“When we sang I always said that we were not better, we were different”. This is how Ronnie Spector described Las Ronettes in 2007, the phenomenon that led the sixties, bewitching the world with the voices of three young people who forever changed the sound of the time. Those words, spoken at the very late arrival of the group to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, were a vindication of a career full of drama and ups and downs. Friend of the Beatles, the Stones, backup singer of Bruce Springsteen, survivor of a hellish marriage and phoenix in his golden years, Spector’s legend ends this Wednesday with his death after a “brief battle against cancer”, according to his relatives. He was 78 years old.
Born in New York as Veronica Bennett, she began acting in 1959 with her sister, Estelle Bennett, and her cousin, Nedra Talley, before they finished high school. The trio then called The Dolly Sisters grew up near Spanish Harlem, a neighborhood where they learned of the exuberant aesthetics and ease of Puerto Rican women, and listening to the child soprano originally from Harlem, Frankie Lymon, who inspired Ronnie, as she was known, to sing. .
At the age of 13, they appeared in the amateur hour of the famous Apollo theater in Harlem, which was a ritual of passage for black talent who wanted to be discovered. In 1961 they managed to be invited to participate in the dance film Twist Around the Clock. The girls’ choreography attracted Murray K, a popular New York DJ, who got them work in some of the city’s nightclubs, including the famous Peppermint Lounge, a mecca of twist and the go-go and that he had among his clientele Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn or Jackie Kennedy. “The ’60s were as wonderful as they come,” Ronnie boasted in a 2007 speech.
Between 1963 and 1966, in his words, “the best times” arrived, since they were where they cultivated the most triumphs. In October of the first the world knew Be My Baby, a single that changed the history of the sound of the 60s. This was because the group ran into producer Phil Spector, who was key in putting The Ronettes in a different category from the rest of the female vocal pop groups of the time.
The arrival of Spector, a brilliant madman sick with jealousy, into Bennet’s life also meant a lot of trouble. The producer tried to sign Ronnie as a solo artist for his label, Philles. The singer was adamantly opposed to dissolving the partnership with her sister and cousin. The trio provided backing vocals for other label artists until the 1963 single made them a worldwide phenomenon thanks to the sonic texture imparted by Spector’s style, known as Wall of Sound. In 1964, writers Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich provided the Ronnetes with another high-quality theme. Baby I Love youHowever, it was not as successful.
All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.
subscribe
Sporting very short dresses and very high, so-called honeycomb hairstyles, achieved with a generous amount of Aqua Net spray, the Ronettes were an event in concert. “When we walked onstage, either we caused a ruckus or there were guys rolling around on the floor having orgasms,” Ronnie recounted.
The impact was not limited to the United States. When they arrived in England in 1964 for their first European tour, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles asked to meet them. Lennon, according to Ronnie, tried to seduce her at a party, but she rejected him because she had started a relationship with Phil Spector, who would become her husband four years later, in 1968.
The marriage was hell. This is how Ronnie describes it in his memoir published in 1990, Be My Baby: How I survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness. Spector abused her psychologically and controlled all aspects of her life, both personal and professional. He was not allowed to leave the couple’s mansion in Los Angeles. “I cried every night,” he told this newspaper a few years ago. The situation led her to drink only to be able to leave the house for alcoholic rehabilitation meetings.
The relationship with Phil sank Ronnie’s career. There was an attempt to relaunch it that, if successful, would have been inscribed in golden letters in music history. It was in 1971, when George Harrison, after All Things Must Pass gave him several songs for a solo album to be released on Apple, the Beatles’ record label. At the recording sessions, at Abbey Road, were musicians from Derek and the Dominoes and Badfinger, as well as Leon Russell. John Lennon also played the piano. But it was all a fiasco. The group worked on four songs until a supposed health episode with Phil Spector forced everyone to stop.
From those days came Try Some, Buy Some Y Tandoori Chicken. Ronnie Spector did not feel comfortable with the first, composed by Harrison, because she did not understand what it was about. “Was it about religion? Sex? drugs? It was disconcerting. The more George sang, the more he baffled me,” he wrote. The song was canned for 40 years. The experience, however, did not overshadow a decades-long friendship that began when the Beatles invited them to tour with them in 1966.
Spector, who finally had her first solo album in 1981, was also a great friend of Keith Richards, the guitarist for The Rolling Stones, who sponsored them at their Hall of Fame induction in 2007. “Keith, whenever I see you I feel it’s 1964 and we travel through the fog. Like you told me: they never thought we’d live to see this. Ha, we fooled them!” he said. In 2016, in a wink, he released a tribute album to the music of the British Invasion.
Part of the incomprehensible delay in getting the Ronettes into the Hall of Fame was due to Phil Spector. The influential producer, who received the same honors in 1989, operated to prevent the appointment of his ex-wife, whom he divorced in 1973. Years later, in 1980, Ronnie took Spector to court demanding years of unpaid bills. The producer paid them $15,000 when he signed them. They never saw a dollar more despite the successes. This began a trial of 15 years of fighting for royalties. In 2000 a judge awarded them more than two million dollars, but the decision was reversed on appeal.
When she was received in 2007 with honors as one of the last queens of rock, Spector had the luxury of not once mentioning her ex-husband. “Thanks to Stu Phillips, our first producer,” he stressed, remarking with a sarcastic dramatic silence. The words came a week before the trial began against Phil Spector for the murder of model and actress Lana Clarkson, in which he was found guilty.
Subscribe here to the newsletter from EL PAÍS América and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of the region