“Please. I was the first Snooki. She thinks she invented the pouf. I invented it.”

Yesterday, while I was listening to CBC radio, I heard the host quoting the Ronnie Spector quip to Snooki about her pouf. I hadn’t heard this before, but I knew Ronnie Spector was the first wife of Phil Spector whom he met while producing The Ronettes, and she has the distinction of being called “the first bad girl of Rock and Roll”.

The CBC host then went on to play “Be My Baby” and I drifted into happiness.



A few years ago, Tiffanie had given me a copy of the Phil Spector’s biography, Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown. I loved many parts of the book, not just because Phil Spector produced some of my favourite groups, including The Righteous Brothers, the first LP that I ever bought in my life when I was 17. I bought it at The Roosevelt Field Shopping Center. I remember the purchase, even today, but that’s another blog topic. What I loved about the book was it devoted a lot of time to the beginning of Rock and Roll, including an entire chapter on Bobby Darin (not really a rocker, but adopted by us anyway). But that too is another story.

Ronnie Spector and her Ronettes were one of the many great Girl Groups of the 1960’s. Besides “Be My Baby”, they also had a hit with “Baby I Love You” and “Walking in the Rain”. But they were the tip of the iceberg. There were The Crystals (another Phil Spector group), Martha and the Vandellas, The Dixie Cups, and of course, the Motown stars, The Supremes and The Marvelettes. Enjoy...