(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up
However, according to Ronnie Spector, the group's lead singer, producer Phil Spector had already begun to somewhat lose enthusiasm for the Ronettes in early 1964. The group had recorded the Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich song "Chapel of Love" in early 1964, but Spector refused to release it. "It doesn't sound like a hit," he told the group, so The Dixie Cups recorded their version of the song, which peaked at number one on the Billboard top 100, a position never held by the Ronettes.
Estelle Bennett
The first incarnation of what was to become the Ronettes appeared in when Bennett was 14. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, the trio reinvented themselves as the Ronettes. Signed up by a then 23-year-old Phil Spector, Ronnie was made lead, with Estelle and Nedra as backing. After the Ronettes' 1966 break-up, Bennett recorded a single for Laurie Records, "The Year 2000/The Naked Boy". She then quit the music business and was rarely seen afterwards. In 2007, when the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was decided that she was too fragile to perform with them, and she spoke only a brief two sentences during her acceptance speech, "I would just like to say, thank you very much for giving us this award. I'm Estelle of the Ronettes, thank you." She did, however, come back out on stage for a final bow with the rest of the Ronettes after the performance of "Be My Baby".