Ronnie Spector, the rock legend who led the Ronettes, passes away

Ronnie Spector sings at the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony.Lucas Jackson (REUTERS)

"When we sang I always said that we were not better, we were different."

This is how Ronnie Spector described The Ronettes in 2007, the phenomenon that he led in the sixties by bewitching the world with the voices of three young people who forever changed the sound of the time.

Those words, spoken at the very late arrival of the group to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, were a vindication of a career full of drama and ups and downs.

Friend of the Beatles, the Stones, backup singer of Bruce Springsteen, survivor of a hellish marriage and phoenix in his golden years, the legend of Spector ends this Wednesday with his death after a "brief battle with cancer", according to his relatives.

He was 78 years old.

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"The Ronettes were a rock group that shook ourselves more than the others"

Born in New York as Veronica Bennett, she began acting in 1959 alongside her sister, Estelle Bennet, and her cousin, Nedra Talley, before they finished high school. The trio then called The Dolly Sisters grew up near Spanish Harlem, a neighborhood from which they learned about the exuberant aesthetics and ease of Puerto Rican women, and listening to the Harlem child soprano, Frankie Lymon, who inspired Ronnie, as she was known, to sing. .

At the age of 13, they appeared in the amateur hour of the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, which was a ritual of passage for black talents who wanted to be discovered. In 1961 they managed to be invited to participate in the dance film

. The girls' choreography attracted Murray K, a popular New York DJ, who found them work in some nightclubs in the city, including the famous Peppermint Lounge, a mecca of

and

and which had among its clientele a Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn or Jackie Kennedy. "The 60s were as wonderful as they sound," Ronnie boasted in a 2007 speech.

Between 1963 and 1966 came, in his words, "the best times", as they were where they cultivated the most triumphs. In October of the first the world knew

, a single that changed the history of the sound of the 60s. This because the group ran into producer Phil Spector, who was key to putting The Ronettes in a different category from the rest of female vocal pop groups of the time.

The arrival of Spector, a brilliant madman sick with jealousy, into Bennet's life also meant many problems. The producer tried to sign Ronnie as a solo artist for his label, Philles. The singer was strongly opposed to dissolving the partnership with her sister and cousin. The trio provided backing vocals for other artists on the label until the 1963 single made them a worldwide phenomenon thanks to the sonic texture that Spector's style, known as the Wall of Sound, gave it. In 1964, writers Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich provided the Ronnetes with another high-quality theme.

, however, was not as successful.

Wearing very short dresses and very high hairdos, called honeycombs, which they achieved with a generous amount of Aqua Net spray, the Ronettes were a concert event.

"When we walked onstage, either we caused a ruckus or there were guys rolling on the floor having orgasms," Ronnie recounted.

The impact was not limited to the United States.

When they arrived in England in 1964 for their first European tour, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles asked to meet them.

Lennon, according to Ronnie, tried to seduce her at a party, but she rejected him because she had started a relationship with Phil Spector, who would become her husband four years later, in 1968.

The marriage was hell. This is how Ronnie describes it in his 1990 memoir,

. Spector abused her psychologically and controlled all aspects of her life, both personal and professional. It did not allow him to leave the couple's mansion in Los Angeles. "I was crying every night," he told this newspaper a few years ago. The situation led her to drink just so she could leave the house for alcohol rehab meetings.

The relationship with Phil sunk Ronnie's career. There was an attempt to relaunch it which, had it been successful, would have been inscribed with golden letters in the history of music. It was in 1971, when George Harrison, after

, gave him several songs for a solo album that would be released on Apple, the Beatles' label. The recording sessions at Abbey Road featured musicians from Derek and the Dominoes and Badfinger, as well as Leon Russell. John Lennon also played the piano. But it was all a fiasco. The group worked on four songs until an alleged episode of Phil Spector's health forced everyone to stop.

and

came out of those days .

Ronnie Spector did not feel comfortable with the first, composed by Harrison, because she did not understand what it was about. “Was it about religion? Sex? Drugs? It was unnerving. The more George sang, the more he puzzled me, ”he wrote. The song was canned for 40 years. The experience, however, did not overshadow a decades-long friendship that began when the Beatles invited them on tour in 1966.

Spector, who finally had her first solo album in 1981, was also close friends with Keith Richards, the guitarist for The Rolling Stones, who sponsored them at the 2007 Hall of Fame induction. It's 1964 and we're traveling through the fog As you have told me: they never thought we would live to see this. Ha, we cheated on them! ”He said. In 2016, in a wink, he released a tribute album to the music of the British invasion.

Part of the incomprehensible delay in the Ronettes' induction into the Hall of Fame was due to Phil Spector. The influential producer, who received the same honors in 1989, operated to avoid the appointment of his ex-wife, whom he divorced in 1973. Years later, in 1980, Ronnie took Spector to court demanding years of defaults. The producer paid them $ 15,000 when he signed them. They never saw a dollar more despite the successes. This started a 15-year trial for royalties. In 2000 a judge awarded them more than $ 2 million, but the decision was reversed on appeal.

When she was honored in 2007 as one of rock's last queens, Spector had the luxury of not mentioning her ex-husband once.

"Thanks to Stu Phillips, our first producer," he underlined, remarking with a sarcastic dramatic silence.

The words came a week before Phil Spector's trial began for the murder of model and actress Lana Clarkson, in which he was found guilty.

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