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Her sweet smile made Nedra Talley Ross the odd one out in the Ronettes, whose other two members, her cousins Veronica and Estelle Bennett, faced the world with sultry stares as they climbed the pop charts in 1963 with their first hit, Be My Baby.

All three, however, shared a look borrowed from the tough girls in Spanish Harlem, the New York neighbourhood where they had grown up: piled-up hairdos, heavy eye makeup and slinky, shiny, skin-tight dresses.

Talley Ross, who has died aged 80, was with the group when they toured Britain in 1964, supporting the Rolling Stones and meeting the Beatles at a party. A great deal of flirting, and in some cases more than that, went on between the American girls and the English groups, but Nedra Talley, as she was then called, had already met a New York disc jockey named Scott Ross, whom she would marry in 1967, following her departure from the Ronettes, and with whom she would become a born-again Christian.

Be My Baby was masterminded by the producer Phil Spector, who brought resources unprecedented in pop music to three-minute singles he described as “little symphonies for the kids”, and it became the dramatic opening to a string of Spector-produced successes for the trio of mixed-race girls from New York. Their follow-ups included Baby I Love You (1963), Walking in the Rain (1964) and Born to Be Together (1965), all of them featuring the striking lead voice of Veronica, soon better known as Ronnie.

Talley Ross was the last survivor of the trio (Estelle died in 2009, Ronnie in 2022). She had renounced show business on leaving the group – largely in protest against Spector’s efforts to promote Ronnie and the latter’s demand for a larger share of the royalties – and resisted all attempts at a reunion. Following her marriage she devoted her time to bringing up her family and her talent as a singer to gospel music, releasing an album in 1978 under her married name, Nedra Ross.

Her father, Henry Talley, was of Puerto Rican descent. Her mother, Susie (nee Mobley), was of African-American and Cherokee heritage. Born in Manhattan, Nedra grew up close to the Bennett sisters, particularly Ronnie, and soon they were singing together, at first with several other cousins and friends. Encouraged by their mothers, they entered a talent contest at the Apollo theatre in Harlem under the name Ronnie and the Relatives, after which they cut down to a trio line-up, took singing lessons and began appearing regularly at local functions.

In 1961 they were hired as dancers at the Peppermint Lounge, the Mob-run home of the Twist, a craze then at the height of its popularity, where the customers included Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Norman Mailer. Ronnie and Nedra were still in high school and underage, so their mothers helped them to look several years older by applying extra make-up and stuffing tissues into their bras.

The disc jockey Murray the K (Murray Kaufman) took them under his wing, adding them to the bill of his revue at the Brooklyn Fox theatre and featuring them on his radio show. Now renamed the Ronettes, they made their first recordings with the Colpix label, but four singles released in 1961 and 1962, starting with I Want a Boy, made little impression.

It was Spector who recognised that they – and Ronnie in particular – had a special quality that would enable them to stand out from the girl-group herd of Marvelettes, Shirelles and Chiffons, and even his own Crystals. To add them to the roster of artists on his Philles label, he persuaded them to tell Colpix that they were leaving the music business. Once their contract had been cancelled, he signed them up.

Be My Baby, written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and recorded in Los Angeles with Spector’s crack team of session musicians, created a sensation when it hit the airwaves in the summer of 1963. Its shuddering beat and vast orchestration influenced many musicians, none more so than the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, who played it over and over again to visitors to his home.

Spector’s attitude to his new acquisitions became clear when, wanting to record a follow-up at a time when the group were about to set off on their first big nationwide tour, he ordered Ronnie to report to Los Angeles. Estelle and Nedra were joined on the road by another cousin, Elaine, who filled in for the absent lead singer. Back in the studio, session singers performed the background parts, meaning that two-thirds of the Ronettes did not appear at all on some of their biggest hits.

All three were present, however, on I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Sleigh Ride and Frosty the Snowman, the group’s contributions to Spector’s Christmas album (by various artists) in 1963. It was a seasonal favourite for many years until the producer was arrested for shooting and killing Lana Clarkson, a Hollywood actor, in 2003 and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, where he died in 2021.

The three Ronettes reunited only in a $10m lawsuit against Spector, claiming unfair treatment, rejected on appeal in 2002, and when they took their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, inducted by their old friend and admirer Keith Richards. Their look lived on when revived in the 2000s by Amy Winehouse.

Scott, who became a popular broadcaster on Christian TV and radio stations, died in 2023. Talley Ross is survived by their four children and several grandchildren.

• Nedra Yvonne Talley Ross, singer, born 27 January 1946; died 26 April 2026