Today’s classic song of the day is an obscure one, a little-heard song by a much-heard group. The song is “He Did It” and it was recorded by the Ronettes before they met and signed with the legendary Phil Spector and got all famous and Wall of Sounded. The tune was written by the very prolific Jackie DeShannon, along with Sharon Sheeley, and given to the Ronettes when they were signed with Colpix records.
The track was recorded in 1962 but not released as a single until 1965, after the group had found success with “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You,” and other Phil Spector-produced hits. “He Did It’ was also the lead track on the album titled The Ronettes Featuring Veronica, which compiled all their tracks from the Colpix and May labels, none of which had been hits. Pre-Spector, the girls were calling themselves Ronnie and the Relatives, and they got “discovered” when they opened for Joey and the Starlighters at the Peppermint Lounge in Manhattan.
“He Did It,” like most of their Colpix and May tracks, was produced by Stu Phillips, who was a well-known producer and movie soundtrack composer. He worked a lot with Colpix, which was the official record label for Columbia Pictures (that’s “Col” for Columbia and “pix” for pictures). He produced “Johnny Angel” for Shelley Fabares, along with other tracks for the Skyliners and Nina Simone. His movie work includes scores for Ride the Wild Surf, The Seven Minutes, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; his TV work includes music for The Monkees, Get Christie Love!, The Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy, Switch, and the original Battlestar Galactica.
When “He Did It” was released in 1965 on Don Kirshner’s Dimension Records, to take advantage of their success with Phil Spector, it didn’t chart. I first heard it on Rhino’s terrific four-disc compilation set, One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found, released in 2005 (and now, unfortunately, long out of print). It’s a wonderful track, very much unlike the group’s later work with Phil Spector. It has that early ’60s Girl Group sound but with a harder edge, Ronnie’s unmistakable vocal stylings, and extremely lo-fi microphone-dropped-in-a-tin-can full of reverb production values. Through all of that, you can definitely hear Ronnie’s star power here, which was highlighted to much better effect by Mr. Spector a few years later. It’s worth listening to.
“He Did It” (The Ronettes)
