RONNIE SPECTOR
Singer of massive 60s hits survived abusive marriage to evil svengali
RONNIE Spector’s death, at the age of 78, ended a music career that was already far too short. The lead singer of the Ronettes lost decades of recording, performing and touring because of her abusive husband. Yet Be My Baby and the other records made in the 60s are the soundtrack of a generation and influenced everyone from the Beatles and the Stones to Amy Whitehouse.
The Ronettes – Ronnie, her sister Estelle and their cousin Nedra Talley – only recorded one album, in 1963. It contained all their unforgettable songs – Baby I Love You, The Best Part of Breaking Up and Walking in the Rain.
It was written and produced by the man Ronnie went on to marry, Phil Spector. He is currently in prison for the murder of Lana Clarkson.
In the 60s, he was a star producer while they were three New York teens with big dreams and no idea of how the music industry worked. Ronnie said later: “We just thought we were employees. We didn’t think we could be artists.”
The Ronettes were part of the craze for girl groups that swept the US. Unlike their wholesome competitors, the Ronettes cultivated a bad girl image.
In her autobiography Ronnie wrote: “We weren’t afraid to be hot. That was our gimmick. When we saw The Shirelles walk on stage with their wide party dresses, we went in the opposite direction and squeezed our bodies into the tightest skirts we could find. Then we’d get out on stage and hike them up to show our legs even more.”
They wowed the UK in 1964 with the Rolling Stones as support. Ronnie recalls meeting the Beatles at a party: “They knew us but we didn’t know them.”
When the Beatles invited the Ronettes to support them on their US tour two years later, Spector put his foot down. By this time he had divorced his wife and was living with Ronnie in Beverly Hills, on the other side of the country from her family and support network.
He claimed she had solo recording sessions booked and so couldn’t tour. The band went without her, with Ronnie’s cousin Nedra stepping in.
Ronnie reflected: “I regretted it as I gave up my career at its peak, not knowing I was giving it up.”
The Ronettes split in early 1967, after a tour of the US. Spector’s promises, that Ronnie would have a
solo career, came to nothing. In 1971
she recorded one single with Spector and George Harrison as co-producers.
The next year, she finally left her abusive husband and the mansion he had turned into a barbed wire-ringed prison. With her mother’s help, Ronnie fled barefoot. Spector hid her shoes to prevent her leaving the house.
He was controlling and violent, refusing to let her leave home alone. And he threatened to shoot her if she didn’t give up custody of their adopted children. There was a gold glass-topped coffin in the basement so he could “keep an eye on her after she’s dead”.
Afterwards Ronnie said: “I knew that if I didn’t leave I was going to die there.”
The threats didn’t stop there. She signed away all future earnings from her records after Spector threatened to get a hit man to kill her.
Her settlement was $25,000, a used car, and $2500 a year for five years.
Ronnie tried to revive her career but tastes had changed and the momentum was gone. For decades, she was tied up in legal battles with Spector for the right to perform the classics, and for royalties and damages.
She remarried and eventually began performing and recording again.
Her influence continues. When the late Amy Winehouse emerged in 2006 she had cloned Ronnie’s style from the heavily lined eyes to the mile-high hair.
Ronnie’s music also influenced her. They became friends and Ronnie said of her: “Amy Winehouse was so great for me as she made me feel like what I did mattered.” In another interview she said: “Every time I looked at her, it was like I was looking at myself. She had my beehive, my eyeliner, my attitude.”
She regretted not being able to help Amy, whose song Back to Black she covered.
Before she died, it emerged Ronnie’s memoir Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness is being turned into a film starring Zendaya.
I knew that if I didn’t leave I was going to die there RONNIE SPECTOR ON LIFE WITH PHIL SPECTOR