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Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
''Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes'' is the only album by American girl group the Ronettes (credited to "the Ronettes featuring Veronica"). Produced by Phil Spector and released in November 1964 through his label, Philles Records, the album collects the group's singles from 1963–1964. In 2004, it was ranked number 422 on '' Rolling Stone's'' list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Track listing Personnel The Ronettes *Estelle Bennettvocals * Veronica Bennettvocals *Nedra Talleyvocals Production *Phil Spectorproducer *Jack Nitzschearranger * Larry Levineengineer Additional musicians *Don Randipiano *Al De Lorypiano *Larry Knechtelpiano, bass guitar *Leon Russellpiano *Harold Battistepiano * Steve Douglas, Jay Migliori, Lou Blackburn, Roy Catonhorns *Ray Pohlmanbass guitar * Jimmy Bondbass guitar *Hal Blainedrums *Barney Kesselguitars * Tom Tedescoguitars *Carol Kayeguitars *Bill Pitmanguitars * Vincent Poncia Jr.guitars *Frank Capppercussion *Julius Wechterpercus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ronettes
The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes". The Ronettes placed nine songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, six of which became Top 40 hits. Among their hit songs are " Be My Baby", which peaked at No. 2, their only contemporary top 10 hit, " Baby, I Love You", " (The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" and " Walking in the Rain". In 1964, the group released their only studio album, '' Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica''. That year, the Rolling Stones were their opening act when they toured the UK. The Ronettes opened for the Beatles on their 1966 US ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthia Weil
Cynthia Weil (born October 18, 1940) is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Life and career Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil, a furniture store owner and the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants, and her mother was Dorothy Mendez, who grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn. Weil trained as an actress and dancer, but soon demonstrated a songwriting ability that led to her collaboration with Barry Mann, whom she married in August 1961. The couple has one daughter, Jenn Mann. Weil became one of the Brill Building songwriters of the 1960s, and one of the most important writers during the emergence of rock and roll. She and her husband went on to create songs for many contemporary artists, winning several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for film. As their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography put it, in part: "Mann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Randi
Don Randi (born February 25, 1937) is an American keyboard player, bandleader, and songwriter who was a member of the Wrecking Crew. Career Randi was born February 25, 1937 in New York City. He was raised in the Catskill Mountains and studied classical music. In 1954, he moved to Los Angeles and became a studio musician. During the next year, he began working at record distribution company where he was influenced by jazz musicians, particularly Horace Silver. He began his career as a pianist and keyboard player in 1956, gradually establishing a reputation as a leading session musician. In the early 1960s, he was musician and arranger for record producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. He played piano on " These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra and on her albums, as well as being a member of her touring band for decades. He performed on the Beach Boys' " Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows". His piano can be heard on the Buffalo Springfield songs "Expecting to Fly" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Levine
Larry Levine (May 8, 1928 – May 8, 2008) was an American audio engineer, known for his collaboration with Phil Spector on the Wall of Sound recording technique. Biography Levine received the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical, for the recording of "A Taste of Honey" performed by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. The recording also won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1966. Among his other known recording engineering contributions is the Beach Boys' influential 1966 album '' Pet Sounds''. Levine died of emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alv ... in Encino, California on his 80th birthday. References External links * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Larry 1928 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American engineers Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector and went on to work with the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, among others. He also worked extensively in film scores, notably for films such as '' Performance'', '' The Exorcist'' and '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest''. In 1983, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing " Up Where We Belong" with Buffy Sainte-Marie. Life and career Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and raised on a farm in Newaygo, Michigan, Nitzsche, the son of German immigrants, moved to Los Angeles in 1955 with ambitions of becoming a jazz saxophonist. He was hired by Sonny Bono, who was at the time an A&R executive at Specialty Records, as a music copyist. While there, Nitzsche wrote a novelty hit titled "Bongo Bongo Bongo". Nitz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nedra Talley
Nedra Talley, now known as Nedra Talley-Ross (born January 27, 1946), is a retired American singer. She is best known as a former member of the girl group the Ronettes, in which she performed with her cousins Ronnie and Estelle Bennett. As of 2022, Talley is the last surviving member of the group. Career In 1967, Talley and Estelle Bennett left the Ronettes, a decade after the group's formation. The split was reportedly due in part to interference from the group's producer Phil Spector, who later married Ronnie Bennett. Talley said that when she met Scott Ross, her future husband, she became a born-again Christian. Talley also decided to leave the Ronettes because she felt there was little place for Christian-inspired music. In 1977, Talley recorded several Christian songs written by her church's music director, Ted Sandquist. These were released on the album ''The Courts of the King: The Worship Music of Ted Sandquist''. One of the cuts, a medley, "Love of My Lord" / "Redwoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estelle Bennett
Estelle Bennett (July 22, 1941 – February 11, 2009) was an American singer. Bennett was a member of the girl group the Ronettes, along with her sister Ronnie and cousin Nedra Talley. Early life Bennett and her sister, Veronica (later known as Ronnie Bennett and Ronnie Spector), were raised in New York City. They were children of an Irish-American father and African-American/Cherokee mother; they said they were bullied at school because of being light-skinned African Americans. Bennett attended George Washington High School in Manhattan where she was valedictorian. Studious and interested in fashion, she studied at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology. Career When Bennett was 14, she and her sister Ronnie, and their cousin Nedra Talley started singing together. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, the trio reinvented themselves as the Ronettes. Signed up by 23-year-old Phil Spector, Ronnie became lead, with Estelle and Nedra as backing. They would eventually hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapel Of Love
"Chapel of Love" is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, and made famous by The Dixie Cups in 1964, spending three weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.Whitburn, Joel (2009). ''Top Pop Singles 1955-2008'' (12th ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 282. The song tells of the happiness and excitement the narrator feels on her wedding day, for she and her love are going to the "chapel of love", and "we'll never be lonely anymore." Many other artists have recorded the song. It was originally recorded by Darlene Love in April 1963, but her version was not released until 1991. The Dixie Cups' version was the debut release of the new Red Bird Records run by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller along with George Goldner.Betrock, Alan (1982). ''Girl Groups The Story of a Sound'' (1st ed.). New York: Delilah Books. pgs. 90-94. The Ronettes included the song on their debut album released in November 1964 with production by Phil Spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Genius". Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray". Charles was blinded during childhood, possibly due to glaucoma. Charles pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He contributed to the integration of country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, notably with his two ''Modern Sounds'' albums. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company. Charles's 1960 hit "Georgia On My Mind" was the first of his three career No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What'd I Say
"What'd I Say" (or "What I Say") is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charles, his orchestra, and backup singers had played their entire set list at a show and still had time left; the response from many audiences was so enthusiastic that Charles announced to his producer that he was going to record it. After his run of R&B hits, this song finally broke Charles into mainstream pop music and itself sparked a new subgenre of R&B titled soul, finally putting together all the elements that Charles had been creating since he recorded " I Got a Woman" in 1954. The gospel and rhumba influences combined with the sexual innuendo in the song made it not only widely popular but very controversial to both white and black audiences. It earned Ray Charles his first gold record and has been one of the most influential songs in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby", "Maybe I Know", "Then He Kissed Me", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", " Hanky Panky", "Chapel of Love", "Leader of the Pack", and "River Deep – Mountain High", among others. Early years Eleanor Louise Greenwich was born in Brooklyn, New York to painter turned electrical engineer William Greenwich, a Catholic, and department store manager (later medical secretary), Rose Baron Greenwich, who was Jewish. Both parents were of Russian descent. She was not raised in either religion. She was reportedly named for Eleanor Roosevelt. Her musical interest was sparked as a child when her parents played music in their home and she listened to artists including Teresa Brewer, The Four Lads and Johnnie Ray, and she learned how to play the accordion at a young age. At age ten, she m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry (born Joel Adelberg; April 3, 1938) is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are " Do Wah Diddy Diddy", " Da Doo Ron Ron", " Then He Kissed Me", " Be My Baby", " Chapel of Love", and "River Deep - Mountain High" (all written with his then-wife Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector); " Leader of the Pack" (written with Greenwich and Shadow Morton); " Sugar, Sugar" (written with Andy Kim); "Without Us" (written with Tom Scott). Early career Barry was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish family. His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother moved him and his sister to Plainfield, New Jersey, where they resided for several years before returning to New York. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Barry served in the Army, then returned to New York where he attended City College. Although he leaned toward a degree in engineering, his main aspiration was to become a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
