page_title: The Ronettes
section_title: Later event
hierarchical_section_title: The Ronettes / Later event
caption_attribution_description: Ronnie Spector at the 25th Anniversary party of Michael Musto writing for The Village Voice
context_page_description: The Ronettes were an American girl group from New York City. One of the most popular groups of the 1960s, they placed nine songs on the Billboard Hot 100, five of which became Top 40 hits. The trio from Spanish Harlem, New York, consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett, her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. Among the Ronettes' most famous songs are "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", " Breakin' Up" and "Walking in the Rain". "Walking in the Rain" won a Grammy Award in 1965, and "Be My Baby" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
  The girls had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes". In late 1964, the group released their only studio album, Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica, which entered the Billboard charts at number 96. Rolling Stone ranked it number 422 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.
context_section_description: In 1988, the original Ronettes filed a lawsuit in New York against Phil Spector over unpaid royalties and for unpaid income he made from licensing of Ronettes’ music. It took the case a decade to make its way to trial. In 2000, Spector was ordered to pay them more than $2.6 million. Spector appealed and in 2001 the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld a lower court finding that Spector had violated his 1963 contract. He appealed that ruling as well, taking the case to the New York State Supreme Court in 2002. In its ruling, the State Court of Appeals said it found the Ronettes' "plight sympathetic, because they have earned less than $15,000 in royalties from songs that topped the charts and made them famous," but the judges found that their contract gave Spector unconditional rights to the recordings. The judges also reversed a lower court's ruling that they were entitled to the music industry's standard 50 percent royalty rate on sales of records, tapes and compact discs. The final outcome had Spector paying a judgment in excess of 1.5 million dollars to the Ronettes.
  In 2009, Estelle died of colon cancer at the age of 67 in Englewood, New Jersey.
  In 2017, Ronnie Spector released a new single Love Power under the name Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes making it the first Ronettes single in decades.
caption: Ronnie Spector in 2010 singing "Be My Baby" to Michael Musto
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