All language subtitles for Spector.S01E01.To.Know.Him.Was.To.Love.Him.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-NTb_track4_[eng]

[music]

[Paul Fournier] The Alhambra
Police Department was armed

with limited information.

They just know
that a gunshot occurred.

They didn't know anything else--
who was shot.

So, they made
a tactical entry,

and then at one point,
one of the officers

made a very good,
sound decision,

and set a personal
tape recorder he had

on the banister,
and recorded

what I felt was some
pretty telltaling statements

by Spector.

[music]

Daydreaming 'bout you

So glad I found you

I was lost without you

I'll sing
a little louder

So glad I found you

I was lost
without you

I'll sing
a little louder

[helicopter whirring]

[Paul] As an investigator,

our job is to obtain
as much information

from every source
that we can,

any eyewitnesses that
would have been there,

and then collect
physical evidence.

[Richard Tomlin] As we walk in
through the front door,

we see the actual scene
of the shooting.

[Paul] A very beautiful
young lady

was lying in the chair,
the position that she was in

when she was shot.

She had a purse
slung over her shoulder.

Her legs were out,
stretched out in front of her,

and the gun was on the floor.

[Richard] At that point,
I really didn't know

who Phil Spector was.

I was gonna learn
a lot about him.

[man] He seemed
like a quiet man.

I really have only seen him

maybe about four
or five times

come by in his Prowler.

[man] The Alhambra officers
conducted

a very preliminary
investigation,

and based on that investigation,

they took Mr. Spector
into custody.

[male reporter] He was a ghost,
a phantom,

a half-forgotten rock genius.

[female reporter] And he almost
never talks to the media,

but just weeks
before the incident,

he spoke candidly
to a journalist, Mick Brown.

[stovetop clicking]

[Mick Brown] Yeah, I knew
a fair bit about Phil Spector.

For people of my generation,

people who care about
rock and roll,

he was a legendary figure.

He was responsible
for the Crystals

and the Ronettes,

and then the Righteous Brothers,
of course,

and Tina Turner.

He produced the Beatles'
final album.

For a so-called recluse,

for somebody
who'd had this reputation

for being wacko or crazy,

he was extraordinarily candid
and extraordinarily honest.

It was almost as if
he'd been waiting

for a moment to talk.

And so, I came away
from that interview

just thinking
this was one

of the most extraordinary
interviews of my life.

And as it would turn out,

one of the most fateful.

It was, what,
four or five weeks later

that Lana Clarkson
was murdered.

I remember getting
to Alhambra...

turning
into the electronic gate,

and the car stopped.

And the chauffeur,
Adriano de Souza,

as I subsequently discovered,

said, "Mr. Spector
likes people to walk up."

[gate squeaking]

There's a sort of sense

of sort of baronial splendor
about it.

And there was a long,
long flight of stairs.

Eighty-eight steps leading up

through these lowering pines
and trees...

to the castle at the top.

[doors creaking]

And I set up my tape recorder
on the table between us,

and then he started to talk.

Testing, testing,
one, two, three, four.

When did you first realize
you were different?

[Phil] Very young.
Very young.

Very young, yeah, I was...

just always real--
always was different.

[Mick] Phil was born
in New York in 1939,

and his father Ben
was an iron worker.

Mother, Bertha.

And he had an elder sister
called Shirley.

It seems that
he was a happy child.

There didn't seem to be
any trouble in the family.

But then, when he was nine,
this terrible thing happened.

His father drove off to work
one morning...

parked on a side street.

[engine starting]

He'd connected a tube
from his exhaust

into the car,
and self-asphyxiation.

And obviously,
this was the bomb

that went off
in Phil Spector's life.

[Phil] And I don't like
talking so--

I don't like
talking about the past.

It's difficult for me.
Difficult time.

With, like, losing my dad,
it was very, very emotional.

Oh, I was too young
to understand

the value of losing
my dad, and...

[Mick] But you're old enough
to feel the loss and to feel...

[Phil] Old enough to feel
the loss, but not old enough

to appreciate the loss
until I was much older.

It's very, very, very,
very, very painful.

[Nicole Spector]
When my dad's father died...

you know, my dad was very much

shaped by that.

And it was a trauma

that I don't think was ever

really hands-on dealt with.

I think growing up back then--

this is like, you know,
late '40s--

there wasn't such a thing
as, like,

"send your kid to therapy,"

or whatever kind
of coping mechanisms

we may promote now.

We don't know why Ben
killed himself.

But I think there's a very--
there's some suggestion

there may have been
money worries.

But more plausible to me
is the idea

that he was suffering
mentally in some way,

perhaps was bipolar.

And one thinks that
because Shirley,

Phil's sister, then began
to manifest a mental illness.

She, in fact, ended up
in and out of institutions.

When your emotions
control your actions,

it affects not only yourself,
but the people around you.

[Mick] The dynamic
within the family

was clearly very dysfunctional,

where the mother
and the sister

alternately smothered
and bullied Phil.

And in a way, it was like a--

became like a tag
wrestling team, you know.

"You take Phil on."

"No, no, it's your turn
to take Phil on."

And sometimes they'd both
be in the ring at him.

It was like birds
chirping on a wire,

where you know,
they'd be just...

[vocalizing]

Phil, of course, had his own

terrible sort of
mental problems.

So, I think there's some
suggestion there

of hereditary illness
in the family.

They were broke,
they were stranded.

They were very much
a blue-collar family.

I think my dad's dad
worked in construction.

You know, they didn't
have resources.

And my dad
was very precocious,

a very ambitious
young person.

And they moved out to LA,
and I think the idea

was he's gonna make it big.

As I lie awake...

[Russ Titelman]
Some people call it

the rock-and-roll high school.

Mo Ostin went there,
and when I was there,

Steve Berry was there
at Fairfax.

And some guy
who was in The Safaris,

"Image of a Girl," he was there.

Was the image of the girl

I ought to find

[Phil] You know,
timing is the key to everything.

There's an element of luck...

- [Mick] Sure.
- [Phil] ...in everything.

In who you are,
where you are, what you are.

But I call it timing

that I happened to be
in Los Angeles in 1958.

[Russ] I remember
the first time I met him.

I must have been around 13.

And as time went on,
I became very friendly

and close with Phil.

He was unbelievably charismatic.

You know, very smart,
very funny, very charming.

You know, language jokes
and things like that,

like really sharp.

And, but then he was also,

you know, he'd lie about things
unnecessarily.

Like, I think
he had an appointment

to go somewhere,
and we were at my house.

He was on the phone,
you know, saying,

"Oh, we got in a car accident,
so I couldn't make it."

You know, just make shit up.

The truth
was vague sometimes.

He was his own creation.

Of all the girls

That I have met

[Phil] I used to think
I was missing much

by not being normal,

and it sort of made life
complicated for me.

But it made it justified.

"Oh, there's a reason
they hate my fucking guts.

"I look strange,
I act strange,

I'm making strange music,
I make..."

So, there's a reason
to hate my fucking guts,

because I felt hated.

I felt
completely ostracized.

I never felt like I fit in.

[Mick] I think it was Kim Fowley
who once said

that rock and roll is music
made by lonely people

for lonely people,
in the sense

that rock and roll is made
by people in their room.

Phil Spector
was very much that person.

He was that person
in his room.

Started listening to music,

particularly listened to jazz
and R&B stations in Los Angeles,

and became tremendously
passionate about this,

and tremendously enthusiastic
about this.

He didn't have a musical career,

but he was a very good
jazz guitar player.

There was a community
of musicians

that he was a part of,
and he started writing songs.

To know, know, know him

Is to love,
love, love him

Just to see him smile

Makes my life
worthwhile

To know, know, know him

Is to love,
love, love him

And I do,
yes, I do

And I do

And Phil Spector went...

Ba-dah-dah,
dah-dah-dah

I remember two different stories
from Phil about his father.

One-- he did not talk

a lot about him, but one was

that he shot himself
with a gun.

[gunshot]

And Phil found him.

And the other story
was that he--

I think the word
is "asphyxiated" himself.

I know it affected Phil.

That sort of started him
on his journey.

You know, when your father
commits suicide and...

It was almost like
he was devoid of those feelings,

or whatever feelings he had
on those levels,

he put it into his music.

Phil had a social circle,

and he was dating
my girlfriend Donna.

And we were in
junior high school.

And one day Phil came up to me
and he said,

"I love your voice."

Okay.

I mean, I was like
16 and a half.

And he said, "I'm gonna write
a song for your voice,

and you can be in
our singing group."

About two weeks later
the phone rings, and it's Phil.

We went in the recording studio.

Before I started to sing,
Phil came up to me

and he said--

He was even a producer then.

This was the first thing
he ever did.

He said...

"Sing it like you have--
to a boyfriend."

I said, "But I don't have
a boyfriend."

He said,
"Then think of your father."

[music playing,
applause]

Ba-dah-dah,
dah-dah-dah

To know, know, know him

Is to love,
love, love him

Just to see his smile

Makes my life
worthwhile

To know, know, know him

Is to love,
love, love him

And I do...

So, we're at rehearsal
at "The Perry Como Show,"

and when I went to go
for the high note,

'cause it's at the top
of my range,

my voice cracked.

And I was mortified,
just absolutely mortified.

Phil put me up against the wall
and he said,

"If you fuck up my song,
I'm gonna kill you."

Ahh!

And then when we went
to sing the song,

if you look at the show,

there is a moment
before I go for the high note

that I think a look of,

"Please, God,
please let me hit this note."

Do (And I do, and I,
and I do, and I)

Why

Can't he see

How blind can he be

It was a very high note,
but I hit it.

Someday...

The record went on
to become the number-one record

in the world.

It was on the charts longer
than any other record in 1958.

We were in the number-one spot

for I think about four weeks
or five weeks.

To know, know, know him

Is to love,
love, love him

It was sort of ironic
that he would tell me

to sing it to my father,

because he took off
his father's epitaph,

"To know him was to love him,"

and turned it
into a teenage lament,

"To know him is to love him."

And I do
(And I do, and I)

Ooh (And I do, and I)

I do
(And I do, and I)

Yes, I do

When somebody's father
or parent kills themself,

a child at a young age--

because the child is the center
of their own universe,

the child takes on
the burden of responsibility.

You know, "I'm-- I must be
responsible for this

"in some way,
it must be my fault,

you know, that I've been
abandoned."

So, there's this sense
of abandonment,

and there's this sense of guilt,
and these two things going on.

So, I think that was a weight
for him to carry.

[Phil] I was motivated
by a sense of destiny.

I heard something different.

I saw a different kind
of music coming out.

When the Teddy Bears
went to New York,

when they were on tour,
Bertha decided that Shirley

should manage Phil,
manage the group.

Shirley became our manager.

Thank you!

I mean, she was--
that's, you know,

so she would travel
with us at times.

Just what I needed.

He listened to his mother
and his sister.

They were very involved

in Phil's "To Know Him
is to Love Him" Teddy Bear days.

They used to fight.
I didn't know about what,

but they yelled and screamed.

They had a rather contentious
relationship...

that was explosive.

[Carol] Our agent got to a point
where he could not deal

with Shirley Spector.

Could not deal with her.

She was scary.

I wasn't used to that
type of, you know,

constant, you know, anger.

I just, I wasn't used to it.

This was a complete nightmare.

I mean,
it was the brother and sister

squabbling and arguing,

and all of Shirley's incipient
sort of mental instabilities

coming out.

I've never heard such
a cacophony of noise in my life.

Screaming, screaming, screaming.

I mean, I remember, like,
I would always--

I couldn't bear
the screaming.

It was so intense.

It was like they didn't--

[shrieking]
It was always up here!

[in normal voice]
Instead of talking normally.

[Mick] After the Teddy Bears
had become a hit,

you know, he was desperate
to get away

from this stifling
dysfunctional family setup.

Phil was still living at home
with Bertha and Shirley,

with the tag wrestling team.

Obviously, very anxious
to get away from that.

Phil actually moved out,
and goes back to New York

to work as the apprentice,
as it were,

to Jerry Leiber
and Mike Stoller,

who at that point were probably
the most successful producers

in pop music.

[Jeff Barry] I remember him
coming around to the offices,

and I was introduced
to him then,

and that's when
we started to collaborate.

We had a lot of fun.

I mean, there's nothing
to be not fun

about writing songs

and being in your early 20s.

It wasn't a hobby.

It was serious
and dedicated, for sure.

By this point, Phil is--
he's really beginning

to feel his way,
and he's really beginning

to believe in himself.

He wasn't 21 yet,
and he wanted to have his money

to start his record company,
but his mother

wouldn't allow him
to have the money

because he wasn't 21.

So, I had to go to court
with Phil,

and I was gonna be one
of the people

speaking out in his favor

that he should have the money.

And his mother got on
and started talking,

and talking, and talking.

"He can't be trusted,
that we need the money,"

and just nasty, degrading,
so to speak.

And the judge
is shaking his head,

and finally the gavel came down.

- [gavel striking]
-"I've heard enough

of this," he said.

"Give him the money.
He's smart enough

to earn the money.
He should have the money."

[Carol] I think that Phil,
after the success

of "To Know Him is to Love Him,"

realized that he had
to control everything.

And that's what he did.

The record industry
at that point was--

a lot of the people who were
powerful in the business

were slightly older.

They didn't want their territory
encroached on.

They certainly didn't want
some young whippersnapper,

as Phil Spector was, coming in

and encroaching
on their territory.

He went on to start
his own record label.

Philles, it was called,
if I'm not mistaken.

Before 1950,
kids, teenagers,

weren't a market.

They didn't have money.

So, no one was creating
music for them,

only creating music for adults.

Young people started writing
for young people.

Yeah, I met Phil Spector
when I was 13,

'cause we-- Phil was
recording us in New York.

I loved the way he dressed,
I thought it was cool.

I remember him
going down in his seat

in the studio
when he was thinking

with the music,
like in a trance.

[Phil] I wanted to be
in the background.

I wanted to be in
the background,

but I wanted to be important,

and I wanted
to be the focal point.

And I was not afraid
or concerned

about doing
anyone else's material,

rewriting it,
I didn't care.

I concerned myself
with the finished product

and the art, because I had
this sound in my head.

By this point, Phil, he's got
this sort of stable of artists,

with the Paris Sisters,

the Crystals,
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans.

And he's shopping around
for another Crystals song,

and a songwriter and artist
named Gene Pitney

has written a song
called "He's a Rebel."

Phil immediately
wants to record this,

but he makes the decision
that he wants to record it

back in Los Angeles.

[music]

[Darlene Love]
I met him at Gold Star.

He introduced himself

and said he had this group
called the Crystals,

but they were very young

and they couldn't come out

to California to record.

So, he was looking for a group
and a singer

to record this song
that he wanted me to do.

He's my guy

And he came in
in a suit, number one,

and he had on a tie,
and he had on heels.

So, we went into the studio,

he taught me the song
"He's a Rebel."

But when he told me
he wanted me to sing lead,

I said, "Well, it'll cost more
for me to sing lead."

He's a rebel
and he'll never, ever be...

I thought it was a cute song,
I didn't think, you know.

All the songs during that time
were cute little--

well, we call 'em
bubblegum songs.

The Crystals were doing a gig.
It was five of us.

It was five, I think,
five of us, yeah, at the time.

And we were doing a gig,

and you know, we always
put on the radio

so we can hear, and--
the top 10, or whatever.

And we hear "He's a Rebel."

He's not a rebel,
oh, no, no, no

To me

Nobody thought
of anything.

And the guy says,
"The Crystals."

We were like, "Huh?"

It was not my song,
and I knew that the whole time.

That's why I never really got
upset about it,

or felt I was cheated,
or anything like that.

I knew when I went
into his studio

to record "He's a Rebel,"
it was not gonna be my record.

I'm very good on stage.

They won't like me
after today

And I'm very powerful.

And I can take Darlene's voice
and make it mine,

but nobody
would be dissatisfied.

So, I wasn't worried
about being secure.

I just was pissed
because the Crystal name

was underneath that,
and we were established.

There was no way in heck

that we could not
have done that song,

especially with my voice.

Oh, no, no, no

He's not a rebel,
oh, no, no, no, to me

It upset us when he did that.

It upset us a lot.
It upset us.

No, no, no,
no, no, no

No, no, no

We had a manager,
Joe Scandore.

Joe Scandore was no joke,
'cause he knew he was mafia,

you know, was-- had connection,
and that's who managed us.

So, Joe Scandore was furious.

One day when I went
to his office,

he's laughing with Jim,
this big bouncer,

and he said--
with his Italian accent,

he said, "Jim, tell La La
what you just did."

And he said, "Yeah, La La,"

he said, "I just flew
from California."

He said, "Yeah, I ran Phil
around the effing table."

He said, "And I told Phil
if he didn't record you girls,"

he said, "I was gonna,
you know, kill his mother

and cut his effing legs."

Phil got scared,
and from that day on

Phil carried bodyguards
with him every place he went.

- That other bar's the same?
- Yeah, we'll...

[Darlene] After we did
"He's a Rebel,"

Phil wanted to do
something special for me.

So, we were getting ready
to do a Darlene Love song.

I started learning
"Doo Ron Ron,"

and that was supposed
to be another song

that was supposed to be mine
and not the Crystals.

[La La] Phil never wanted
to use Darlene

on "Da Doo Ron Ron"
because she had a woman's voice.

Listen to the lyrics.

It's for a child,
a young person.

That's number one.

Number two,
he was not putting Darlene

on another track
of the Crystals.

All I could think about
is Jim and Joe Scandore.

Phil never told me,
even when I saw him.

And many a day
I saw him in California

putting down the music.

He never took me to the side
and said, "You know, La La,

guess what Joe Scandore
did to me?"

So, you know, I don't know
how it crushed Phil,

how it had an impact on him,
why he kept quiet.

And I think the reason why Phil
didn't give an explanation

is because he flew me out
to California,

I recorded "Da Doo Ron Ron,"

and he had one
of the biggest hits.

I met him on a Monday
and my heart stood still

Da doo ron-ron-ron,
da doo ron ron

Somebody told me
that his name was Bill

Da doo ron-ron-ron,
da doo ron ron

Yes, he looked
so fine

Yes, I'll make him mine

And when he walked
me home

Da doo ron-ron-ron,
da doo ron ron

Yeah, yeah...

[Darlene] I'm coming home
from a session,

and I'm driving
down the street,

and the disc jockey
on the radio

said, "The next song
by the Crystals."

Da doo ron ron, yeah...

It was the same one,
it was the same key,

same arrangement,
the same thing,

he just didn't have
my voice on it.

The records that he's making,
they're not Crystals records,

they're not
Darlene Love records.

They're Phil Spector records.

The producer becomes
bigger than the stars,

you know, the producer becomes
bigger than the hits,

the producer is the hit.

And he's dominating
the American music scene

with the wall of sound.

There really wasn't
any particular artist

we were writing for.

Whoever was next
up for a release of a single

would get the next song.

And he asked me
if I wanted to dance

[Russ] That's what made him
such a big star,

that he was the creator
of this sound.

The wall of sound
was having the cacophony

of four piano players
playing the same part,

and five guitar players playing
the same part,

but expanding it.

And I used to say,
"We're the mud of his records."

We were at a studio
called Gold Star,

and Gold Star
had an echo chamber

that was one of the keys
to their sound there.

And if you knew
how to use it right--

and he did-- it just expanded
the sound, you know, tenfold.

Phil would say,
"Well, let's try this,

"let's bounce this over here

to this track,
or bounce it here."

And we'd go in the booth
and listen to the playback,

and it was amazing
what he was able to do

with those tracks.

And then he kissed me

All those hit records have that
full, almost symphonic sound.

He was like the master
of that style.

[Jeff] I believe in a way
he was on stage.

It was his theater.

I mean, you have
to have control

as the director
of a project.

He revered the musicians,
he respected the musicians.

The singers,
who essentially were kids,

you know, they were--

La La Brooks I think
was 15, 16,

when she recorded
"Then He Kissed Me."

Then he asked me
to be his bride

He certainly was the one

who demanded attention,
and he got it.

I almost cried,
and then he kissed me

Maybe that's what he was doing,
trying to outshine the artist,

and try to control them
contractually

in every other way,

and that he was the star
and not them.

He was never really
that rude with the musicians.

He could be a bit terse,
but we had a sense of humor

and we'd give it back
to him, you know.

But sometimes the way he spoke
to some of the girl singers,

he was really rude, you know,
which really used to bother me.

They didn't like it,
but they would take the rudeness

because he knew--
at the bottom line,

they were getting paid.

And then he kissed me

[Jeff] It was kind of mean,
tell you the truth.

He really wasn't
treating them as artists.

They were tools.

They weren't people
that could stand up to him

in the way that musicians could.

They weren't people that could
answer back to him.

You know, the Paris Sisters,

which were a copy of me,

Phil played them
"To Know Him is to Love Him"

and said, "I want you to do
whatever, you know, she did.

That is what
I want to capture."

The very sweet, gentle...

I love how your eyes close

I love how
your eyes close

Whenever you kiss me

The first time I heard it,

I was driving
and it was raining,

and I had the radio on.

For one split second in time,
I thought it was me.

I really thought it was me.

And then reality came in.

Pulled off to the side
of the road

and started to cry,

because I knew he had
the formula...

and I was not a part of it.

[clicks tongue]

Ooh

[Phil] Being comfortable
and reasonable,

very important to me,
very important to me.

Because I don't feel comfortable
with myself a lot,

and I don't feel
reasonable a lot.

I feel comfortable
in the studio.

So, I sat back and said,
it's like those records.

They were the greatest love
of my life

when I were making them.

I lived and breathed
those records.

That's why I never had
relationships with anybody

that could last.

They were my life.

They were more important to me
than anything.

My songs, my records,
my li-- they were my life.

You know, nothing competed
with them.

[music playing]

[male reporter] Never in
the history of popular music

has the recording industry
been so completely in the grip

of America's teenagers.

This new type of music
has been described

as the teen feel,
and the dumb sound.

These new songs are usually
about broken romances

and unfulfilled love.

The lyrics are simple-minded
and repetitive.

The sound is loud, weird,
and driving as possible.

The singers are young
and often inexperienced.

The new generation
has turned Tin Pan Alley

into "Teen" Pan Alley.

[music continues]

My next guest,
Mr. Phil Spector,

former member of the teenage
rock and roll group

the Teddy Bears.

Mr. Spector
is 23 years old

and one of the most successful
songwriters in the business.

His famous songs include
"Spanish Harlem,"

"Secondhand Love,"
"Da Doo Ron Ron,"

and many others.

Mr. Spector is the sole owner
of Philles Records,

which is expected to gross

two and a half million dollars
this year.

Now, I submit,
Mr. Spector...

- [Phil] Help me.
- ...that in the long history

of American popular music,
this is not likely to endure.

[Carol Connors] You must
give the devil his due,

and Phil was brilliant.

He had everything
in the palm of his hands,

and God, I still think today
that, as I said,

I do think he was a genius
when it came to music.

He would make little symphonies
and-- you know, of songs,

and they became
like little vignettes

that all of us teenagers--

I mean, "He's a Rebel,"
all of them.

You know, they--
"Be My Baby."

["Be My Baby" playing]

The night we met,
I knew I needed you so

The Ronettes did
"The T.N.T. Show."

And if I had the chance,
I'd never let you go

Oh, what a beautiful song,

we just loved that song.

It was a glorious song.

"Be My Baby,"
what a fantastic song that is,

and an enormous hit
for Phil Spector.

And the beginning of a,
you know, of a good run

of Ronettes hits.

Be my baby,
be my little baby

Ronnie was always the smallest,

so she had to be the loudest.

She had to be in the middle,
you know, so she could hear

everything that was going on
around her.

I'll make you happy, baby,
just wait and see

When I heard Ronnie's voice,
she just blew me away,

and her sisters.

I saw you, I have been
waiting for you

I loved the Crystals' stuff,
"He's a Rebel"

and "Da Doo Ron Ron."

But Ronnie took it
to another place.

So won't you be

Be my, be my baby,
be my little baby

And so, in short order,
the Crystals

get rather pushed
to one side,

and the Ronettes become
the center of his attention,

and particularly
Veronica Bennett,

who becomes better known
eventually as Ronnie Spector.

[Nedra] Phil had his eye
on Ronnie from the beginning.

I didn't have a problem.

Don't look at me.
[laughing]

That's-- I remember
what I was thinking.

Just don't even look this way.

But, you know,

unfortunately
he was married, so...

And the first night
we walked in,

it was just him
sitting at the piano.

And he looked at me,
and I looked at him,

it was like eye contact,

and he says,
"Well, sing me some song."

And I started singing...

Why do birds sing
so gay

And Phil stopped,
he said,

"That's the voice
I've been looking for!"

Be my, be my baby,
be my little baby

My one and only baby,
ohh

[Mick] At this point Phil wasn't
entirely without female company.

He had got married in New York,

this very pretty
elfin-looking young girl

called Annette Merar.

He obviously loved
Annette greatly.

And after he'd betrayed her
terribly, of course,

she still spoke about him

with a tremendous sort
of affection.

[Annette] Phil had
the other qualities

of charisma,
and charm, and humor,

and I've always liked
geniuses, and poets,

and things like that,
because I need that.

I don't know why.

He made my soul
just fall in love.

[Mick] And listening
back to the tapes,

it sort of struck me,
God, she was still--

even though she'd obviously
made her own life,

and married,
and had a family,

there's a part of her
that's still--

was still in love
with Phil, you know,

had never fallen out of love
with Phil.

And it's a sign
of the love he had for her

that on the runout groove
of the records

he would put "Phil + Annette."

And the first record that
that didn't appear on

was "Be My Baby"
by The Ronettes.

[Nedra] When I found out
he was married, I was like,

this is wrong.

We just grew up with
certain things you don't do.

God-- you don't get blessed
when you do wrong.

The way he acted
toward his wife,

I just felt bad.

Phil was not even
Ronnie's type.

He had a lot of insecurity

because of his stature
and things like that.

So, why would you look,

except you see something
that you can get out of it?

[Mick] Ronnie I think
wanted to be a star.

She wanted to be famous,
she wanted to be successful.

And Phil Spector
was her passport to that.

[Nedra] If somebody's got
their eye on you,

and they're older than you,

and they're saying,
"I can do all these things,"

you could see where
that's a big pull.

But you don't know what
you're getting pulled into.

[Mick] In Phil Spector's case,
the selfishness,

the way he handles
these situations,

I think this sort of shows
a pattern.

It was pretty common
at that point

and recurred throughout.

You know, there were people
who were useful to him,

who he could use
and then dispense with.

This, I think, goes to one
of the most unpleasant traits

Spector would exhibit
throughout his life,

is seeing people as disposable.

Women, in particular.

[Phil] I controlled everything
in this instance.

I was a control freak.

You have to conquer yourself,
you know,

you have to really...
control your own self.

I have devils inside
that fight me,

and I'm my own worst enemy.

For all intents and purposes,
I'd say I'm probably

relatively insane.

[Mick] It felt extraordinary.

It felt almost as if I was at
a confessional in some way.

I mean, he hadn't spoken for--

not given a formal
sit-down interview

for 20, 25 years.

And the last thing
I'd expected

was that he would speak
with quite as much candor

and quite as much honesty
as he did,

and with a sort of revelation
of really naked, naked emotion.

At the end of the day
as the sun was going down,

I came away from that interview
just thinking

this was-- this was just
extraordinary.

You know, my final
sort of words really there

with Spector's
personal assistant...

you know, "We'd love to see
a copy of the article

when it comes out,"
and so I said, of course.

As soon as the early binds
came into the office,

I had some FedEx-ed
over to Spector's house

so that he would be able
to read it at the same time

as it was being published
in Britain

on the Saturday morning.

The Monday afterwards,
I happened to be

in the telegraph office,

and somebody came down
from upstairs and said,

"What did you write
to upset Phil Spector?"

I said, "Why, what do you mean?"

"Well, turn on
the television."

We turned on the television,

and there was the sort of--

the classic sort of
helicopter shot

of the Pyrenees Castle
where I'd interviewed him

four or five weeks earlier,

this time bound round
with yellow police tape,

squad cars with their lights,
you know, flashing on top,

detectives in boxy suits

sort of moving
in and out of the house,

and the news that
an unidentified woman

had been found shot dead
in Phil Spector's home.

And I looked at Casper,

the editor who'd commissioned
the piece,

and he looked at me, and we both
had exactly the same thought.

My God, he's read the piece,
the piece has set him off,

and he shot
his personal assistant.

That was our thought,
that he'd sort of just gone--

that he'd flipped reading this.

[Nicole] I was in a class
about magical realism.

We were reading something,

and I don't know what it was.

I wish I could remember.

But there was this line

that she kept repeating.

She kept saying,
"They took my father.

They took my father."

Like, she kept being like,
"I want you to feel this line."

And this woman showed up.

She, like, ducked
into the classroom

and pulled me out.

And my immediate thought was
that one of my parents was dead.

I was very attached
to my parents.

I was shaking,
I was so scared,

'cause I-- that was always
my biggest fear.

And first, she was like,
"Your mom's okay,

your dad's okay."

And I was just like,
"Oh my God, thank God."

And then she says,
"But, like, something happened.

"A woman died
at your dad's house,

"and it's all over the news.

"We need to get you out
right now.

"We don't know who it was,
we don't know anything yet.

"But you know, like,
you should probably

stay out of school for now."

You know, I'm like,
"Where's my father?"

And they're like,
"They took your father."

And I'm like,
just thinking, like,

"They took my father,
they took my father,"

from this class, this line
my professor kept reciting.

So, she took me
to a coffee shop.

The news was on,
and it was like

this, like, big circus
was happening

at my dad's house,

and I was just like
in total disbelief.

It was just very surreal.

It was-- it was bad
magical realism.

[Paul] We anticipated
it was gonna be a media show.

We knew that
going into that.

It was a media circus,
it was insane.

[Charles Gibson] Phil Spector,
who helped define

rock and roll music,
was arrested Monday

shortly after a dead woman
was found...

[reporter 2] Known as much
for his bizarre behavior

as for his musical genius.

[Richard] We were receiving
phone calls

while we were in the midst
of our investigation

that this thing
was on all the news channels.

At the time, the general feeling
in Los Angeles

was that no celebrity

would ever be convicted
of anything.

You know, you're on the heels
of the OJ trial,

you're on the heels
of the Robert Blake trials.

You know, he's someone also
who's always used

to being in charge.

Coming into this,
that was at the top of my mind--

some big producer right now
that is--

they're looking at for murder.

So, here we go,
here comes the next OJ trial.

The interesting thing was,
we did not know

who the victim was.

We later on received
a phone call

from an individual
from the House of Blues

who stated that he had seen
Phil Spector

leave with his coworker,
Lana Clarkson.

[reporter] The victim,
a beautiful B-movie actress

named Lana Clarkson,
with 17 movie appearances

and her own website.

[reporter 2] Lana Clarkson
was writing a book,

according to reports,
about the men

she's known in Hollywood.

First reports say
she and Spector

hadn't met before.

That is now in doubt,
some sources saying

they had known each other
for some time.

[Nicole] The next day
of the event,

my dad called me
and was like, "Hey, I'm okay,

"you know, I'm fine.

Don't worry about me,
you know, keep your chin up."

He just wanted me to know
he was okay,

everything was gonna be okay,

there was this huge
misunderstanding,

and it was getting worked out.

I didn't-- I didn't have
any questions for him

other, like, than,
"Are you okay?"

It never seemed a possibility

that he would have actually
murdered someone.

We would sometimes
have conversations

where he'd be like, "I don't
know what the fuck's going on,

"like, this woman
came into my house.

Apparently, she shot herself,"
and, you know,

he was baffled.

We have to be fair
to Phil Spector

and his allegation.

We have to go
through Lana Clarkson.

[Paul] There were pieces
of her teeth

that she had--
her two front teeth

had been blown out
during this gunshot,

and they were found
on the floor,

and I believe a piece was even
all the way to the stairway--

again, maybe 10, 12 feet away.

There was a couple
of bloody towels.

One was actually--
it turned out to be a diaper.

Ultimately it was collected.

Ultimately it was turned over
to the crime lab.

There was a lot of evidence,

but there was no
definitive proof of anything.

Now, again,
you have to look at someone's--

you know, that day,
their past,

how they've been, their moods,
what occurred at work.

You know, you gotta go with all
these little bits and pieces.

Is someone suicidal,
are they not?

Like, how do you determine that?

It has to be
by what they call

this forensic look
at her life.

I'm sorry
that I met you

Now I only just regret you

I remember the night

When you first
held me tight

Ohh, now I'm sorry
that I met you

I was lost
in the hurricane

La-la-la, la-la-la

All my friends
thought I was insane

La-la-la, la-la-la-la

You knew me when

We were both
just friends

But I knew that
I'd love you till the end

I'm sorry that I met you...