Were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of the lead singer Veronica Bennett ”later known as Ronnie Spector”, her older sister Estelle Bennett, & their cousin Nedra Talley. They had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as “The Darling Sisters”. Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector’s Philles Records in March 1963 & changed their name to “The Ronettes”.
According to Nedra Talley, they started singing during childhood visits to their grandmother’s home. “Estelle & Veronica are sisters,” she said in a later interview. “I’m their cousin. Our mothers are sisters. We came out of a family that, on Saturday nights, home for us was at our grandmother’s, entertaining each other.” The Bennetts’ mother was African American & Cherokee, their father was Irish American. Their cousin, Talley, is African American, Cherokee & Puerto Rican.
The trio also had a great grandfather who was Chinese. “By the time I was eight, I was already working up whole numbers for our family’s little weekend shows,” Ronnie Spector later recalled. “Then Estelle would get up onstage & do a song, or she’d join Nedra or my cousin Elaine & me in a number we’d worked out in three part harmony.”
