22 Be My Baby

THE RONETTES 1963

Producer Phil Spector rehearsed this song with Ronnie Bennett (the only Ronette to sing on it) for weeks, but that didn’t stop him from doing 42 takes before he finally got the performance he was looking for. Aided by a full orchestra (as well as a young Cher, who sang background vocals), Spector created a lush, echo-laden sound that was the Rosetta stone for Sixties studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson, who called this his favorite song. “The things Phil was doing were crazy and exhausting,” said Larry Levine, Spector’s engineer. “But that’s not the sign of a nut. That’s genius.”