I heard on the radio yesterday morning that Ronnie Spector, lead singer of The Ronettes, has died.

The Ronettes early success came under the production of Phil Spector – the quintessential US sound of the early 1960s.

Their first hit Be My Baby also featured the wonderful drumming of Hal Blaine.

This was their second.

The Ronettes: Baby I Love You

Veronica Greenfield (Veronica Yvette Bennett, aka Ronnie Spector:) 10/8/1943 –12/1/2022. So it goes.

The list of hits on which Hal Blaine played drums is enormous. His obituary in the Guardian mentions only a few. A fuller (though possibly partial) list is here. Looking at that it could almost be said that he was the sound of the sixties.

He was certainly a major component of the “wall of sound” on those Phil Spector productions he played on. No more so than on Be My Baby.

The Ronettes: Be My Baby

Harold Simon Belsky (Hal Blaine): 5/2/1929 – 11/3/2019. So it goes.