842 The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes (1964)

 842 The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes (1964)

Studio Album (Mostly) - Soul




About the Act:

The Ronettes were three girls who sang. They existed for 10 years from 1957 to 1967 and then again briefly from 1973 to 1974. They featured Veronica Bennett who became Ronnie Spector (by marrying Phil Spector). They had one album.


About the Album:

This was their one album.


My History with this Album:

None, but I know several tracks that were hits


Review:

I try to review albums as much as possible in isolation. However, I have just reviewed The Chamber Brothers, a 1960s soul album, and before that Diana Ross - a soul compilation mostly from the 60s. The problem with this album is that it is not as slick and well-produced as Diana Ross, nor does it have the live and more raw feel of the Chamber Brothers. To be honest, I was more put off by the recordings than the songs themselves, and I have to bear in mind that it was a few years earlier. Not many, but this was a time when studio technology was coming on very quickly.

However, the thing that has changed my opinion somewhat was finding out that this was their only album. Really? That surprised me, because I have definitely heard of them. This is because several songs from this album became hits. 

So the music is kind of do-wop soul, the sort of thing you expect from Motown, and this was Phil Spector behind the scenes, involved with writing and producing. Like I say, the recording could be better, and it sounds a bit washy to me. One track is a live recording, which is actually not bad. The songs are all pretty good, definitely on the cheesy side, as was the norm for the genre at the time. The delivery is good, but not as good as Diana Ross, and it's a reasonable listen. 

We've just had lunch. We had "hot cross bun muffins" which had been reduced to almost nothing to sell them off. We had a discussion about why they didn't sell, and came to the conclusion that it's because they are not hot cross buns. If people like hot cross buns, they would buy hot cross buns. If they didn't they wouldn't buy muffins that probably taste similar to hot cross buns. That's the thing here, I think. If I wanted to listen to a particular track that I knew was on this album, I might listen to it. If I wanted to listen to some good Motown-like soul, I might listen to Diana Ross, or a compilation (most likely), or if I wanted less-polished R&B soul I would go to James Brown or Tina Turner or (now) The Chambers Brothers. I just wouldn't pick this album to listen to, not because it's bad, but because there are better things in the same sort of niche.


6.5/10




Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0CoNLgOwcZGBUSwd9fAZuy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZDdrc-EQfvA-0wWbSSajeHTE5YiZ-4H

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presenting_the_Fabulous_Ronettes_Featuring_Veronica



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