DOWNLOAD THE SONGSHEET
Be My Baby (PDF)
Be My Baby (WORD)
"Be My Baby" was released in August 1963 as the Ronettes' debut and became their biggest hit, reaching number 2 in the U.S. and Canada, and number 4 in the UK. Spector produced the song in his Wall of Sound style at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood with the group of session musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew. It marked the first time that he recorded with a full orchestra. In 2006, the Library of Congress inducted the Ronettes' recording into the National Recording Registry. Veronica Bennett (Ronnie) – the only Ronette who appears on the record – overdubbed her lead vocal within a day after the backing track had been completed. She spent the previous three days preparing for the session. Ronnie remembered, "I was so shy that I'd do all my vocal rehearsals in the studio's ladies' room, because I loved the sound I got in there. People talk about how great the echo chamber was at Gold Star, but they never heard the sound in that ladies' room ... That's where all the little 'whoa-ohs' and 'oh-oh-oh-ohs' you hear on my records were born." She said that when she sang the song at the session, "the band went nuts. I was 18 years old, 3,000 miles from home, and had all these guys saying I was the next Billie Holiday." Spector, then struggling with marital issues, had developed a romantic fixation on Ronnie at this time. "Be My Baby" was a means for Spector to declare his love to Ronnie before he married her in 1968.
It influenced many artists, most notably the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, who wrote the answer song "Don't Worry Baby" (1964). Many others have replicated or recreated Hal Blaine's central drum phrase, considered to be one of the most recognizable in pop music.