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NEWS : STORIES
Recharged by a $2.6 million breach-of-contract court victory over her ex-husband, legendary producer Phil Spector, veteran singer Ronnie Spector is back in the studio — with help from ex-Ramones frontman Joey Ramone,
Spector said she was thrilled to work with Richards, whom she has known since the early 1960s, when the Stones opened for her girl group, the Ronettes, in England. Richards and Mick Jagger slept on Spector's living-room floor during an early U.S. tour. "I heard the rough tracks with my vocals, and listening to Keith play while I sang, I started to actually cry," Spector, 57, said from her home in Connecticut. "He played with such passion. ... If I can get the love I got from Keith from some other players, I'll be satisfied — you know what I'm saying?" The session with Richards covered the Ike and Tina Turner song "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," according to Ramone. "It's so f---in' good, it's so infectious," he said of the performance, describing the Spector-Richards version as a "real grassrootsy kinda thing." "Keith is doing Ike's part," he said. "They've given it their own spin, where it's really a Ronnie and Keith song. ... It gives you the chills." Taking Care Of Business While the as-yet-untitled album is still in its early stages, several guest artists have been recruited to work on the legendary vocalist's first full-length album since 1987's Unfinished Business. For the project, founding Sex Pistols bassist Glenn Matlock wrote "Face in the Crowd," a song Ramone said has a "Blondie feel." Ramone and Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry will sing backup on the song, he said. To describe Spector's place in music, Ramone placed the girl-group icon in a punk context. "Ronnie's kind of legendary, and her biggest fanbase now is all these young kids, like young punky kids," Ramone said. "She's always been cutting-edge, and she's got so much attitude, and she just emotes so much passion. ... But, also, she was a real trendsetter in the past. The look with the beehive hair — to me, what she was doing was a kind of street punk, street-core punk kind of thing. ... She was the original badass." Ramone worked with Spector on the 1999 EP She Talks to Rainbows (RealAudio excerpt), named for a Ramones song Spector covered on the disc. Ramone said the new album would include songs from the EP, which included versions of late punk guitarist Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" (RealAudio excerpt), the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" — which Brian Wilson wrote for Spector to sing — and "Bye Bye Baby," a duet with Ramone that he wrote for the EP. The Battle With Phil Phil Spector signed the Ronettes (who included Spector's sister, Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley) to his Philles label in 1963, and they scored the hit "Be My Baby" (RealAudio excerpt), followed by such singles as "Baby I Love You," and "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up." Phil Spector and Ronnie were married in 1966 and divorced in 1974. The refusal of Spector's ex-husband to pay her back royalties was purely personal, she said, claiming that he has never gotten over her. The breach-of-contract suit, filed by the Ronettes against Phil Spector in 1988, ended in June as a Manhattan Supreme Court judge awarded the group $2.6 million. Phil Spector did not respond to a request for comment by press time. While Phil Spector retains the rights to the Ronettes' songs, Ronnie Spector is blocked from re-recording hits such as "Be My Baby" and "Walking in the Rain," and from performing them on television or for home video. Her ex-husband also retains the group's master recordings. Inspired by her fight, Spector recently joined such artists as Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, lobbying Congress to protest the Works for Hire amendment to the copyright law, which would have reverted music copyrights to record companies, rather than to artists, after 35 years. A bill overturning the amendment was passed in the Senate on Oct. 13; it awaits a presidential signature. Spector hopes the defeat of the amendment will allow the rights to the Ronettes' music eventually to revert to the artists, a spokesperson for the singer said. Spector, whose last big hit was "Take Me Home Tonight," a 1986 duet with Eddie Money, said the long battle has been more invigorating than enervating. "They haven't destroyed me, which is what they want to do," Spector said. "[Phil Spector] spends thousands and thousands of dollars on lawyers, just to keep me down. So you know what I say? I must be damn good! For this guy to spend all this money, 15 years, and I'm still kickin' ass, I must be damn good." Spector said she plans to tour in support of the album.
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