Ronnie Spector played at B.B. Kings
December 22nd, 2014 by Mr. C
The Planet Chocko muppets ventured out to BB King’s Blues Club in Times Square last Saturday to celebrate the best Christmas party in NYC with Ronnie Spector at the helm! It was great listening to Spector in such an intimate venue and such a throwback for us to those days when we used to see her perform at Coney Island High on St. Marks Place and at the Continental on 3rd ave during many of the Ramones shows! Thanks to Chocko’s good memory and his great footage of many live Ramones concerts to prove it – Joey Ramone always introduced Ronnie Spector to the stage as “one of the original bad girls of Rock n Roll!”.
Being a Ramones geekhead like he is, Chocko immediately spotted Daniel Rey on guitars as soon as the band came out to warm up the crowd at BB King’s before the Spector spectacle! Daniel Rey was a producer for many of the Ramones albums as well as for The Dictators, Ronnie Spector, The Misfits, & D-Generation to just name a few.
The band got everyone in the festive mood by staying true to the club’s roots by playing the bluesy ‘Christmas comes but once a year’ followed by a funky instrumental version of White Christmas with the sax wildin’ out!
Miss Ronnie Spector then proceeded to come out like it was 1960…well maybe 1990 as she gave us a holiday grab bag of The Ronettes goodness with a viscous blend of Ronettes hits,christmas songs, and covers from some very good friends of hers. Ronnie’s raspiness in her vocals has creeped into her shows for a long while now as her girl band voice of yesteryear has all but disappeared. That being said she had already reinvented herself with that knock’em out sock’em out – funky & spunky disposition when performing her rock n roll love songs! TRANSLATION…we still love her performances! She still has that uh-uh-uh-grab that crouch attitude! She rattled off her set in one hour and it was great. The only song that I didn’t quite think worked for her was The Carpenters’ “Yesterday once more”. My favorite performances from the night included Back to Black (Amy Winehouse), Walking in the Rain, You can’t put your arms around a memory (Johnny Thunders), Baby I love You, & Be my baby! See her complete setlist below as well as a few videos from the show thanks to Chocko.
We’re already looking forward to Ronnie’s show next year! Happy holidays, y’all!
(Chocko with a signed vinyl of “Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica”)
(Slideshow stills of The Ronettes of yesteryear)
(Amy Winehouse – slideshow stills from the show)
Setlist
Christmas comes but once a year. (band only)
White Christmas (instrumental)
frosty the snowman
Do I Love you
It’s Christmas once again (Frankie Lymon)
What I’d say (Ray Charles) – (Murray the K’s Dancing Girls)
So Young
Best Christmas Ever (From her solo album/Ronnie Spector’s Best Christmas Ever)
Back to Black (Amy Winehouse)
You baby
baby I love you
Yesterday once more (The Carpenters)
Sleigh ride
walking in the rain (Ronnie’s favorite Ronette song)
breakin up
You can’t put your arms around a memory (Johnny Thunders)
be my baby
I saw mommy kissing santa claus
So this is Christmas (John Lennon)
Rockin around the Christmas tree
I can hear music
Tags: bb kings, ronnie spector
Posted in mr. c, music, photos | Comments (0)
