Be My Baby: A Memoir

Originally published in 1990, this memoir includes a November 2021 postscript, written just months before Spector’s death in January 2022. Her story spans from the late 1950s to the 1980s. Inclined to perform from a young age and sparked by Frankie Lymon’s music, Spector formed the Ronettes with her sister Estelle and cousin Nedra. Her rise in the NYC music scene during the early 1960s occurred at storied venues such as Harlem’s Apollo Theater and Brooklyn’s Fox Theatre. She details sharing the stage with the Beatles and Rolling Stones as an opening act and the long-term friendships she developed with band members, John Lennon and Keith Richards respectively. Spector recounts her abusive relationship, marriage, and divorce with Phil Spector, with added commentary on his 2009 murder conviction in her postscript. Fellow New Yorker, actress Rosie Perez (White Men Can’t Jump; The Flight Attendant) narrates with honesty, capturing the singer’s bubbly personality and positivity.