![]() It's like Ronnie left behind a gift for us all. This is one of the best rock biographies I have read. Her prose is free flowing, honest and easy and such a pleasure to read. Ronnie unabashedly told the story of her rise to fame, horrendous marriage to producer Phil Spector, struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, career longevity and its challenges, romantic dalliances, etc. I plowed through this within a few days-unheard of for me. This is touted as one of the greatest musical autobiographies, and I now see why. How wonderful that this musical icon resurrected her memoir from 30 years ago to bring it full circle at the apex of her life. This is especially poignant because Ronnie Spector died just a week ago. This book was originally published in 1990, but is now being re-released with an updated Epilogue chapter that was only fine tuned weeks ago in January 2022. So, I finally decided to request an arc of this book in the hope of reading a good story. Phil Spector was also convicted in later years of shooting/murdering actress Lana Clarkson. He was known to brandish a gun in the recording studio. John Lennon and George Harrison also used him to produce their solo albums. ![]() This was recounted in various Beatles books as they employed this producer and his wall of sound techniques to rescue their shabby "Let it Be" recordings. I also knew that Ronnie was married to Phil Spector and that he was a nut case. I'm also a big Beach Boys fan, and leader Brian Wilson was obsessed by The Ronettes' Phil Spector produced megahit "Be My Baby" and considered it the most perfect pop song. As a huge Beatles fan, last year I read a new Beatles book which recounted a story about John Lennon pursuing Ronnie romantically when The Beatles first took America by storm in 1964. Ronnie Spector was never on my radar as a point of interest, except indirectly. And, more than anything else, she gave us an inspiring tale of triumph. ![]() In Be My Baby, the incomparable Ronnie Spector offered a whirlwind account of the ever-shifting path of an iconic artist. And as shown in this edition, which includes a 2021 postscript from Ronnie, her life became proof that our challenges do not define us and there is always the potential to forge a fuller life. It took everything Ronnie had to escape her prisonlike marriage and wrest back control of her life, her music, and her legacy. ![]() No one sounded like Ronnie, with her alluring blend of innocence and knowing, but her voice would soon be silenced as Spector sequestered her behind electric gates, guard dogs, and barbed wire. Ronnie’s first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, “Be My Baby,” shot Ronnie and the Ronettes to stardom. “Do I have to tell you that Ronnie’s got one of the greatest female rock-and-roll voices of all time? She stands alone.”īe My Baby is the behind-the-scenes story-newly updated, and with an especially timely message-of how the original bad girl of rock and roll, Ronnie Spector, survived marriage to a monster and carved out a space for herself amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond. ![]()
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