Ronnie Spector

Though Ronnie Spector rose to prominence with the Ronettes, her 1966 marriage to their producer, Phil Spector, seemed to doom her career. Even a solo career in the years following their divorce floundered. But with Joey Ramone behind Spector's newest outing, it's no mistake that this is among the greatest music she has ever made. Many of the New York Punk bands of the '70s, especially the Ramones, built their music on the girl group sound with which they grew up, the sound Ronnie Spector helped pioneer. Spector's newest recordings show she has not lost her magic touch; she shines bright when paired with a producer who understands her sound like Ramone does, and the music here is as absolutely perfect and full as the best of the Ronettes. "Don't Worry, Baby," a song written for her in the '60s by Beach Boy Brian Wilson which Phil Spector never allowed Ronnie to record, is one of the recent songs Spector recorded with Ramone. The others include two songs written by Joey Ramone, "She Talks to Rainbows," and "Bye, Bye Baby." The fourth song is Johnny Thunder's "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory." The past has become part of the future.