'From the rooftops of an abstract Spanish Harlem, an exquisitely exclusive love affair existing in an ageless time warp. Age and heartbreak suspended by infinite emotion in a rock and roll symphony of eternal passion," somebody wrote once about the song Be My Baby.
When Brian Wilson first heard the song in August 1963, he almost crashed his car. "This is the special one for me," he said. "When I heard this on the car radio, I had to pull off the road. I just couldn't believe it; the choruses, the strings, the melody of love." Apparently, to this day, whenever Wilson gets behind the wheel he switches on the radio and turns the dial in the desperate hope that a station will be playing Be My Babyjust so he can remember how he felt about it all those years ago.
There's also the story Wilson himself freely admits to – that he once had a jukebox in his house with 100 song selections. No matter what button you pushed, it would only play Be My Baby. For Wilson, the song was the prime inspiration for Pet Sounds. His song Don't Worry Babywas written as the male response to the song.
The still thrilling opening beat to Be My Babyhas been appropriated so many times there are web pages out there which detail the hundreds of songs that have "borrowed" it – one notable example is The Jesus and Mary Chain's Just Like Honey– while the song itself has been covered innumerable times – mostly miserable attempts which go nowhere near the original Ronettes version.
There are, though, two notable exceptions. Glasvegas’s version shows that they understand the song’s symphonic power, but even this failed to surpass a daring version by Linda Ronstadt, who removed the drum beat totally and turned the song into a dreamy, spaced-out affair.
The woman largely responsible for writing the song, Ellie Greenwich, is rightly considered to be one of the best pop songwriters ever. She also wrote (or co-wrote) River Deep Mountain High, The Leader of The Pack, Da Doo Ron Ronand I Can Hear Music(for The Beach Boys). As a woman working in a predominantly male industry, her contribution was largely ignored. When she died last week, there was barely a mention of this quiet genius.
In the 1960s, women were backing singers or, at a push, lyricists. Greenwich, though, was able to start and finish a song. “There were few women who played piano, wrote songs, and could go into a studio, work those controls and produce,” she once said.
Frank Sinatra would regularly turn to her for help, and she was largely responsible for finding and shaping the early career of Neil Diamond. “Ellie Greenwich was one of the most important people in my career. She discovered me as a down-and-out songwriter,” said Diamond last week.
Seemingly everything she turned her hand to became a memorable musical moment: not just the bigger hits but also songs such as Chapel of Loveand Do Wah Diddy Diddy. She worked out of the Brill Building "song factory" in New York, writing "records" not "songs", as she put it, and it's not an overstatement to describe her as the musical architect of a generation's teenage years. Almost every teen-pop girl group act which has followed over the years is indebted to Ellie Greenwich as she was the first to provide a female perspective on these massive selling records – "these ultimately indelible artifacts".
She could belt them out herself as well. Take a listen to her singing on the Northern Soul classic I Want You To Be My Baby.
In later years, Greenwich was to become a "song doctor" for Aretha Franklin, Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Harry. But she will be remembered best for the dizzying pop heights of Be My Babyand River Deep Mountain High. She was the queen of the three-minute, 45 rpm pop record.
