22.6.11

The Ronettes Early Years '61-'62


Pre-Spector recordings showing that girls really needed better material and inspired producer next time around.
it is common now to throw mud at Phil Spector but the guy was genius and his magic touch made all the difference. Almost all of his singers (with few exceptions,like Ike & Tina Turner) were not known before he started working with them and Ronettes were just one of the many names from the list of hopeful wannabies.

Ronnie had appealing,sexy voice and and it's (almost) fun to hear her in this sub--par material,without earthquake going on around her. One cannot really hear other girls as Ronnie is front and center,and as for musicians,well to me it all sounds like demo anyway. Everything sounds like demo compared to Phil Spector!

What is truly fascinating is how bad these material is - even Supremes debut album had more depth - gimmicks,clichés,derivative ideas... you name it,it's here. Even girls squeaks have already been done (much better) by The Tammys. From historical perspective,it is interesting to hear Ronettes the way they were as "diamonds in rough" but from music standpoint this was just awful because there is nothing here that hasn't already been recorded by everybody else + songs themselves are offensive in their simpleness.
Girl-group era had a lot of inspired highlights,but this is not one of them.

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