The New York Times ran two obituaries, an official one and then a more profile-y one of Estelle Bennett, one of the Ronettes, earlier this month when she died, and they were both sad. I love the look of the girl groups from that era, especially their hair. Every now and then for parties, I’ll try to do big beehive hair, but unfortunately, I just don’t have the hair for that kind of volume (plus, I think it requires a good half a day under those old-fashioned hair dryers to get those beehives into place. I was, however, lured by some product on television I saw the other day that was a plastic bump that promised this volume for modern hair). Anyway, I’ve always loved “Be My Baby,” which I remember learning in junior high music theory class* that it had the same bass line as Pachelbel’s Cannon. I also fact-checked a story about the backup musicians from this era a couple of years ago, (favorite quote from a source, “It was the ’60s, honey, it was one big blur”), and I got oddly fascinated with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound and his relationship with Ronnie Spector. In fact, I was so into it, I was confused when my friend and then-co-worker said something about going to see Regina Spektor, and I was like, “Phil Spector’s wife?” and she was like, “No! Your brain has been addled by talking to all these old musicians!”
*Yes, I was a nerd.
