Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band - Say Goodbye To Hollywood
Say Goodbye To Hollywood / Baby Please Don't Go
Epic S EPC 5185 (1977)
During 1977 Bruce Springsteen was engaged in a dispute with his former manager Mike Appel and was for some time legally prevented from recording new material.
That meant the members of his band were also unable to work, and Bruce was running low on cash to pay them. Some of the E Street Band had decided that they were going to leave the band and take up session work to pay their bills.
Cleveland International Records executive Steve Popovich suggested working with Ronnie Spector, who had just started singing again after several years of retirement. When Ronnie agreed to record a cover version with the E Street Band she helped ensure that the band could stay together
As said by Stevie Van Zandt, the band's guitarist and also the producer of this song: "We all fell in love with that voice, that combination of innocence and a little bit of sensuality and sexuality."
But when she began singing Billy Joel’s "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" – a song according to Joel that Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes' sound had inspired him to write – the band noticed something was wrong.
"At a certain point, we realized that she had changed the vibrato of her voice" Van Zandt said, "she changed her style a bit in the off years and so we just kind of reminded her, ‘There’s this thing you do, this really cool sexy vibrato thing.’ And then we got the take."
The 45 wasn’t the success Ronnie & the band hoped it would be, but it did bring the band members some much-needed money - including Springsteen, who participated as an "advisor."
"It should have been a hit, that thing" Van Zandt said. "We had her back onstage, and she stayed there for the next 45 years. Professionally, what an honour to produce her. And it was a very, very critical moment for us all."
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