Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica

Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica is an album by the girl group The Ronettes, produced by Phil Spector, Philles 4006 (mono), and 4006S (stereo), released in 1964. It peaked at #96 on the Top Pop Albums chart.

The debut album by the group, it includes the hit singles "Be My Baby" (US #2), "Walking in the Rain" (US #23), "Baby, I Love You" (US #24), "Do I Love You?" (US #34), and "The Best Part of Breakin' Up" (US #39). The track "So Young" had been released as a single credited to Veronica, a.k.a. Ronnie Bennett, although the other Ronettes, Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley, appear on the record.

Nine of the tracks appear on the Spector box set, Back to Mono (1958–1969), the omissions being "How Does It Feel?", "Chapel of Love", and the Ray Charles cover, "What'd I Say?". The album is long out of print, as of June 2007 never having been issued on compact disc. Original vinyl copies change hands for hundreds of dollars.

There has been, however, a re-issue on vinyl in 1975 on the Phil Spector International label (Super 2307 003 - in stereo). Featuring no bonus-tracks and extensive liner notes by New Musical Express author Roy Carr, it was Vol. 1 of the six volume "Phil Spector Wall of Sound" re-issue series. It was finally re-issued on CD in 2011 as part of the 7-disc Phil Spector Presents the Philles Album Collection.^[1]

The songs "Be My Baby" and "Walking in the Rain" are ranked #22 and #266, respectively, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[2] The album ranked #427 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[3] "Walking in the Rain" received a Grammy in 1965 for Best Sound Effects for its special effects of a rainstorm.^[4]

Track listing

Side one

1. "(Walking) In the Rain" (Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Phil Spector) - 3:16
2. "Do I Love You?" (Vini Poncia, Pete Andreoli, Spector) – 2:50
3. "So Young" (William Tyus) – 2:36
4. "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" (Vini Poncia, Pete Andreoli, Spector) – 3:02
5. "I Wonder" (Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Spector) – 2:51
6. "What'd I Say?" (Ray Charles) – 4:40

Side two

1. "Be My Baby" (Greenwich, Barry, Spector) – 2:40
2. "You, Baby" (Weil, Mann, Spector) – 2:56
3. "Baby, I Love You" (Greenwich, Barry, Spector) – 2:50
4. "How Does It Feel?" (Poncia, Andreoli, Spector) – 2:40
5. "When I Saw You" (Spector) – 2:43
6. "Chapel of Love" (Greenwich, Barry, Spector) –

References