Ronnie Spector's story reads like the plot of a melodrama: Teen stardom, career cut short by nightmare relationship, lawsuits, escapes, celebrity collaborations and grateful comebacks, with a triumphant closing scene featuring our heroine in a Santa hat.

Except it's all true.

Spector and her band The Ronettes virtually invented the '60s girl-group sound with hits such as Be My Baby, Walkin' In The Rain and Baby I Love You. They topped the charts in England, where the Stones opened for them, and the U.S., where they opened for the Beatles.

But when the former Veronica Bennett married hit producer Phil Spector, he shut down her career and her public life. She eventually made it out intact, however, and began her comeback, recording with Joey Ramone and Marshall Crenshaw and playing shows -- most notably her annual Christmas Party, which lands at the Phoenix tonight.

Ironically, the show's mainstays are the songs Spector recorded for her ex-husband's 1963 Christmas album -- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Frosty The Snowman and Sleigh Ride. Like Spector's voice, their appeal hasn't faded over the years.

"I love my Christmas songs," she says from her home in Connecticut. "When I sing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, I visualize my mother and father kissing. So it's very real for me. And people love it."

Because of legal battles with her notorious ex, she wasn't able to sing her hits for years. So she's taking advantage of it now.

"It's a lot of sweat, a lot of rock 'n' roll and a whole lot of fun," she says of the show. "I do all my hits, in the same key as I did 40 years ago. I sing them exactly like the record, because that's what people want."

Spector will also sing Don't Worry Baby, the song Brian Wilson wrote for her but she couldn't perform until She Talks to Rainbows, the EP she did with Ramone in 1999.

"I thought that was the greatest followup to Be My Baby," she says, "but my ex wouldn't hear of it, because he didn't write it. And when I was going through bad times I used to hear it on the radio and it would comfort me. Now, it feels great to sing it because I finally have the opportunity to choose my songs and do the things I love. I feel so liberated."

Spector's past collaborators have included Jimi Hendrix -- with whom she used to play after-hours shows in New York -- and George Harrison. Soon she'll be going into the studio to record a new album, featuring guest spots from Patti Smith and her old buddy Keith Richards.

"Keith said, 'People thought we'd be dead by now, Ronnie!' " she says, laughing. "We're doing a duet, an old song that we've turned around a bit. It's going to be amazing."