The Ronettes were an American group whose single “Be My Baby” (1963) was one of the defining songs of the girl-group era. The original members were sisters Ronnie Bennett (later Ronnie Spector) and Estelle Bennett, along with their cousin Nedra Talley.
The Ronettes formed in 1959 and struggled to break through. Then in 1963 they teamed with producer Phil Spector. He reshaped their image (incorporating the beehive hairdos that soon became characteristic of the girl-group genre) and applied his dense “wall of sound” production style to the trio’s music. The first single produced by Spector, “Be My Baby,” was a “wall of sound” masterpiece, and it was the first of five Ronettes songs to reach the Top 40 in 1963–64. This marked the peak of the group’s success, however, and the Ronettes disbanded in 1966. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.