Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica by The Ronettes, on London Record label 1964, value £100

PROBABLY one of the greatest girl groups ever, The Ronettes were an American 1960s group from New York City, writes MICHAEL BROOKS. The trio consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (affectionately known as Ronnie) her older sister Estelle and cousin Nedra Talley. After auditioning for record producer Phil Spector they had a huge hit with Be My Baby now immortalised by the success of the film and show Dirty Dancing. Spector had the cream of the top session musicians in the USA, collectively known as The Wrecking Crew; they were an orchestral innovation creating a musical effect complete with echo chambers personified as the Wall of Sound. They provided all the music on all future Ronette recordings, including an aspiring singer called Cher singing backup vocals with her then boyfriend Sonny Bono as sound engineer. The most distinguished member was legendary drummer Hal Blaine who provided the heartbeat to all these great songs.

Together with the next album The Ronettes, value £80, these songs are a collection of their greatest hits in all but name. In America they are exchanging hands for several hundreds of dollars making them extremely collectable. The Ronettes represented the golden age of girl groups singing about boy/girl relationships, teen angst and adolescent traumas. Their songs are an absolute joy to listen to. They can still melt and break the hardest of hearts, they leave us with timeless reminders of hopes, dreams, longings, love lost and found again, taking us back to being young. Ronnie ended up marrying Phil Spector but the marriage was volatile and short lived. Sadly, the only Ronettes song we hear is BMB, still a great song and floor filler at dances, but ultimately played to death. We never hear the other classics, Best Part Of Breaking Up, Walking In The Rain, Girls Can Tell, the spine tingling Do I Love You? and so many more. If you cannot find these albums, do search for the songs.

This is Girl Power long before the phrase ever existed. Not only will these songs grab your heart, they never grow old and are probably the most sincere love songs ever recorded. Ronnie Spector, being the only surviving member of the trio, was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017.

Three pretty girls singing about love, how can anyone resist?