Phil Spector Makes Bail

For now, Phil Spector's singing an unchained melody.

The legendary music producer, hailed as a rock genius for creating the "Wall of Sound" recording technique, has been sprung on $1 million bail after being arrested for the murder of cult-film actress Lana Clarkson.

Spector, the eccentric mastermind behind such indelible jukebox fodder as "Unchained Melody," "Be My Baby" and "To Know Him Is to Love Him," was released from police custody around 7 p.m. and was hustled away by his defense attorney, Robert Shapiro. (Celebrity court watchers undoubtedly recall Shapiro as one of the "Dream Team" who helped O.J. Simpson get acquitted of murder charges.)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame producer was taken into custody early Monday morning after police were called to his sprawling fortress-like estate in suburban Los Angeles and discovered the 40-year-old woman shot to death in his marble foyer.

Officials said that a limo driver called police at 5 a.m. when he heard gunshots shortly after dropping off Spector and Clarkson. A neighbor told a local TV station that she heard three or four shots.

Investigators found a gun at the scene that they suspect was the murder weapon. Spector's new black Mercedes, with its driver's door open, was parked all day in front of the iron gates to his hilltop mansion known as the "Pyrenees Castle."

Very few details have emerged about the relationship Clarkson had with the 62-year-old music pioneer, though sources told the Los Angeles Times that the two had met the night before. A lawyer friend, Marvin Mitchelson, said the two-time Grammy winner had been living alone and didn't have a girlfriend.

Clarkson and Spector were believed to be the only people in the mansion, though investigators didn't rule out another person on the grounds at the time of the slaying.

Neither Shapiro nor Spector's publicist would comment on the murder charges and the investigation.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Alhambra, California, police said Spector had been booked "for murder but did not make any confession."

A former teen popster turned songwriter and producer, Spector helmed some of the greatest acts of the 1960s and '70s. He helped churn out hits for Elvis Presley, the Ronettes, Ike and Tina Turner, the Beatles, Gene Pitney, the Crystals and even the Ramones.

Among the songs he put through his Wall of Sound--which layered multiple vocals and instruments to create a richer recording--were the Righteous Brothers' "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," Ben E. King's "Stand by Me," the Beatles' "Long and Winding Road," John Lennon's "Instant Karma" and "Imagine" and George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

But Spector's reputation was also marred by allegations of domestic abuse, heavy drinking and bizarre behavior, including pulling a gun on the Ramones during the recording of their End of Century, the last album he made.

Leonard Cohen, who collaborated with Spector on his 1977 album, Death of a Ladies Man, once told the New York Times that Spector was nearly impossible to work with.

"It's very hard to fight him--he just disappears," Cohen said. "He was in possession of the tapes; his bodyguard took them back to his house every night. I knew he was mad, but I thought that his madness would be more adorable, on the ordinary, daily level. I love the guy, but he's out of control."

Spector became a recluse, holing himself up in his estate and surrounding himself with bodyguards. He interacted little with his neighbors, whom he once mocked in an Esquire interview when he said he had a bought "a beautiful and enchanting castle in a hick town where there is no place to go that you shouldn't go."

While Spector denied being a troublemaker and said most of the stories about him were exaggerated, he did acknowledge that substance abuse had affected his behavior.

In recent years, friends say Spector has chilled out and become more sociable, attending L.A. Lakers games with friend Nancy Sinatra and holding annual bowling parties. He was said to be working on a film about his life.

As for the victim, Clarkson had a string of B-movie credits dating from the '80s, including Death Stalker, Blind Date, Vice Girls and Amazon Women on the Moon. She starred as Roger Corman's Barbarian Queen, a character cited on her Website (www.lanaclarkson.com) as a precursor to Xena: Warrior Princess.

Clarkson also appeared in bit parts in more mainstream fare, including Brian De Palma's Scarface, My Favorite Year and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She also racked up numerous appearances on such TV shows as Three's Company, Happy Days, Knight Rider and Wings.

Before her death, Clarkson had formed Living Doll Productions to get her own projects off the ground and was a regular at comic-book and fantasy conventions.