Nedra Talley Ross, last surviving member of the Ronettes
Nedra Talley Ross, who has died aged 80, was the last surviving member of the Ronettes, the bee-hived trio who lit up the early 1960s with anthems of teenage passion like Be My Baby, Walking in the Rain and Baby, I Love You; asked why the Ronettes were so successful, she ventured: "Our songs were aimed at boys, while other girl groups sang about boys."
Nedra Yvonne Talley was born on January 27 1946 in Manhattan, of black, Native American, Irish and Puerto Rican descent, and was brought up like her cousins, Veronica and Estelle Bennett, in Washington Heights. The girls began singing together on visits to their grandmother's, and in 1957 they joined forces publicly, performing at bar mitzvahs and dances.
They went through several names, including Ronnie and the Relatives and the Darling Sisters, before settling on the Ronettes when they signed to Colpix records in 1961; their first few records failed to trouble the charts.
The following year the three girls were standing in the queue outside the Peppermint Lounge, and were mistaken for a dance act booked to perform there. They took their chance and became fixtures at the night club, managing to slip the odd song into their twist sessions. They were spotted by the DJ Murray the K, who recruited them for his Rock and Roll Revue at the Brooklyn Fox theatre, where Phil Spector saw them.
In March 1963 Spector signed them up after Estelle cold-called him. He wanted to sign Ronnie alone but was firmly told by her mother that they came as a trio.
By the summer they had recorded Be My Baby, which with Ronnie's yearning vocal and Spector's shimmering, epic wall-of-sound production, went to No 2 in the US and No 4 in the UK. Estelle and Nedra, however, missed out in favour of session singers including Cher, who recalled that it was the first record she ever sang on.
The Ronettes had three songs on Spector's 1963 festive album A Christmas Gift for You. The following year they toured the UK, supported by the Rolling Stones; Nedra Talley briefly went out with Brian Jones, while Estelle and George Harrison of The Beatles also had a fleeting dalliance. When the Fab Four took their first trip to the US early in 1964 the first people they sought out were the Ronettes, whom they cited as one of their inspirations.
The album Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes was released later that year, and there were two more big hit singles, Baby, I Love You and Walking in the Rain. In 1966 they opened for The Beatles on their final, troubled tour of the US which was overshadowed by John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" remark. Spector was in a controlling, abusive relationship with Ronnie and kept her at home, so Nedra Talley sang lead, with another cousin filling in on backing vocals.
The following year Nedra and Estelle both quit, alienated by Spector, who married Ronnie the following year. "I wasn't impressed by him," Nedra recalled. "He was arrogant, and who wants to deal with an arrogant person?"
By then she had met and married Scott Ross, a DJ and host on the Christian Broadcasting Network, and had become a born-again Christian. When Ronnie Spector wanted to reform the Ronettes in 1973, Nedra and Estelle both declined.
In 1978 Nedra released Full Circle, a solo album of Christian music, and she became a popular act on the Christian circuit with her husband; they bought a barn and converted it into a church. In later years she worked in real estate.
Nedra Talley Ross c. 1970: she went on to become popular on the Christian music circuit - Art Zelin/Getty Images
In 1988 the Ronettes sued Phil Spector for $11 million, claiming that he had cheated them out of millions of dollars of royalties; 10 years later they were awarded more than $2 million, but in 2002 a New York appeals court overturned that verdict, ruling that they were bound to the contracts they had signed in 1963.
The Ronettes were inducted by Keith Richards into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 with the words: "They touched my heart right there and then, and they touch it still."
Estelle Bennett died in 2009, Phil Spector in 2021 and Ronnie Spector in 2022. Nedra Talley Ross's husband Scott died in 2023 and she is survived by four daughters.
Nedra Talley Ross, born January 27 1946, died April 26 2026
