Baby, I Love You
Phil Spector decided to keep lead singer Ronnie Bennett in California to record "Baby, I Love You" while the other two Ronettes, Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley, went out on the tour with Dick Clark. Ronnie's cousin, Elaine, took her place on the tour while Ronnie recorded the song at Gold Star Studios in California. Since the other Ronettes were unavailable for recording, Spector used Darlene Love and Cher to complete the backing vocals. The song also featured Leon Russell on piano. "Baby, I Love You" peaked at number 11 in the UK during January 1964, at a time when the Ronettes were touring the UK as the support act to the Rolling Stones.
The Raelettes
Reformed by Ray Charles from the all-girl singing group The Cookies, The Raelettes were officially established in 1958. Like Ray Charles, they were signed by Atlantic Records, who released a few singles with them, and hired them as backing vocals for other acts (in the studio and live). Ray 'discovered' The Cookies in 1956, in Philadelphia. That night he went out to a concert by the Lionel Hampton Band. Chuck Willis opened the show, and he was accompanied by the girls. Ray, as he later stated, was immediately hooked on their way of singing. He had already recorded "Drown In My Own Tears" with Mary Ann Fisher (who also toured with the band as a featured solo singer between 1956 and 1958), supported by two other girls, but now he wanted to make this kind of female backing vocals part of his sound, permanently.
He first invited The Cookies for a recording session in New York City, in August 1956, where they taped "Lonely Avenue", "I Want To Know" and "Leave My Woman Alone". Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, and Darlene McCrea formed the first line-up. In 1958 The Cookies were re-baptized as The Raelettes (Raeletts, Raelets, etc.), and started touring with The Genius.
Margie Hendrix explained the name change from "Cookies" to "Raelet(t)(te)s" in an October 1961 interview in the French jazz magazine Jazz Hot: "Since we became an integrated part of Ray Charles' orchestra, it would have been perfectly stupid to continue using the 'Cookies' name. On a nice morning Ray tackled the problem, and came to the conclusion that only two names were possible: the 'Silver Bells' or the 'Raelets'. I immediately rejected the 'Silver Bells' - that name appeared ridiculous to me. And that's how we called ourselves the Raelets. We've never been [called] the 'Raylettes': that name would be an error. In American [English] Ray is [a name] for men, and Rae is for the ladies."