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Mitch Ryder

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Mitch Ryder on stage, Germany 2008

Mitch Ryder (born William S. Levise Jr., February 26 1945, in Hamtramck, Michigan) is an American musician who has recorded over two dozen albums in more than four decades as a performer.[1]

Career

Ryder is noted for his gruff, wailing singing style, much influenced by Little Richard, and his dynamic stage performances, influenced by James Brown. As a teen, Ryder sang backup in a black soul group known as the Peps, but racial animosities interfered with his continued presence in the group.[2]

Ryder formed his first band - Tempest - when he was in high school, and the group gained some notoriety playing at a Detroit soul music club called The Village.[3] Ryder next appeared fronting a band called Billy Lee & The Rivieras, which had limited success until they met the songwriter / record producer, Bob Crewe.[4] Crewe renamed the group Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, and they recorded several hit records on his DynoVoice Records label in the mid to late 1960s, most notably "Devil With A Blue Dress On", their highest-charting single at #4, as well as "Sock it to Me-Baby!", a #6 hit in 1967, and "Jenny Takes A Ride!", which reached #10 in 1965.

File:Mitch ryder LP.jpg
1966 album cover of All Mitch Ryder Hits

Since the early 1970s, Ryder's musical endeavors have not met with the same success that they did before. Ryder himself has blamed his lack of subsequent hits on his unsuccessful aim at the Tom Jones-type cabaret/night club audience just as the counterculture was becoming dominant in 1967 and 1968. His last successful ensemble release was Mitch Ryder's Detroit in 1971, which featured the drummer from the original Detroit Wheels, then called Detroit. The album saw Ryder moving from his earlier soul music-influenced sound to a guitar-dominated hard rock sound more in keeping with the early 1970s.

In 1983 Ryder returned to a major label with the John Mellencamp-produced Never Kick a Sleeping Dog. The album featured a cover of the Prince song "When You Were Mine," which was Ryder's last foray into the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Ryder continues to record and tour, and his influence is felt in the music of such blue collar rock artists as Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen.

Wynona Ryder took "Ryder" as a stage name, after seeing a Mitch Ryder album in her father's collection.[5]

Actor Stephen Wozniak played 1960’s legendary high-octane rock n’ roll singer Mitch Ryder on the controversial season one finalé of NBC’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama, American Dreams, entitled “City On Fire,” starring Will Estes, Joey Lawrence and Brittany Snow, which also featured special guest star singer Kelly Rowland of the popular R&B singing trio, Destiny’s Child.

Discography (singles)

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels

  • 1965 "Come See About Me" / "A Face In the Crowd" (New Voice Records 828 Promotion Copy. Uncertain if ever released commercially in the U.S.)
  • 1965 "Jenny Take A Ride!" (U.S. #10)
  • 1966 "Little Latin Lupe Lu" (U.S. #17)
  • 1966 "Break Out" (U.S. #62)
  • 1966 "Takin' All I Can Get" (U.S. #100)
  • 1966 "Devil With A Blue Dress On / Good Golly, Miss Molly" (U.S. #4)
  • 1967 "Sock It To Me-Baby!" (U.S. #6)
  • 1967 "Too Many Fish In The Sea/Three Little Fishes" (U.S. #24)

Mitch Ryder

Detroit Featuring Mitch Ryder

  • 1972 "Rock and Roll" (written by Lou Reed)

Discography (albums)

  • 1966 All Mitch Ryder Hits (New Voice)
  • 1967 What Now My Love (Dynovoice)
  • 1969 The Detroit/Memphis Experiment (with Booker T and the MGs)
  • 1971 Mitch Ryder's Detroit
  • 1978 How I Spent My Vacation (Seeds and Stems)
  • 1983 Never Kick a Sleeping Dog (Riva Polygram)
  • 1986 In the China Shop (Line)
  • 1988 Red Blood, White Mink
  • 1990 Beautiful Toulang Sunset
  • 1992 La Gash
  • 1994 Rite of Passage

Depiction On Television

Quotations

  • “Hollywood, that’s where I could’ve gone if I wasn’t such a punk. If I just learned to bend over and say thank you a little more politely, it could’ve been great."—Mitch Ryder[6]
  • "There’s six members on the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame board of directors and three of those men are my enemies. So what are my chances of getting in there?” —Mitch Ryder [7]

Notes

  1. ^ "The Ryder Stipulates". Detroit Metro Times. 2004-09-15. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  2. ^ "VH1 - Mitch Ryder biography". 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  3. ^ "Mitch Ryder Biography". 2003. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  4. ^ "Mitch Ryder Biography". 2003. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  5. ^ "Winona Ryder Biography".
  6. ^ "The Ryder Stipulates". Detroit Metro Times. 2004-09-15. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  7. ^ "The Ryder Stipulates". Detroit Metro Times. 2004-09-15. Retrieved 2008-03-26.

See also

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