Long before Phil Spector was single-handedly constructing his "Wall of Sound" with stacked-up, single-track-mono teen symphonies, he too was a struggling vocalist and musician looking for a break. That break came in 1958 as songwriter, guitarist, and backup singer for the short-lived L.A-based trio, the Teddy Bears, who landed a left-field number one hit with Spector's first recorded composition, the elegiac and sepulchral ballad "To Know Him Is to Love Him," a tribute to his deceased father (who had committed suicide in 1949, during Spector's childhood).
As a teenager, Spector was a loner. With little to interest him while taking classes at Fairfax High School, he was drawn to studying music, and soon excelled on the guitar, piano, drums, bass, and French horn. He also began writing and recording original songs in the R&B genre.
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