Ronnie Spector obituary

The combination of the voice of Veronica Bennett, who has died aged 78, and Phil Spector’s studio-built Wall of Sound became one of the most potent and distinctive sounds to emerge from the fast-changing world of pop music in the early 1960s. Ronnie Spector, as she became when she and the producer married, was the lead singer of the Ronettes, a New York trio whose hits included Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, (The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up and – her own favourite – Walking in the Rain.

With their towering black beehive hairdos, extravagant eye makeup and tight sheath dresses, the Ronettes brought a whiff of sex and danger to the wholesome girl-group genre of the early 60s, previously dominated by the romantic songs of the Shirelles, the Chiffons and the Cookies. The sisters Veronica and Estelle Bennett and