The death of Nedra Talley Ross, the last living Ronette, brings an end to that golden era of Sixties girl groups. She was just 14 years old when she formed the group with her cousins Ronnie and Estelle back in 1957.

For such an iconic group, it comes as a shock to learn that they released only one studio album. But it was an era of singles, and The Ronettes made two of the greatest ever recorded.

Their enduring legacy was ensured by Be My Baby and its sequel, Baby I Love You, both of them pop perfection created by the monstrous Phil Spector and sung by the three beehived black beauties.

They had other hits – Walking In The Rain, Do I Love You? and the Christmas single Sleigh Ride – but really there didn’t need to be more for the girls to acquire pop immortality.

The secret? “Our songs sang to boys, where other girl groups sang about boys,” Talley later said when asked about the group’s appeal.

For an idea of just how big they were in their heyday, when they came to the UK in 1964 their support act was an up-and-coming group called The Rolling Stones.

Talley briefly dated their guitarist Brian Jones and two years later they supported The Beatles on the Fab Four’s final US tour. 

A year later, in 1967, they broke up and Talley embraced Christianity, releasing an album of Christian contemporary music in 1978 before becoming an estate agent.