''Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette'' (also published as ''Be My Baby: The Autobiography of Ronnie Spector'') is a memoir by

Ronnie Spector Veronica Yvette Greenfield (; August 10, 1943 – January 12, 2022) was an American singer who co-founded and fronted the girl group The Ronettes. She is sometimes referred to as the original "bad girl of rock and roll". Ronnie formed the ...

co-written with Vince Waldron, which recounts her roller-coaster career as lead singer of the Ronettes and her

emotionally abusive Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumat ...

marriage to

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

. A film adaptation starring

Zendaya Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman ( ; born September 1, 1996) is an American actress and singer. She has received various accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the ...

as Ronnie was announced in 2021.

Publication

The book was published on September 1, 1990 by Harmony. An updated edition titled ''Be My Baby: A Memoir'', featuring a new postscript by Spector describing her life after 1990 and a new introduction by

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

, was completed shortly before Spector's death in January 2022. The book was published by Henry Holt & Co. the following May.

Content

''Be My Baby'' recounts Spector's roller-coaster career as lead singer of the Ronettes and her

marriage to

. Born in

Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

, Veronica Bennett always loved to sing. As teens, she, her sister, and her cousin met an agent who introduced them to a producer, and they made a record. Soon they started performing at the Brooklyn Fox rock-and-roll revue alongside

The Shirelles The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFad ...

The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successf ...

, Marvin Gaye, and others. In 1963,

signed them and Ronnie fell in love with him. "

Be My Baby "Be My Baby" is a song by American girl group the Ronettes that was released as a single on Philles Records in August 1963. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, the song was the Ronettes' biggest hit, reaching number 2 in ...

" became their first and biggest hit. The group toured England, where

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

were their opening act and they became friends with

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

. Phil was fiercely possessive and became very controlling. He convinced her not to open for the Beatles. He became increasingly reclusive and violent after they married. Ronnie was imprisoned in their home and forbidden to perform. Finally, she left him and tried to relaunch her career. He threatened her with a glass coffin in the basement, declaring that he would display her dead body in it after he murdered her. He turned their house into a prison for her, barbed wire, dogs and manipulating her into not leaving to keep recording songs. As their marriage began failing, he coerced her into adopting twins for christmas, trying to find another way to emotionally manipulate her into staying. He hid her shoes so that she could not run away and forbid all contact to her friends and family. Phil Spector also threatened to stalk her and hire hit men to murder her if she ever escaped the prison he had trapped her in. Ronnie would frequently drink too much on purpose so she would be able to be at hospital and not at home, where Phil physically abused her while nobody was there. Ronnie reported that he would pull her hair and hit her regularly, in front of and often along with their two adopted children. Eventually, Ronnie managed to gather the courage to escape with help from her mother and climbed out of a window one night. She was barefoot. The trauma she was left with was horrific. The song "Christmas Kids" By Roar narrates her story from mainly Phil's perspective adopting a chillingly joyful tone. Without listening to the lyrics, it could sound like a charming and harmless song about a teenage boy in love for the first time, but on closer inspection, it is sinister and terrifying, especially if you know the story.

Reception

The memoir has received widely favorable reviews across several decades since its publication. In ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' in 2012,

Rob Sheffield Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author. He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at '' Ble ...

named it as one of the 25 best rock memoirs of all time, saying "her book, like her voice, is full of cocky, smart, self-aware humor." Writing of the book's sections "describ ng her time with

and the Stones, both in the U.K. and stateside," at

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

in 2016 Alison Fensterstock said ''Be My Baby'': "deliver a wild, funny, intimate and detailed account of a bunch of kids navigating fame and fun; they also describe, essentially, the singer's last flush of freedom before her relationship with Phil Spector really got bad." The autobiography is excerpted in the 2013

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

anthology ''The Rock History Reader'', which describes ''Be My Baby'' as "offering a little-seen window into the complex creative processes and inordinate power relationships behind the girl group phenomenon", in contrast to frequently trivializing depictions of the genre, or otherwise focused solely on the accomplishments of "their

Svengali Svengali () is a character in the novel ''Trilby'' which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier. Svengali is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young half-Irish girl, and makes her into a famous singer. Definition ...

-like male producer or the song-writing teams that provided them with their hits."

References

{{reflist Music autobiographies 1990 non-fiction books Music books American autobiographies Books about musicians Books about pop music Collaborative non-fiction books Harmony Books books