Ronnie Spector's Beyond the Beehive @ The Rialto Theatre

Presented by POP Montreal, Cult MTL, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival

As an avid fan of biographies and autobiographies about some of the world's most interesting people (Martin Luther King, Sidney Poitier, Winston Churchill, to name a few), one can only imagine my joy when I found out that I had secured some tickets to the Ronnie Spector show at The Rialto Theatre on September 19, 2014. Ronnie Spector was billed as part of the 2014 edition of POP Montreal, and that news was in all the papers, both mainstream and local.

Ronnie Spector was born Veronica Yvette Bennett in east New York, a section known as Spanish Harlem. Her musical career began with her sister Estelle Bennett and cousin Nedra Talley singing at the Apollo in Harlem and other small gigs in their neighbourhood. 

A small and petite woman walked on stage that night to tell the tale of a life of fame, fun, misfortune, abuse, neglect, early friendships, freight, and finally freedom. From where I sat, I could clearly see the face of a woman, who somehow survived a most unusual relationship with a so-called musical genius, who in the end, ended up in prison for murder and still wanted full control of her life.

She walked on stage singing one of her famous hits and from then on, had the crowd in her hands, listening to every word she spoke or sang.

The group was originally called the Rondettes, but they changed it to become the Ronettes, and in 1961 signed with Colpix Records and released several songs, two of which were, "I Want a Boy" and "What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen". Ronnie went on to tell the story of how they were mistaken for dancers and even went on tour as such. As her story goes, the dancers for the show were late and the producer of the show came outside looking for them, upon seeing the Ronettes all dressed alike, he thought they were the dancers and put them on stage that night to dance.

The Ronettes went on to record several other songs with Colpix Records, but found very little success doing so. They continued to dance at The Peppermint Lounge, and it was there that they were discovered by Murray the K, one of New York's top DJs of the day. With success eluding them, they decided to call Mirasound Studios, one of the leading and innovative recording studios at the time, and got signed up by them.

The songs "Be My Baby", "Baby I Love You", "I Wonder", and "The Best Part of Breaking Up", made the group very famous and they went on to tour the world with those hits. It was their tour in England that I found to be most interesting. The group performed with the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, with the Stones as their opening act.

Her stories of her jealous then-husband and his paranoid controlling ways were quite sad. By listening to them, one can sense that, although she and the group were famous, her own fame as a solo recording artist at that time was denied because of him. There are several books written by her that tells the tails of her tormented life, including Be My Baby, How I Survived Mascara, and My Life as a Fabulous Ronette.

After finding the courage to break free from the control of her freaky husband, in the mid-seventies, Ronnie tried to revive her singing career. The song "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", written by Billy Joel and backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, put her back on the charts. 

However, the fame of her earlier career would not be within reach. She went on to marry a theatre worker named Jonathan Greenfield, and the marriage has produced two sons. From the way she spoke, she finally seems to have found some kind of happiness in her life. She signed with Columbia Records in 1986 and released two albums, Unfinished Business and She Talks to Rainbows, produced by the famous Joey Ramone.

The took the name "Spector" after marrying Phil Spector. I choose to leave his name out of this story as much as I could, simply because I wanted her to be the story and not make his name a focal part of it, as is so often done when ever one reads about the Ronettes.

In 2003, the Ronettes sued Spector for their royalties and received a $3 million dollar settlement. In 2007, the Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it was Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones who had the honour of welcoming the band.

I quite liked the idea of having the slide pictures in the back drop on stage, as it helped sell the stories as she told them. My only disappointment was the band. The musicians were quite capable playing their instruments, but what was missing to me, was the lack of a bass player. You needed that big sound for the music that came out of that era.

--Pete Douglas hosts The Live Wire Show every Saturday at 9 AM EST on CJLO.