Nedra Talley Ross, the last surviving founding member of the early 1960s-era girl group and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Ronettes, has died, according to a post on the group’s Facebook page. No cause of death was announced; she was 80 years old.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Nedra Talley Ross’ passing. She was a light to those who knew and loved her,” the post reads. “As a founding member of The Ronettes, along with her beloved cousins Ronnie and Estelle, Nedra’s voice, style and spirit helped define a sound that would change music. Her contribution to the group’s story and their defining influence will live forever.
“Rest peacefully dear Nedra. Thanks for the magic.”
In many ways, the Ronettes — New Yorkers Talley Ross (pictured above, far right, in 1964) and her cousins Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett (later Spector) and Estelle Bennett — were the definitive girl group, and they were certainly the definitive purveyors of producer Phil Spector’s legendary “Wall of Sound,” which dominated American radio in the early 1960s before the advent of the Beatles and the British Invasion.
With a bad-girl vibe and big, booming singles like “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You,” “Walking in the Rain” and “I Can Hear Music,” defined by lead singer Ronnie’s come-hither voice and Spector’s dense, echo-drenched production, the Ronettes’ sound is a time capsule of the Kennedy era. Although the group’s reign was brief, they cast a wide influence across the sound of the ‘60s and every pop era that followed — within a decade the New York Dolls and the Ramones would be singing their praises and citing their influence. Just as significantly, the group broke down racial barriers in the 1960s, when the sight of three young women of Puerto Rican and Black descent singing pop music on television and opening concerts for the Beatles was still a rarity.
Talley-Ross was born in Manhattan on Jan. 27, 1946, of Black, Native American, Irish, and Puerto Rican descent, and began singing with her cousins as a child. They played New York sock hops and bar mitzvahs, performing material by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and the Shirelles, first as Ronnie and the Relatives and then, at Beatrice Bennett’s suggestion, as the Ronettes. The trio was signed to Colpix Records, the label subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, in 1961, but their Stu Phillips-produced singles flopped.
In 1963, the Bennett sisters – now working as dancers and sometime vocalists with the Peppermint Lounge twist act Joey Dee & the Starlighters — cold-called the New York office of Phil Spector, then riding high with a run of hit singles by the Crystals, Bobb B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans and Darlene Love.
Granted an audition with Spector, the Ronettes, fronted by Ronnie, launched into a version of Frankie Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.” According to her autobiography, Spector instantly leaped up from his piano and exclaimed, “That’s the voice I’ve been looking for!”
With Ronnie in the lead — as well as the object of the producer’s romantic attentions — the group swiftly became the medium for Spector’s vast Wagnerian productions. The Ronettes detonated on the charts in ’63 with the explosive “Be My Baby,” which vaulted to No. 2 nationally; the song was later used unforgettably under the credits of Martin Scorsese’s 1973 breakthrough feature “Mean Streets.” The group also performed three songs on Spector’s Yuletide album “A Christmas Gift to You” that year.
A quartet of masterful top 40 hits followed in 1964: “Baby I Love You,” “(The Best Part of) Breaking Up,” “Do I Love You” and “Walking in the Rain,” written by the pop powerhouse teams of Ellie Greenwich with Jeff Barry and Barry Mann with Cynthia Weil (and a dotted-line credit to Spector). On the back of these successes, the Ronettes toured the U.K., where the Rolling Stones served as their opening act — Keith Richards enthused, “They’re all right little darlings” — and Ronnie deflected advances from the Beatles’ John Lennon.
Two minor singles were released in 1965, while such magnificent performances as “Paradise” and “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine” remained in the can for more than a decade. The group also opened for the Beatles on their last world tour in 1966, alongside their last chart single, “I Can Hear Music” reached No. 100 in 1966.
The group agreed to split after a 1967 European tour: While the members were still in their early or mid-twenties, their peak era had long since passed, and by that time Phil Spector had divorced his wife and turned his domineering and literally combative attention to Ronnie, effectively squelching her professional career in the process.
A long series of bitter legal actions against Spector over unpaid royalties and income ensued over the following decades, with a judge finally ordering the producer to pay the group $2.6 million in 2000 (he appealed twice). As a member of the Rock Hall of Fame’s Board of Governors, he effectively blocked their nomination for years, although the group was finally inducted (and introduced by Richards) in 2007, after Spector had been arrested and convicted of the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
Talley-Ross continued to work as a solo artist, recording a solo contemporary Christian music album in 1978, in addition to several singles. Estelle Bennett and Ronnie Spector died in 2009 and 2022, respectively.
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