Ronnie

I've not read any of the Ronnie Spector obituaries, but I imagine they'll all centre on Be My Baby, her turbulent marriage to Phil, her battle with alcoholism, and maybe that Christmas album. 

I'm not sure how many of them will call her the Godmother of New York punk, but I reckon there's a very strong argument for that case. There's a reason the Ramones wanted to work with Phil Spector, and I don't think it had anything to do with the Wall of Sound (which was largely absent from their collaboration anyway). I reckon it's because of the Noo Yawk attitude Ronnie brought to those early discs, and that had very little to do with Phil. You can hear it on her solo stuff too, and though a collaboration with the E Street Band on a Billy Joel song is far more New Jersey than New York... well, it's only across the river. 

Billy wrote this as a Ronnie Spector tribute, so he must have been made up when she recorded it.