Ronnie Spector, lead singer of the Ronettes, the 1960s vocal trio that gave the girl group’s pop sound a passionate, naughty girly edge with hits like “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You” passed away on Wednesday. She was 78.
She died after “a brief battle with cancer,” according to a statement from her family, who gave no further details.
With high-up hair, sleek outfits and seductive looks, the three young women of the Ronettes – Ronnie, née Veronica Bennett; her sister, Estelle; and their cousin Nedra Talley – transformed the virginal model that defined female pop groups since the 1940s.
“We weren’t afraid to be hot. That was our gimmick,” wrote Ms. Spector in her 1990 memoir, “Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette.”
“When we saw the Shirelles take the stage in their baggy party dresses,” she wrote, “we went in the opposite direction and squeezed our bodies into the tightest skirts we could find. Then we got on stage and walked upstairs. to show our legs even more.”
In songs like “Be My Baby”, a number 2 hit in 1963, they sang in powerful voices of street-smart romance (“We’ll make ’em turn their heads everyplace we go”), over the swelling “wall of sound” production by Phil Spector.
“Be My Baby” was a 60s pop classic that seemed to reveal both innocence and guts, and it garnered lasting admiration from fellow musicians. It appeared in Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets”, the popular 1987 television “Moonlighting” and the title series of “Dirty Dancing”. The group’s looks and sound made them a touchstone for women in rock music, from Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders to Amy Winehouse.
Later, Mrs. Spector endured the abuse she endured when she was married to Mr. Spector. When the group was inducted into Rock Hall, they emphatically did not name their former producer. Phil Spector, who was sentenced to prison for the 2003 murder of a woman at his home, died last January at the age of 81.
Memory of Ronnie Spector
The lead singer of the Ronettes, the 1960s vocal trio that gave a passionate, bad-girl edge to pop girl-group sound, died on January 12, 2022.
The Ronettes had a string of hits in 1965, including “The Best Part of Breakin’ Up” and “Walking in the Rain,” and for a time they were ubiquitous stars. They were part of the Beatles’ 1966 US tour, and Estelle Bennett, Mrs. Spector’s older sister, was in a relationship with both George Harrison and Mick Jagger.
The Ronettes split in 1967 and Mrs Spector married Mr Spector the following year. In her memoir, she wrote that he essentially imprisoned her during their relationship, surrounded her with guard dogs, and took her shoes, among other erratic and psychologically abusive behavior.
“I would get drunk so I could go to rehab just to get out of the house,” Ms. Spector told DailyExpertNews in an interview in 2000.
In the late 1980s, the Ronettes sued Mr. Spector for royalties, arguing that they had paid less than $15,000 when they signed with Mr. Spector’s Philles Records and that they had never seen another payment. The lawsuit would last 15 years.
At trial, Ms. Spector said her husband had stifled her singing career and threatened her to sign a 1974 divorce settlement that forfeited all future record profits. “He said to me, ‘I will kill you,’ and said, ‘I will have you killed by a hit man,'” she testified.
The group won a $2.6 million award in 2000, but the decision was overturned on appeal two years later, and their families later said they ended up earning significantly less.
“I was so controlled by Phil, and now I have my own ideas,” Ms Spector said at the time. “Now that this lawsuit is over, I’m only looking forward: to my future, to singing rock ‘n’ roll.”
Veronica Yvette Bennett was born in New York on August 10, 1943 and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.
In her teens she sang with her sister and cousin, inspired by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Estelle, who had a job at Macy’s and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, helped come up with the look of the group: beehive hair, tight dresses, and heavy makeup.
In a segregated era, the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the young women made them stand out. The Bennett sisters had black, American Indian and Irish blood, while Mrs. Talley was black, Indian and Puerto Rican.
In 1961, the Ronettes were signed to Colpix Records, which released “I Want a Boy” and other singles under the name Ronnie and the Relatives. After an audition in 1963, Mr. Spector’s group at Philles. ‘Be My Baby’, written by Mr. Spector, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, was released that summer.
In an effort to rebuild her career without her ex-husband, Ms. Spector teamed up with Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen in the 1970s. But she didn’t find great success again until 1986, when her duet with Eddie Money, “Take Me Home Tonight”, reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and earned a Grammy nomination.
Ms. Spector later released music as a solo artist, including for the underground independent label Kill Rock Stars, and in 2012 hosted a biographical one-man show, “Beyond the Beehive”.
She regularly played a Christmas show at the BB King Blues Club and Grill in New York, and she released a holiday EP in 2010. For loyal fans, it was a throwback to Phil Spector’s classic 1963 holiday album, “A Christmas Gift for You,” on which the Ronettes sang “Frosty the Snowman,” “Sleigh Ride” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”
Estelle Bennett died in 2009; after her death, Estelle’s daughter revealed that she had suffered from mental illness and had been homeless for a time.
Ms. Spector is survived by her husband of nearly four decades, Jonathan Greenfield, who also served as her manager, and two adult sons, Jason and Austin.
Her last two cover albums – “The Last of the Rock Stars” in 2006 and “English Heart”, featuring renditions of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”, in 2016 – were received calmly. But she was glad she was the one who chose her material.
“Every song is a little piece of my life,” she said in 2007. “I’m just a girl from the ghetto who wanted to sing.”