Throwback: Happy 82nd Birthday, Ronnie Spector!

This year has been a brutal, soul-sucking slog. And we have at least 3 more brutal and soul-sucking years left of this administration to go — if they don’t kill us all, first. So let’s get to it. 

• MTV was launched 44 years ago on August 1
• Coolio was born 62 years ago on August 1
• Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott celebrated his 66th birthday on August 1
• Public Enemy‘s Chuck D. celebrated his 64th birthday on August 1
• Butch Vig celebrated his 70th — yes, y’all 70th! — birthday on August 2
• Echo and the Bunnymen‘s first dummer Pete de Freitas was born 64 years ago on August 2.
• Collective Soul‘s frontman Ed Roland celebrated his 62nd birthday on August 3
• Metallica‘s James Hetfield celebrated his 62nd birthday on August 3
• The iconic Louis Armstrong was born 124 years ago on August 4
• Beastie Boys‘ Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA was born 60 years ago on August 5 
• U2′s The Edge celebrated his 64th birthday on August 8
• The incomparable, ebullient and legendary Whitney Houston was born 62 years ago on August 9
• The pioneering Kurtis Blow celebrated his 66th birthday on August 9
• Interpol’s Sam Fogarino celebrated his 57th birthday on August 9

My mom adored the Ronettes as a girl. She loved them more than the Supremes. The Ronettes —Ronnie Spector, her older sister Estelle Bennett and their cousin Nedra Talley — were round the way girls, who were a bit tough around the edges: They wore their hair high, their skirts short, their heels high. Or they wear bellbottoms and leather pants. They just looked fucking cool. 

Mom spent part of her girlhood in Harlem. Ronnie was born in East Harlem. She idolized them in a similar fashion to how I idolized Run DMC and Living Colour as a boy: They’re not only a source of local pride, but you can’t help but see yourself in them. They didn’t say it then but yes, representation matters. So I always kind of got it.

Ronnie was part of some of the most beloved songs ever recorded. And god, what a voice, y’all! No one quite sounds like her. 

Spector was born on this day 82 years ago. Happy birthday, Ronnie! Happy birthday, wherever you are!