Phil Spector, revolutionary music producer who was convicted of murder in 2009, dead at 81

Phil Spector, the revolutionary music producer behind some of music's biggest hits, died while serving time in prison at age 81. 

California state prison officials said he died Saturday of natural causes at a hospital. "His official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office," a statement from the facility reads. Decades before his conviction, Spector had been hailed as a visionary for channeling Wagnerian ambition into the three-minute song, creating the "Wall of Sound" that merged spirited vocal harmonies with lavish orchestral arrangements to produce such pop monuments as "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Be My Baby" and "He’s a Rebel."