By My Baby

Lead singer for the Ronettes, one of the better so-called "girl groups" of the 1960s, Ronnie Spector provides an insider's look at the madness and glamour of an explosive period in rock music. Much of the book revolves around her relationship with Phil Spector, the star-making producer whose "Wall of Sound" concept revolutionized recording studio technique. According to the singer, her husband was obsessed with control, keeping her a virtual prisoner in his mansion for nearly five years before she broke free to reestablish a life and career of her own. Now remarried with two children, and having met with success in her struggle against alcoholism, the singer, aided by freelance writer Vince Waldron, reminisces with apparent objectivity. Her candor, amid the recent rash of tell-all books by aging rock stars, is refreshing and puts Be My Baby a cut above the standard self-serving, bonkers-and-back autobiography.