The Ronnie Spector Experience

EMI has released The Very Best of Ronnie Spector as part of its Playlist series. I bought the cd at last week's merchandise table at NYC's City Winery after her concert. It is autographed.

I met Ronnie once, in the early part of the decade, at an Ellen DeGeneres performance at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. As the oblivious crowd walked to the street, I said hello. She was quietly seated with her husband. Jonathan Greenfield. She had just won her lawsuit for royalties from ex-hubby Phil Spector. I congratulated her on her victory. "You're happy? I'm very happy!" Ronnie exclaimed.

This album includes early Colpix recordings of The Ronettes, Ronettes classics with Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and some of her later solo hits.

"Say Goodbye to Hollywood," written for Ronnie by Billy Joel (but a hit for him after Ronnie's deal for an album with Columbia collapsed) is on here in all its glory, recorded with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. So is the Eddie Money hit duet, "Love on a Rooftop," written & produced by Desmond Child. Johnny Thunder's "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" is included, an anthem, now cemented in her repertoire.

I especially love George Harrison's spacey "Try Some, Buy Some" and "All I Want," my favorite track from The Last of the Rock Stars album.

So try some and buy one. CD version includes liner notes and numerous photos.

I was sorry, however, that the album didn't include these favorite tracks:







And her one disco single that should have been a club hit: