YEAR
2007
INDUCTED BY
Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
CATEGORY
Performers
A classic girl group with a tough, sexy twist.
Led by Ronnie Spector’s quavering siren voice and Phil Spector’s musical genius, the Ronettes produced some of the greatest music of the century.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Rob Bowman
The introduction to the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” needs to be heard only once before it is forever burned into the deepest recesses of one’s cranium.
Studio drummer Hal Blaine lays down a simple baion beat – boom-ba-boom (smash), boom-ba-boom (smash). Swathed in unprecedented levels of reverb, it has a cataclysmic effect. Over the next two bars the ante is upped as multiple pianos, guitars, a solitary bass, and an array of auxiliary percussion fill out what had come to be known as producer Phil Spector’s trademark Wall of Sound.