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All Music Guide:
Ronnie Spector, born Veronica Bennett on August 10, 1943, in New York, NY, became famous as a member of the Ronettes, a girl group featuring her sister Estelle Bennett and cousin Nedra Talley. Her powerful and unique voice was a main strength of the band, as was the band's exotic and glamorous look. The group began as dancers at the Peppermint Lounge in New York and made a string of unsuccessful records in the early '60s before hooking up with Phil Spector in 1963 and releasing great songs and smash hits like "Be My Baby," "Walking in the Rain," "Do I Love You," and "I Can Hear Music." Soon after they began recording with him, Ronnie fell in love with Spector and they were married in 1968. The Ronettes' career was stalled at this point, and at Phil's insistence Ronnie gave up her musical aspirations and spent her time locked away in Spector's mansion, releasing only "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered" in 1969 for A&M and "Try Some Buy Some" for Apple in 1971. The song was written by George Harrison and featured all four Beatles backing her up, but it wasn't a hit.
The dissolution of the bad marriage in the early '70s left Ronnie free to pursue singing again. She put together a new edition of the Ronettes with Denise Edwards and Chip Fields and recorded a couple of singles, "Lover Lover" in 1973 and "I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine" in 1974, for Buddah. The records did nothing on the charts and she soon broke up the new Ronettes and went solo. After a failed disco single, Ronnie got help from some heavyweights on her next effort. Released in 1976, "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" was written by Billy Joel and the backing band was noted Phil Spector devotee Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band. Despite the pedigree and the fact that it was a great song, it didn't make much of a commercial impression and Ronnie subsequently spent time as a backing vocalist for Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Her next single was 1978's "It's a Heartache," and it was a huge hit. For Bonnie Tyler, that is, not Ronnie. Her first solo album, Siren, was released in 1980 and featured a new wave sound and production by former girl group singer Genya Ravan. As with everything she had released since the glory days of the Ronettes, it was not a hit.
Ronnie finally tasted some chart success in 1986 with "Take Me Home Tonight," a duet with Eddie Money, and managed to land a record deal with Columbia. Unfinished Business was released in 1987 and featured songs by Diane Warren, Desmond Child, and Gregory Abbott and appearances by Bangle Susanna Hoffs, Paul Schaffer, and Eddie Money. She made a concerted effort to push the record (starring in an HBO concert, appearing at the American Music Awards, singing at a Radio City Music Hall Christmas show) but it never took off. In 1988 she was reduced to being a member of the Dirty Dancing oldies concert tour. In 1990 she published her autobiography, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness. It was a fascinating tale of a wild and at times harrowing life and sparked new interest in Ronnie. She didn't release any records in the 1990s but appeared on many compilations and soundtracks, including the theme song to Roseanne's cartoon, Little Rosey, a duet with fellow Spector survivor Darlene Love on A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 2, and the cast album of Tim Rice's Tycoon.
In 1999 Ronnie returned to the studio to record new solo material. Creation in the U.K. and Kill Rock Stars in the U.S. released the Joey Ramone-produced She Talks to Rainbows EP to loads of critical acclaim. Featured on the disc were versions of Johnny Thunders' beautiful ballad "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" and the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby," which Brian Wilson had originally written for her. Ronnie's voice was strong, weathered by time and experience, but still that marvelous instrument that is unmistakably hers alone. After time spent touring and being with her family in Connecticut, Spector returned in 2003 with Something's Gonna Happen, a five-song EP of Marshall Crenshaw covers, a guest appearance on the Misfits' Project 1950 record, and in 2005, a featured spot on the Raveonettes' Pretty in Black. All this led up to the release of Spector's first full-length release in almost 20 years, 2006's The Last of the Rock Stars. The album featured collaborations with an impressive list of rockers old and new, including the Greenhornes, Keith Richards, Patti Smith, and Nick Zinner. Spector resurfaced in 2010 with an EP of Christmas songs titled Best Christmas Ever.
Wikipedia:
Ronnie Spector (born Veronica Yvette Bennett, August 10, 1943) is an American rock and roll and popular music vocalist, and was the lead singer of the 1960s hit-making girl group, The Ronettes, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She is known as the "original bad girl of rock and roll."
Personal life
She was born Veronica Yvette Bennett in New York City on August 10, 1943. From an early age, Ronnie took to singing, encouraged by her large, close family. The other members of the Ronettes, her sister, Estelle Bennett (1941–2009), and cousin, Nedra Talley, were also encouraged to sing by their family. The Ronettes were a multiracial group. The Bennetts' mother was African-American and Cherokee, and their father was Irish; their cousin, Nedra Talley, is African-American and Puerto Rican.
Bennett was married to Phil Spector from 1968 to 1974, and took his name professionally; they adopted three children, including a set of twins, whom Phil adopted as a single parent after Ronnie and the youngest child left.
Donté Phillip (b. March 23, 1969; adopted November 1969, aged 8 months)Louis Phillip (b. May 12, 1966; adopted at the age of 5)Gary Phillip (b. May 12, 1966; adopted at the age of 5)By her account, Phil kept Ronnie a near-prisoner and limited her opportunities to pursue her musical ambitions. In her autobiography, she said that he would force her to watch the film Citizen Kane to remind her she would be nothing without him. Spector's domineering attitude led to the dissolution of their marriage. Bennett was forbidden to speak to the Rolling Stones or tour with the Beatles, because Phil Spector feared that she would be unfaithful.
Bennett claims Spector showed her a gold coffin with a glass top in his basement, promising to kill and display her if she left him. During Spector's reclusive period in the late 1960s, he reportedly kept his wife locked inside their mansion. She claimed he also hid her shoes to dissuade her from walking outside, and kept the house dark because he did not want anyone to see his balding head. Ronnie stated in her autobiography that she walked out of the house through the closed and locked rear sliding glass door, shoeless, shattering the glass as she left, and feet all cut up by the time she got to the gate. She never returned. Ronnie Spector filed for divorce in 1972. She wrote a book about her experiences, and said years later, "I can only say that when I left in the early 1970s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there". She and Spector separated in 1973 and divorced one year later. In August 2011, Spector admitted that she went to rehab in order to escape living with Phil.
Her autobiography, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, co-authored with Vince Waldron, was published in 1989. In 2004, Onyx Books republished the book in a revised and updated mass-market paperback edition in the United States. She lives in Connecticut with her second husband, Jonathan Greenfield, and their two sons, Austin Drew and Jason Charles. She has been performing Ronnie Spector's Christmas Party annually since the late 1980s around the United States and for the last ten years in New York City at B. B. King's Blues Club and Grill.
Career
The Ronettes were produced by Phil Spector and managed by Val Irving of (GAC) General Artists Corporation in Manhattan. In the early 1960s, they had huge hits with "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", "The Best Part of Breakin' Up, "Do I Love You?" and "Walking in the Rain". The group had two top 100 hits in 1965: "Born to Be Together" and "Is This What I Get for Loving You." The group broke up in early 1967, following a European concert tour that included their appearance at the Moonlight Lounge, in Gelnhausen, Germany, where they entertained American military personnel there. The group's last single, "I Can Hear Music," on the Philles Records label (# 133), was released in the fall of 1966. Ironically, that song was not produced by Phil Spector, who used to hire the "Wrecking Crew," Los Angeles area musicians, to provide Wall of Sound orchestral pop symphony backups for the group, at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood. Instead, "I Can Hear Music" was produced by songwriter/producer Jeff Barry, who used only a small band when he recorded the trio in a New York City recording studio. For the group, the writing was on the wall. Spector simply stopped producing new Ronettes' records and kept many of the group's many unreleased songs in the vault, for years. The Ronettes were never to reunite until their 2007 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)The year of 1966 was also the time when Phil Spector went into a brief seclusion. He earlier that same year felt reputationally devastated by the high expectations and then disappointment of the Spector-produced Tina Turner recording "River Deep - Mountain High" {US #88; a UK #3}. Thereafter, a one-off single, "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered," sung by Ronnie but credited to "The Ronettes Featuring the Voice of Veronica," appeared in 1969 on Herb Alpert's A&M label, with "Oh I Love You," an old Ronettes B-side, as the flip. Only Ronnie's voice was used for the lead and background vocals on "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered". Ronnie's recording and performing career had begun its long hiatus. Ironically, it all happened after Ronnie and Phil Spector married in 1968.
In February 1971, during Phil Spector's tenure as head of A&R at Apple Records, Ronnie recorded the single "Try Some, Buy Some"/"Tandoori Chicken" at Abbey Road Studios; released as Apple 33 in the UK, and Apple 1832 in the US. The A-side was written by George Harrison, and produced by both him and Spector. Although the single was not a big hit, its backing track was used two years later for Harrison's own version of the song, on his chart-topping Living in the Material World album. "Try Some, Buy Some" had another lasting influence when John Lennon recorded "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" later the same year and asked Spector (co-producing again) to reproduce the mandolin-laden 'Wall of Sound' he had created for Ronnie's single. Lennon liked the rockabilly B-side too; he sang it at his birthday party in New York in October 1971 (a recording of which has appeared on bootlegs). Other Harrison songs were recorded by Ronnie Spector during those London sessions − including "You" and "When Every Song Is Sung" − but her versions were never released, even though a full album had been planned originally.
In the early to mid 1970s, Ronnie briefly reformed the Ronettes (as Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes) with two new members (Chip Fields Hurd, the mother of actress Kim Fields, and Diane Linton). In her book, she recounted several abortive attempts to recapture mainstream success throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, during which time she was widely perceived as an oldies act.
Billy Joel's 1976 hit Say Goodbye to Hollywood was inspired by Ronnie. Ronnie herself covered it in 1977 backed by Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Ronnie recorded her first solo album in 1980 produced by Genya Ravan, which was a prelude to her work with Joey Ramone in the late 1990s.
In 1986, Ronnie enjoyed a resurgence to popular radio airplay as the featured vocalist on Eddie Money's Top 5 hit "Take Me Home Tonight", (where she is introduced by Money singing "just like Ronnie sang (Money)... OH, OH, OH, OH-OH (Ronnie Spector)"). The video to the hit recording was one of the top videos of the year and in power rotation on MTV. During this period, she also recorded the song "Tonight You're Mine, Baby" (from the film Just One of the Guys) and sang a duet with Southside Johnny on the recording "You Mean So Much To Me", which was penned by Southside's longtime friend Bruce Springsteen and produced by Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band.
In 1999, she released the critically acclaimed album, She Talks to Rainbows, which featured a few covers of older songs. Joey Ramone acted as producer, and appeared on stage with her to promote the record. In 2003, she provided backing vocals for The Misfits' album, Project 1950.
In 2003, Ronnie Spector and the other Ronettes sued Phil Spector for non-payment of royalties, winning a $3 million judgment; upholding the terms of the group's 1963 contract as binding.
Ronnie along with her group were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.
Ronnie provided guest vocals on the track 'Ode to LA' on the 2005 album Pretty in Black by the Raveonettes.
The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
Ronnie's recent album Last of the Rock Stars (Bad Girl Sounds) was released domestically in 2009 featuring contributions from members of the Raconteurs, Nick Zinner of the 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs', the Raveonettes, Patti Smith and Keith Richards. Ronnie herself has co-produced two of the songs.
A new Christmas EP, "Ronnie Spector's Best Christmas Ever" was released on Bad Girl Sounds in November 2010 featuring five new Christmas songs.
In 2011, after the death of Amy Winehouse, Ronnie Spector released her version of Amy's hit 'Back to Black' as a tribute and for the benefit of the Daytop Village addiction treatment centers.
