The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights. The group consisted of the lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as “The Darling Sisters”. In 1957, the group signed up for a Wednesday night amateur show at the Apollo Theatre run by a friend of Ronnie and Estelle’s mother. The show started out as a disaster; when the house band started playing Frankie Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, Ira did not sing a word, so Ronnie took over. “I strutted out across the stage, singing as loud as I could,” Ronnie later recalled. “When I finally heard a few hands of scattered applause, I sang even louder. That brought a little more applause, which was all I needed.”
Ronnie, Estelle, and Nedra began taking singing lessons two afternoons per week. Appearing at local bar mitzvahs and sock hops, they met Phil Halikus, who introduced them to Colpix Records producer Stu Phillips. Having signed with Colpix they released several singles all of which failed to chart. In early 1963, frustrated with Colpix and the group’s lack of success, sister Estelle called producer Phil Spector and told him the Ronettes would like to audition for him. Spector decided to sign the group. He recorded five songs with them but released the last four under the name of The Crystals.
The Ronettes recorded “Be My Baby” in July 1963, and it was released by August. “Be My Baby” was a smash record for the Ronettes. Radio stations played the song throughout fall 1963, and the Ronettes were invited to tour the country with Dick Clark. “Be My Baby” inspired a legion of Ronettes fans, including Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who clearly intended “Don’t Worry Baby” as an homage to the group. The song became a Top 10 hit and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Top 100. “Our lives were turned upside down,” Ronnie later recalled. “All the things I’d ever dreamed about were finally coming true.”
After the overnight success of their first Phil Spector single, Spector was eager to do a follow-up with the Ronettes. He wrote “Baby I Love You”, again with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and urged the Ronettes to leave New York for California to record the song at Gold Star Studios. The song was recorded in the early fall of 1963 and released in November that year. It was slightly less successful than “Be My Baby” on the charts, reaching number 24 Pop, number 6 R&B in the United States and number 11 in the United Kingdom. In January 1964, the Ronettes left for their first tour of the UK, where they made a strong impact from the very beginning. They met the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up” and “Do I Love You” were subsequently recorded by the Ronettes.
In the summer of 1964, Ronnie went into the studio to record her lead on the group’s next single, “Walking in the Rain”. She later recalled that the writers – Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil – were still adjusting the lyrics right up to the minute she recorded it. Ronnie recalled Phil placing headphones on her and telling her to listen closely. “Everything was quiet,” she later wrote, “Then all of a sudden I heard a low rumble, like there was thunder coming from every corner of the room.” The thunder was used for the introduction and was featured prominently throughout the remainder of the song, the only one of which Ronnie recorded in a single take. “Walking in the Rain” became the group’s most successful single since “Be My Baby” (released over a year earlier) and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sadly, after the success of “Walking in the Rain”, the Ronettes’ popularity begun to wane.
