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In the early 1960s, Ronnie Spector began spending time with George Harrison and John Lennon. She dodged Lennon’s advances and toured London with them. When recalling their friendly relationship, Spector did note one thing she found strange about Harrison. She visited it after leaving a club in the early hours of the morning.

A black and white photo of George Harrison wearing a suit. Ronnie Spector wears a sleeveless dress.
George Harrison and Ronnie Spector | Bettmann/Contributor via Getty; James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ronnie Spector spent time with George Harrison and John Lennon

Harrison and Lennon sought out Spector and her sister because they were fans of The Ronettes. 

“They had seen us on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and they said, ‘We have got to meet these girls with the black long hair and slits up the side,'” Spector told People in 2018.

When they met, the two Beatles offered to show them around London. To Spector’s dismay, her mother joined them too.

“They were so nice and polite, they said, ‘Mrs. Bennett, would you like to go to dinner with us?’ And my mother said, ‘Sure, let me get my purse!’ I almost had a heart attack!” Spector said. “We were just at the age where we wanted to go out and have fun, and here’s Mom with us!? No no no. But we didn’t know how to say that. So we took her to dinner like good little girls, and of course John and George were so polite: ‘Ok, Mrs. Bennett, we’ll wait for you to get your purse.’ And I’m looking at them: ‘We wanna see England without mom!'”

She shared what she found odd about his home

Eventually, they spent time together without Spector’s mother.

“We went to this place, it was called The Elephant Club, and George called up and asked my sister to come on and meet him down there,” Spector told NPR in 2016. “And I’ll never forget, we were sitting down at the club and they’re playing all these records and The Beatles, of course, didn’t know all the American records yet.”

After singing and dancing for hours, they realized it was morning. 

“We look up and it’s daylight, you know, in the club,” she explained. “So we ran to George Harrison’s house to have breakfast.”

When they got there, though, Spector realized that they wouldn’t be able to eat in Harrison’s home.

“And you know what was strange (laughter)? George only had canned goods — ham and, you know, corn,” she said. “I said, hey, let — yeah, then we finally went out to have a real breakfast, him and George and John and me and my sister.”

George Harrison later gave the song ‘Try Some, Buy Some’ to Ronnie Spector

Years later, The Beatles had broken up and Spector’s career had stalled. For her comeback album, Harrison gave her the song “Try Some, Buy Some,” which he wrote during his All Things Must Pass sessions. 

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The song made it to Number 77 on the Billboard chart, and both Harrison and David Bowie would release their own versions of the song in later years.