A one-off documentary about Phil Spector made around the time of his unannounced
retirement from music production.
Archive clips, interviews and speculation made up what is probably the best of the
Spector documentaries so far. There was no presenter as such but KROQ-FM's Rodney
Bingenheimer, a then friend of Spector, acted as a linking device, actively provoking
Spector to contribute to the show. It featured people that Spector has worked with
(or crossed) along the way including Leiber & Stoller, Lester Sill, Darlene Love,
The Ramones and Ronnie Spector. The contribution of Albert Goldman could have proved
an interesting "what if" should he ever have written a biography of the man.
Practically no-one in the show had a good word to say about Spector's character,
but at the same time would begrudgingly acknowledge his genius and success. In the
end, of course, Spector chose not to participate, adding to his self-manufactured
sense of legend.
The producers plainly knew their stuff as at one point they referred to (and played
a bit of) the legendary "Crystals" track Do The Screw, intended as an "up yours"
to an old business partner.
Broadcast between 7.35 - 9.00 pm on a Saturday evening it was repeated once on 26th
January 1985, but has not been seen since, although the Ronnie Spector interview
has had plenty of re-use mileage in other Spector documentaries.
