On Saturday, Van Zandt's salute to Spector will begin running on his Underground Garage station on SiriusXM.

Steven Van Zandt knew Ronnie Spector, who died Jan.

More than a decade after The Ronettes’ heyday, Van Zandt produced a handful of records featuring Spector, igniting a friendship that lasted until her death.

Their work in the mid-’70s, as she was coming out of her divorce from producer Phil Spector and trying to find her footing again in the musical world, helped bring her out of retirement.

Van Zandt says there are around 35 songs performed by Spector from all stages of her career in rotation on The Underground Garage, the SiriusXM radio station created and curated by Van Zandt.

On Saturday, his salute to Spector will begin running on the station.

It was, I think, the third Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector composition after “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You.” There’s easily 10 or 12 classics I could choose from The Ronettes, but “I Wonder” is just one of my favorites.

That’s Phil Spector again, but with [co-writers] Pete Andreoli and Vince Poncia.

… She just does what every great singer does, which is you are making the audience believe that you have written that song, you have lived that song, that song is completely autobiographical, straight from your soul to the vinyl.

That obviously carries an innocence with it automatically that’s just completely natural, but [she] somehow [had] the sophistication to be able to sing the songs in a way that is really above [her] age?

“You Mean So Much to Me,” Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes with Ronnie Spector (1976).

“Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” Ronnie Spector & The E Street Band (1977).

He was the guy who signed the Jukes and he said, “Let’s do a session with the E Street Band.” He just had started Cleveland International Records and he said, “I’ve got the perfect song from Billy Joel.” It was a tribute to Ronnie and The Ronettes and Spector.

“Baby, Please Don’t Go,” Ronnie Spector and The E Street Band (1977)

[Van Zandt and Spector were in a relationship.] A little bit of an extra sort of excitement about her singing a song that I actually wrote

I was talking to Jeff Barry about this last night — he’s going to be on our special — knowing that that voice is going to be doing your song really does affect you and you’ve got to rise to that occasion and you’ve got to bring your A-game and so you do