ABSTRACT
Lead singer Ronnie Phil Spector of the Ronettes speaks from the perspective of the performer in the two following passages from her 1990 autobiography Be My Baby, offering a little-seen window into the complex creative processes and inordinate power relationships behind the girl group phenomenon. In the first excerpt, Spector describes the genesis of the group’s breakout hit, “Be My Baby,” recorded in 1963 at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. The second excerpt rejoins the Ronettes in 1965, at which point their career was already in a state of decline. Even though the two were romantically involved during the Ronettes’ meteoric rise to success, Spector held a firm control over the young singer, inserting her as the final jigsaw puzzle piece in his celebrated “wall of sound.” Ronnie would eventually marry Spector in 1968 only to divorce him in 1974.
