For every kiss you give me, I'll give you three

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#494 : Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica - The Ronettes (1964)

More a Spanish Harlem street gang than a girl group, the Ronettes were pop goddesses dressed as Catholic schoolgirls gone to hell and back. Phil Spector builds his Wall of Sound as his teen protégée (and future wife) Ronnie Spector belts “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain,” while songs like “I Wonder” and “Baby, I Love You” ache with hope for a perfect love that always seems to be impossibly ideal and just within arm’s reach.

Snappy title, eh?!?  And fantastic hair!!  Whilst I wasn't aware of this album, I was very much aware of The Ronettes and have a soft spot for them and similar sixties girl groups, so thought I knew what this album would deliver.  And it pretty much did, although I would say there was more variation than I was expecting.  "Be My Baby" is the stand-out track for me, but "Walking In The Rain", "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up", "Baby I Love You" and "Going To The Chapel" are all fantastic tracks (although I think I prefer The Dixie Cups version of the last song).  It's weird to think these songs are coming up to 60 years old - whilst the production is very much of its time, I think the songs still stand up very well.

I wasn't aware how big The Ronettes were back in the day, but apparently they toured with both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - and The Stones were their opening act (and I bet they were just fantastic gigs).  I also didn't know how desperately sad a lot of their story was - Phil Spector was (and is) not the nicest guy out there.  "Customers also listened to" The Supremes, Darlene Love, The Chiffons and Martha Reeves and The Vandellas - no surprises there and all great if you like that sort of thing (and as an aside, if you've never seen the fabulous documentary "20 Feet From Stardom" I can thoroughly recommend it).  So, whilst I find it hard to be too objective, I'm going to make no apologies for that and just say I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

#493 : Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear (1978)

It’s one of the weirdest Motown records ever. Marvin Gaye’s divorce settlement required him to make two new albums and pay the royalties to his ex-wife – the sister of Motown boss Berry Gordy. So Gaye made this bitterly funny double LP of breakup songs, including “You Can Leave, But It’s Going to Cost You.” When he asks “Somebody tell me please, tell me please/Why do I have to pay attorney fees?” it’s one of the most strangely transfixing soul-music moments of all time.

I was aware of this album, but can't say I was approaching it with a great deal of optimism - is anyone really going to record a masterpiece if they have to pay the royalties to their ex-wife?  And whilst I have a bit of a soft spot for Marvin's voice, I've rarely been convinced the songs are worthy of him gracing them - and a load of the songs on this double album are over 6 minutes long.  So I approached it warily.

And whilst I don't think it was as bad as I was expecting, it does feel (understandably) a bit lacking in quality control - I suspect no-one felt like telling Marvin what he should or shouldn't be doing on this album.  Overall, the album was a bit of a slog - "When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You" is probably the highlight, although I'm not sure we needed six minutes of it, a six minute instrumental version and another minute's reprise at the end.  There are some fantastic funky moments on the album and the sound is generally very clean - it just feels like some judicious pruning wouldn't have hurt matters.  There is a lot of love for this album out there though so you never know, I could just be wrong.

"Customers also listened to" Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield and other (imho better) Marvin Gaye albums - I suspect this won't be our last visit with Mr Gaye on this countdown, so I think I'll just leave it there.  I did feel the need to listen to something else afterwards though to cleanse my funky but somewhat jaded palate...

#492 : Nick Of Time - Bonnie Raitt (1989)

After being dumped by her previous label, blues rocker Bonnie Raitt exacted revenge with this multiplatinum Grammy-award winner, led by an on-fire version of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love” and the brilliant title track, a study in midlife crisis told from a woman’s perspective. Producer Don Was helped her sharpen the songs without sacrificing any of her slide-guitar fire. And as Raitt herself pointed out, her 10th try was “my first sober album.”

I'd heard of Bonnie Raitt, but thought she was country-ish - but when I read the description above, suspected I was wrong so didn't really know what to expect.  And well, I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it but I can certainly say it's very American - I'm not aware of any equivalent over here (maybe Bonnie Tyler but blues-ier?).  There's also some proper gee-tar playing on it and no mistake - definite skills involved.  What I'm not entirely sure about is whether I liked it - it feels like it needs to be unironically enjoyed in the proper environment (open road, sun up, roof down heading to a small bar off Highway 66) and it'd be great.  Sat on my sofa as it got dark at 3:30, it didn't quite gel for me - but it obviously did for a lot of people because it sold 5m copies in the US and won a Grammy for Album of the Year.  No particular song stood out for me but I would say there was a decently high level of quality across the album provided you were in the mood for it.

"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of and Sheryl Crowe - I can definitely see the resemblance and there's also a bit of Stevie Nicks and Shania Twain in there at times.  I feel I'm unlikely to revisit it unless I find myself heading to that bar in my rented cabriolet, but I'm glad I listened to it.  And well done to Bonnie for making an album sober after all that time!

There can only be one winner out of this lot though - the fabulous Ronettes all day for me, with Bonnie a distant second and then Marvin a distant third.  You're not going to believe the album that's coming up next though...

#497-495 - An even eclecticer mix
#491-489 - Are you kidding me?