RONNIE SPECTOR (1943 - 2022)

Ronnie Spector, the voice behind the girl group, The Ronettes who had big hits in the 1960's with "Baby, I Love You" and "Be My Baby", has passed away on January 12th at the age of seventy-eight after a battle with cancer. Referred to as the "bad girl of rock and roll", Spector had a brief, volatile marriage to producer, Phil Spector who helped bring the group to great success with his unique production style.

Born Veronica Bennett in the Spanish Harlem section of New York, she began singing with her older sister, Estelle and their cousin, Nedra Talley as young girls, first forming a group called the Darling Sisters. The girls managed to get a recording contract with a local label, releasing a few singles that failed to chart. Unhappy at the label, the trio had Phil Spector on their radar and worked to audition for him. He was impressed with their sound, particularly Ronnie, and signed the group, now renamed "The Ronettes", to his label, Philles Records in 1963.

"Be My Baby", written by Spector and the songwriting team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, was The Ronettes's first official single (after several of their early recordings were credited to "The Crystals") and was an immediate hit, peaking at number two on the the Billboard Top 100 chart. This began their meteoric rise with other hits, "Do I Love You?", "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" and "Walking in the Rain" before the group's first album, "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica" was released in late 1964 and would ultimately become their only studio album. 

With Spector falling in love with Ronnie, it seemed like he didn't want the Ronettes to become too popular, refusing to release some of their already recorded singles that would go on to be recorded by other groups. By 1967, due to a decline in popularity and internal problems within the group due to Spector's complete devotion to Ronnie, the Ronettes broke up. Not long after, Ronnie married Spector which began years of psychological abuse and being held captive in their Beverly Hills mansion before finally escaping him in 1972.

Spector first tried to restart her career by attempting to reunite with the Ronettes but Nedra and Estelle were not interested in returning to the group. She hired new singers and recorded some songs in 1975 before deciding to go on as a solo artist. After several attempts, Spector recorded her first solo album, "Siren" in 1980 but it didn't get much attention. It would not be until rocker, Eddie Money asked her to perform backing vocals on his 1986 song, "Take Me Home Tonight" and appeared in the music video that Spector enjoyed a brief moment of renewed popularity when the single reached the top-five on the pop chart. She recorded another solo album, "Unfinished Business" the following year but it failed to chart. Spector went on to write a memoir in 1990, "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette" and was inducted with the Ronettes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.