Ronnie Spector's Best Christmas Party Ever w/ Wanda Jackson
“That record came out the same day JFK was shot, November 22, 1963,” laments Ronnie Spector of what’s now considered a rock & roll classic, A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, on which her vintage girl group the Ronettes played a pivotal role. “Nobody heard it; radio didn’t play it. It was a very sad time in the country, but that album kept building.
“Eventually, over the years, I’d hear it on the radio at Christmastime. After 20 years, it went to Number 20. I started doing my Christmas songs onstage over 20 years ago.”
After decades of staging the holiday concert in her native NYC, with special guests varying from Keith Richards to Joey Ramone, the singer has begun taking it on the road. Monday marks the tour’s first-ever Austin date, Ms. Veronica Yvette Bennett having last appeared locally on a brittle New Year’s Eve in 2014 at the Spider House. At the Paramount, the first new Ronettes since the Sixties, Gnomi Gre’ and Zhana Saunders, take the spots once occupied by older sister Estelle Bennett and cousin Nedra Talley.
“It makes me very happy to hear my Christmas songs – ‘Sleigh Ride,’ ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ – played when I’m grocery shopping for my family,” says Spector, 74. “And my other hits, too: ‘Be My Baby,’ ‘Walking in the Rain,’ ‘Baby, I Love You.’”
“I’m standing in line, and I want to say to these people, ‘That’s me!’”
– Tim Stegall
