“Her joyful sound, playful nature, and magical presence will live on in all who knew, heard, or saw her,” Spector’s family said of the “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain” vocalist
Ronnie Spector, the leader of girl group The Ronettes and the voice behind immortal classics like "Be My Baby" and "Walking in the Rain," died Wednesday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 78 years old.
"Ronnie lived his life with a gleam in his eye, a playful attitude, a wicked humor and a smile on his face," his family said in a statement. "She was full of love and gratitude. Her joyful voice, playful disposition and magical presence will live on in all who knew, heard or saw her."
The Ronettes were the quintessential work of the girl-group era of the early sixties, and Spector's silk-meets-sandpaper voice powered all of their songs. Last year, "Be My Baby," the genre's defining track, was honored at number 22 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"All the musicians dropped their horns and guitars on whatever they were holding, and they were seeing this new girl in town," Spector recalled during a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone. "All the musicians were shouting, 'Oh my god. His voice!' And I'm saying, 'I? A little girl from Spanish Harlem?' ,
The huge success of "Be My Baby" in the summer of 1963 transformed the Ronettes into superstars, and made massive waves throughout the pop landscape. Brian Wilson said in 2013, "I was driving [the first time I heard it], and I had to pull over to the side of the road - it blew my mind." "I felt like I wanted to try something. That song's as good, and I never did. I've stopped trying. It's the greatest record ever. Nobody's ever on that." Will climb."
The Ronettes had trouble keeping themselves at the top, although the following year they had several hits that brought them to England, where they toured with the Rolling Stones. The group charted with "Baby, I Love You," "Walking in the Rain," "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up," and "Do I Love You."
"I just heard the news about Ronnie Spector, and I don't know what to say," Wilson said in a statement shortly after the news of his death. "I loved her voice so much, and she was a very special person and a dear friend. It just breaks my heart. Ronnie's music and spirit will live on forever."
"He would have his place in history because there was no one like him," Darlene Love, who worked with Spector in the early days, tells Rolling Stone. "When I first met her in 1964, she was such a small thing - she reminded me of a little Barbie doll. But then she had such a great voice. The way she sang and moved on stage, she It was rock and roll."
Phil Spector, who began an affair with Ronnie shortly after signing the group in 1963, produced all of the group's hits. They married in 1968 and separated in 1972. In her 1990 memoir, Be My Baby, she wrote that her relationship with Spector was marked by years of horrific violence and abuse.
"As I said many times when he was alive, he was a brilliant producer, but a lousy husband," she said shortly after she died last year. "Unfortunately, Phil was not able to live and work outside the recording studio. It was dark, many lives were lost. I still smile whenever I listen to the music we made together, and Will always do. Music will be there forever."
Veronica Yvette Bennett grew up in New York City and began singing at a young age with her sister Estelle and her cousin Nedra Talley. Calling themselves the Darling Sisters, they performed around the city while still attending George Washington High School. After a few unsuccessful singles, Phil Spector signed him and immediately began writing songs specifically for his voice. "Seeing them making it in the recording studio, I knew I was doing a great job," she said. "He was completely in control, directing everyone. So much to love about those days."
In 1964, the group traveled to England to play a series of shows with the Rolling Stones the following year. "They were a bunch of crooked-looking people," she told Rolling Stone in 2016. "But I loved them, and I especially loved Keith because I love that rugged look."
Inducting the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, Richards said, "They could sing their way all the way through the wall of sound." "They didn't need anything."
The success of British invasion bands such as the Stones and the Beatles caused groups such as the Ronettes to lose huge numbers of fans. And when the Ronnies were hired to open for the Beatles on their 1966 US tour, a jealous Phil Spector didn't let Ronnie go. (He was forced to play the show without him.)
It was the beginning of an extremely dark period in her life, when Phil Spector tried to exert as much control over her as possible, rarely letting Ronnie leave his house. "They never let me read the newspaper or watch TV," he told The New Yorker in 2012. "I didn't even know that Woodstock happened. And when Charles Manson killed those guys right next to us on August 10, 1969 - I didn't even know it. All I knew was that Phil started putting up barbed wire." And then guard dogs, and then guns."
She eventually broke free from him in 1972 and began to reconnect her life and career. "My ex took away singing from me, and it was devastating because I didn't know I'd ever record," she told Rolling Stone. "I didn't know I'd never perform again, which was my life. I was in shock because here's a guy who wrote your records and produced them... and then, you'll never sing again."
His comeback began in 1976 when he recorded a cover of Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" with the E Street Band. But she didn't come into the limelight in a big way until 1986, when Eddie Money recorded a live sample of "Be My Baby" for his hit "Take Me Home Tonight." The song became a huge success and introduced Spector's music to a new generation.
"That song brought her career back to life, which was wonderful," Love says. "It just goes to show that you can turn your life around again. You can come back with as much strength as you want."
Over the past few decades, Spector toured heavily and released the occasional new record. In 2016, she released the British Invasion cover record English Heart. "If someone told me in my sixties that I would still be singing those songs after almost 50 years," she told Rolling Stone in 2016, "I would have said, 'You're out of your mind.