YMMV / Ronnie Spector

• Award Snub: Phil Spector worked for decades to keep the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from even considering inducting The Ronettes even though they had been eligible for induction for about as long as the Hall had been open. It wasn't until after Phil fell from grace from Lana Clarkson's murder that The Ronettes finally got their long-awaited induction in 2007. It was good timing which allowed the public to see the original three Ronettes together one last time; Estelle Bennett died in 2009.
• Awesome Music:
  • Brian Wilson has gone on record to claim that "Be My Baby" is the greatest pop record ever made. Music publications like AllMusic subsequently claimed that alone is a good enough reason for the rest of us to say the same.
  • The Ronettes' cover of "Sleigh Ride" is the Trope Codifier for pop holiday music and continues to serve as the instructional manual for any pop singer seeking to make Christmas music.
• Covered Up:
  • "I Can Hear Music" was originally a Ronettes song, released in 1966. It didn't become a hit until The Beach Boys covered it in 1969, and now their version is the one that everyone remembers.
  • While "Try Some, But Some" was written by George Harrison, Spector recorded and released it first. The familiar version that Harrison performed himself didn't come out until a couple of years later.
  • "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" is an interesting example. It was originally a Billy Joel song and he cited Ronnie Spector as the main influence he looked to when writing it. It didn't go anywhere when released as a single off of his Turnstiles album, so Ronnie began covering it during live performances and recorded a version with the E Street Band which she released as a single a year later, which helped the song gain attention. It then became a hit in 1981 when Joel released a live version as a single.
• Epic Riff: Her cover of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" is underscored by an awesome saxophone riff courtesy of Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Considering Brian Wilson is a lifelong fan of hers, and that he's stated that "Be My Baby" is the greatest pop song ever written, she's pretty popular among Beach Boys fans.
  • Fans of The Ramones also show her a lot of respect as the band's cover of The Ronettes' "Baby I Love You" was a pretty big hit in the UK, and Joey Ramone was known to be a big fan. She even performed two Ramones songs on her She Talks To Rainbows EP released in 1999. Those tracks were the title track and "Bye Bye Baby" which is a duet with Joey.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: She was popular in the United Kingdom thanks to her connection to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, with a resurgence of public interest in her coming in the late 2000s thanks to Amy Winehouse. She regularly performed in the UK and made appearances in the British media in The New '10s. The BBC aired a feature-length tribute to her upon her death in January 2022.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Her memoirs Be My Baby became a lot harder to read after Phil Spector murdered Lana Clarkson. We now know Phil was capable of crossing that line and when she describes de-escalating situations where Phil was frothing at the mouth, her life may have been genuinely hanging in the balance. Ronnie herself recounted how she feared being murdered by Phil, even years after they divorced.
  • Seeing her constantly having a cigarette in hand given that she died of cancer.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Most people today only know The Ronettes for their Christmas Songs.
• Moe: Young Ronnie Spector during her Ronettes years was an absolute cutie who exuded this trope in spades. It helps to make her an even bigger Woobie when you learn about the horrendous kinds of abuse and torture Phil Spector allegedly put her through.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • Ronnie's singing and stage presence was unique in the early 1960s; Her willingness to wear "trashy" clothes and makeup and utilize her sex appeal as part of both her act and public image was revolutionary in a time when the trope Females Are More Innocent dominated American culture. This combined with Phil Spector's innovative "Wall of Sound" production centered around Ronnie's voice made The Ronettes a truly groundbreaking act. Ronnie became the Trope Codifier for a female pop/rock singer, made "ghetto" fashion trendy and helped redefine the image of women in general as subsequent female singers and female characters in the media copied her image and attitude. As the rise of hip-hop brought ghetto culture further into the mainstream and acts like Madonna took the sex appeal angle to the point of exaggeration, by the mid-1980s the Ronettes had become a quaint oldies act that was mainly remembered for singing Christmas Songs.
  • When Be My Baby was released in 1990, relationships were generally seen as not crossing the line into Domestic Abuse until one person begins physically harming another. Ronnie's vivid description of a horribly abusive relationship in which the abuse was purely psychological and the extremely negative effects it had on both her physical and mental health was relatively groundbreaking at the time by how thoroughly it challenged this perception. Helping to raise awareness of how there doesn't have to physical harm to constitute abuse is as a lesser-appreciated piece of her legacy.
• Signature Song: "Be My Baby"
• Spiritual Successor: Amy Winehouse succeeded in her dream of becoming the Ronnie Spector of the 21st century, all the way down to having a similar Short-Lived, Big Impact career. Hearing Ronnie cover an Amy Winehouse song showcases just how incredibly similar their voices and singing styles were.
  • Biography notes the similarities don't end there, as there are many parallels to their lives off of the stage as well. Both started their careers as teenagers, both had short, turbulent, abusive marriages^note Though Winehouse was to some extent the abuser and both were alcoholics. While Spector was able to overcome her alcoholism, Winehouse's drinking ultimately killed her at the age of 27.
• Values Resonance: As noted above, Be My Baby was ahead of its time with its depiction of an abusive relationship where the abuse was purely psychological. With greater awareness of how psychological abuse works in The New '20s to the point that "Gaslighting" became Merriam-Webster's 2022 "Word of the Year", a lot of the situations she describes may hit harder for readers today than they did back in 1990. Additionally, with mental health being taken far more seriously today than it was in the early 1990s, present day readers can better understand and identify with the severely detrimental effects Phil's abuse had on her, even if she was never physically harmed by him.

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