wall of Sound" that defined hits for the Ronettes, the Crystals, and the Righteous Brothers, and co-founded Philles Records at 21, then the youngest label owner in the country. He later produced the Beatles' Let It Be and solo work by John Lennon, George Harrison, and Leonard Cohen. In 2009 Spector was convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his California mansion and sentenced to 19 years to life; he died in prison in 2021, his musical legacy now inseparable from that conviction.