Best thing about Ronettes "Be My Baby"

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the fact that the backing vocals on the chorus are flat.

genius

― Joshua Glazer (matthewcampari), Thursday, 13 April 2006 01:32 (twenty years ago)

Ronnie

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 13 April 2006 02:40 (twenty years ago)

"For every kiss, ya give me/I'll give ya three"

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Thursday, 13 April 2006 03:10 (twenty years ago)

Whoa-oh-oh-ooh

― Black Arkestra (Black Arkestra), Thursday, 13 April 2006 03:46 (twenty years ago)

The way the first line is kinda buried in the mix.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 13 April 2006 03:57 (twenty years ago)

Production and singing performances: TIE

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 13 April 2006 04:07 (twenty years ago)

"the backing vocals on the chorus are flat"

They are?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 13 April 2006 04:11 (twenty years ago)

OBVIOUSLY the intro. It grabs you and commands you to shut up and listen. And you do.

― musically (musically), Thursday, 13 April 2006 04:13 (twenty years ago)

i haven't the technical ear to say that they're flat in the technical sense, but they're certainly flat in the performance. nasally perhaps. but as dynamic as the music is (and of course ronnie;s singing), they sound 2-dimensional. which is of course what makes them awesome.

― Joshua Glazer (matthewcampari), Thursday, 13 April 2006 06:15 (twenty years ago)

The fact that it is overly praised on ILM.

― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Thursday, 13 April 2006 06:24 (twenty years ago)

the fact that I cannot listen to it without thinking of the opening credits of Mean Streets...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:24 (twenty years ago)

Drums in the break. Drums in the outchorus. Hal Blaine, right?

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:37 (twenty years ago)

We've DONE this before! And my answer is still: Veronica (too gorgeous to be a "Ronnie") Spector and her accent - the way she nearly sings "toin their heads", for example. 2nd best thing: Hal Blaine.

― Myonga Von Bouffantee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 13 April 2006 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Hearing Ronnie sing it at the Hoboken Street Fair when it was 99 degrees, and getting goosebumps.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2006 18:04 (twenty years ago)

The Castanets.

― musicjohn73 (musicjohn73), Thursday, 13 April 2006 20:04 (twenty years ago)

^OTM!!!

― daavid (daavid), Thursday, 13 April 2006 21:02 (twenty years ago)

indeed, the reprise of the intro before the ride-out, which Blaine completes with a crafty lil' fill…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Friday, 14 April 2006 13:04 (twenty years ago)

This song first came to my attention on that show Moonlighting, when it played while David (Bruce Willis) and Maddy (Cybil Shepherd) had sex for the first time. She slapped him and then the drum beat started and they began making out. Several years of tension were ratcheted way up by that opening beat. It was the end of the show, though. Totally sucked after that.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 14 April 2006 13:09 (twenty years ago)

Easy. Boom, boom boom.

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Sunday, 23 April 2006 10:09 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

02:10 >>> best moment in a song ever!

― Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr, Saturday, 8 November 2008 01:08 (seventeen years ago)

this is the most perfect song ever

― Pantheism F. Mohair (res), Saturday, 8 November 2008 05:50 (seventeen years ago)

The Castanets.

― musicjohn73 (musicjohn73), Thursday, April 13, 2006 4:04 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
^OTM!!!

― daavid (daavid), Thursday, April 13, 2006 5:02 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

― Skipping 1 messages at this point... (PappaWheelie V), Saturday, 8 November 2008 05:52 (seventeen years ago)

The backing vocals are def great.

And was this the first time this particular beat was being used? I mean, it's obviously a very classic beat, used by a lot of great pop acts.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 8 November 2008 11:16 (seventeen years ago)

Baion Beat, slow rhythm of Brazilian origin, in which the beat is followed by a one-beat pause and two half beats. The baion beat has been used in pop music since the late 1950s. It was often used by American record producer Phil Spector.

Anyway, yeah, borrowed from Latin music by lots of songwriters starting in the late '50s, including Leiber and Stoller. Apparently the first use of it in an 'R&B' song is L&S's "There Goes My Baby," recorded by the Drifters, released in 1959.

― I CRIED (G00blar), Saturday, 8 November 2008 14:00 (seventeen years ago)

It's just the standard rock & roll BASS SNARE BASSBASS SNARE beat, with the first snare beat dropped. It's great because it gives the illusion of slowing down whatever song it's used in while actually retaining the same tempo.

In interviews Hal has claimed he just missed the first snare beat by accident and Spector loved it. It does seem odd that one of the elite studio drummers could miss a snare beat; but there ya go.

He also used it in Strangers in the Night for Sinatra a few years later.

― Officer Pupp, Sunday, 9 November 2008 19:45 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

Yay

http://news.radio.com/2013/08/13/50-years-of-the-ronettes-be-my-baby-an-oral-history/

(Though I absolutely refuse to believe Eddie Money actually said "WALTER Davis and the Motels.")

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 August 2013 20:45 (twelve years ago)

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