Day 89: The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

A few years ago, I read Ronnie Spector’s book while I was holidaying in Ibiza. She’s an elegant lady, so she won’t say what I want to say: The Ronettes is an all-time band, and Phil Spector is a demon who is luckily burning in the fiery pits.

Album cover courtesy of Philles Records

The Ronettes were formed in 1959 by Ronnie Spector, her sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. The trio had been singing together since they were young, and they were signed to Colpix Records as The Darling Sisters in 1961. They had been releasing singles to no avail, so Estelle got in touch with Phil Spector and suggested they start working together. When they auditioned for Phil, he was enamoured with Ronnie’s voice, yelling “That's the voice I've been looking for!”

Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes a very bittersweet listening experience. On the record, a young Ronnie Spector sings these very sweet girlypop yearner songs about love and relationships that seems like such a contradiction to the life she later ended up having. On “I Wonder” she’s pondering what kind of boy she’ll end up with and whether he’ll treat her nicely, hoping that he’s never going to make her cry and that they’ll be with each other forever.

In reality, shortly after recording she ended up in a six year marriage with Phi Spector, the producer of the track, who abused her to the point where she thought he would kill her. She escaped her marriage through a broken window and ran barefoot and without any of her belongings. He, of course, got custody of the kids and abused them, too. Then he murdered a woman and thought  that he’d get away with it on account of being rich, famous and powerful. Luckily he didn’t, and he died in prison in 2021.

I know there’s so much more to Ronnie Spector than her relation to Phil Spector, but if I could please just rant for a little moment as I want to get this of my chest: I fucking hate Phil Spector. Not only do I hate him as a man, I hate what he represents – he was known as a gun-wielding lunatic who’d threatened to shoot a real who’s-who of the entertainment industry: Ronnie, Cher, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Debbie Harry, Dee Dee Ramone and lord knows who else, as these are just the ones who have spoken about it publicly.

His MO was to force people to hang out with him and threaten to shoot them if they leave, which is the most loser behaviour I have ever heard of in my life. When he actually did shoot someone who tried to leave, friendly journalists who were drunk off of being next to someone with money and power would run stories saying well, what did she expect, why did she even go to his house in the first place? Maybe he didn’t do it, but if he did, she had it coming.

Spector used his money and power to abuse people. He got away with all of it, and almost got away with murder, too, as the jury failed to reach a verdict in the first murder trial, despite him admitting to killing a woman. He used that money and power to torture people, locking Ronnie Spector into more than 25 years of litigation abuse. When he was facing a murder trial, he took time out of his busy day to campaign that Ronnie Spector never be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Everyone knew that he was like this, but he got away with it because he had money, power and the Wall of Sound – it’s a real microcosm of everything that’s wrong with the world and the people in it.

But back to the record.  You struggle to really think of anyone who sounds like Ronnie Spector. The subject matter of the record often sounds juvenile, keeping with Phil Spector’s moniker of tycoon of teen. But her voice, deep and emotion-filled and singing with a strong vibrato, makes you forget that that you’re listening to someone who is barely 20. And the songs are lovely and sweet, something you feel like you should be listening to when you’re deep in the trenches of falling in and out of love. “Be My Baby” is so beautiful, but I also love some of the lesser known tracks like “When I Saw You”.

I love a bit of The Ronettes. I listened to this while doing my makeup and it’s the perfect thing to listen to when you’re getting ready. It’s an 8/10. I’m sure I’ll listen to it again soon.

Also, un-fun fact: When Phil Spector was facing his murder charges, he was defended by a man called Robert Shapiro. Shapiro was a well-known lawyer because he had previously gotten the rich and powerful man OJ Simpson free from murder charges, despite ample evidence that he killed Nicole Brown Simpson.

A little girl was so impressed with Shapiro’s ability to get the rich criminal to go free despite all the evidence against him, so encouraged by her mother, she called him to speak to him and later became his protégé. She relayed this story after she became famous for being Johnny Depp’s lawyer.