The Best Of

by

The Ronettes

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High school days in those wondrous musical sixties, standout memorable anthem is Ronnie Spector's incredible voice in the classic "Be My Baby", great song that blew everyone away with exotic hypnotic brilliance and helped defined a great musical era. Waiting then for each and every release after, Ronnie never disappointed being never less than brilliant. "Baby I Love You" is another winner as is "The Best Part Of Breaking Up", then along with the exotic hypnotic stunner "Do I Love You?", these classics stand as the best of the best from the great musical sixties. Ronnie with that mesmerizing passionate voice so brilliantly showcased in "Walking In The Rain", should have gone to #1 as it jumped out at you whenever on the radio unlike anything else, complete with that amazing arrangement, vividly simulating thunder & rain so realisticly that you can feel it. Ronnie & the Ronettes releases continued at this same high level of quality, hauntingly gorgeous "Born To Be Together" is the ultimate teen anthem while the other side of romance is the passionately stunning "Is This What I Get For Loving You?", sadly by this time many have reported those in control of playlists decided that Mr. Spector was too big for his britches, therefore his records would no longer receive airplay...many felt the same jealous nonsense killed Tina Turner's brilliant "River Deep-Mountain High", going to #1 in Europe but silently banned from American radio looked to be the result. As this time as a big fan of this classic music, personally called radio stations and pleaded for them to play "River Deep" and Ronnie & the Ronettes later great releases, but was told over & over these records were not on the playlist, then was each and every time coldly disconnected. Forward to late sixties the same fate happened to the great "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered", sounding like another huge hit...great music should never be mixed with this type of politics, sadly it is and music suffers, audiences are cheated then artists are the ultimate victims. Anyone interested in enjoying one of the best voices on the planet, do not miss this classic collection. Greatness like this is once in a lifetime so enjoy...Bravo Ronnie Spector, you are amazing!!! Update 2007; Ronnie and the Ronettes, finally where they belong, inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame! Bravo Ronnie, knock em' dead with that gorgeous voice!

There has never been a better Pop single than "Be My Baby."

Period.

The pleasant surprise is that Phil & Ronnie kept a pretty high standard when it came to singles. This album is solid from beginning to end.

There are a batch of minor classics here, including "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love," "Baby I Love You," and the down right dirty "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up." The Ronnettes made records that weren't just about teen love, first love, they made records that felt like teen love.

There are some odd bits. "How Does It Feel" doesn't sound uptempo, it sounds spastic, and the "shadoop-shadoop" intro to "Everything Under The Sun" sounds like one of those lousy "Sing-a-long With Mitch" albums they used to hawk on TV.

But any album that contains "Walking In The Rain," an absolute masterpiece of songwriting and record production, sung by angels like Ronnie Spector and the Ronnettes, is worth having on your shelf.