There’s a long-standing myth that the arrival of The Beatles and their British kin killed American pop music. Untrue: The Ronettes, for one, scored three Top 40 hits in 1964 alone, among them the sublime “Walking in the Rain.” Yet it’s still kind of eyebrow-raising that, more than 50 years later, the consummate girl group’s lead vocalist, Ronnie Spector, has chosen to fill a new album with songs of the British Invasion. Why now, and why these songs? Simple answer: Because they’re great songs and Ronnie Spector sings the hell out of them. Her instantly recognizable voice is, remarkably, as strong and captivating as during her hit-making peak, and when she applies it to classics by the Kinks, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, The Zombies and the Fabs themselves (a stripped-down “I’ll Follow the Sun”), she can’t help but make them her own. More obscure material provides further highlights, including Sandie Shaw’s sensual “Girl Don’t Come” and a gender-reassigned Stones composition, “I’d Much Rather be with the Girls,” given the full-on handclapping Ronettes treatment. The only misstep: the out-of-place inclusion of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.” Nice enough tune, but it’s from 1971, several years after the others covered here.