Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer and songwriter noted for her rare five-and-a-half octave vocal range, and her 1975 hit single "Lovin' You".

Biography

As a child, Minnie Riperton studied music, drama, and dance at Chicago's Lincoln Center. As a teen Riperton sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group the Gems. Her early affiliation with the legendary Chess record label afforded her the opportunity to sing backup for such acts as Etta James, Fontella Bass, and Muddy Waters. While with Chess, Riperton also sang for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection from 1967 to 1971. Riperton reached the apex of her short career with her number one hit single,"Lovin' You" in the spring of 1975. The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album "Perfect Angel." In 1976, at the age of of twenty-eight, Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy. In 1977 Riperton became the first black female to serve as spokesperson for the American Cancer Society and to receive the Society's Courage Award from then-President Jimmy Carter. On Thursday July 12, 1979, at the age of 31, Riperton lost her valiant struggle with cancer. She died peacefully in her husbands arms while listening to a recording of a song Stevie Wonder had written for her. On Sunday July 15,1979, Riperton was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California following a funeral service attended by more than five hundred mourners.

In addition to her musical legacy, Minnie Riperton is survived by her husband, Richard Rudolph; son, Marc Rudolph; and daughter, Maya Rudolph, a cast member of Saturday Night Live.



Early childhood

Riperton was born in Chicago, Illinois to Daniel and Thelma Riperton. As the youngest of eight children in a musically inclined family, Riperton embraced the arts early in life. Although she started out in ballet and modern dance, Riperton's parents recognized her vocal and musical abilities early, and they directed her interests towards music and voice.

At Chicago's Lincoln Center, Riperton received operatic vocal training from Miss Marion Jeffery. She practiced breathing and phrasing, with particular emphasis on diction. Jeffery also trained Riperton to use her full range, which goes against traditional operatic training. Many classical purists deem the seventh octave worthless.

While studying under Jeffery, Riperton sang operettas and show tunes, preparing for a life in opera. Jeffery was so convinced of her pupil's abilities,that she strongly pushed her to study the classics further at Chicago's Junior Lyric Opera. However, this was the 1960s, and Minnie was becoming very interested in soul, rhythm and blues, and rock. After graduating from Hyde Park high school, she enrolled at Loop College, but dropped out after only three weeks.



Early career

Riperton's first professional appearance was when she was 15 as part of The Gems. Raynard Miner, a blind pianist, heard Riperton during her time in Hyde Park's A Capella Choir. The Gems had relatively limited commercial success with Chess Records, but proved to be a good outlet to expose Riperton's talents to the music industry. Eventually the group became a session group called 'Studio Three'. In 1964 the Gems released a local-hit "I Can't Help Myself" and their last single, "He Makes Me Feel So Good" was released in 1965. After that the group released records under numerous names - most notably 1966's "Baby I Want You" by the Girls Three and 1967's "My Baby's Real" by the Starlets. The latter has achieved cult-status with Northern Soul fans and remains a favorite. It also was a Motown-styled song reminiscent of Tammi Terrell. In 1968 "Watered Down" was released as a follow-up, under the name the Starlets. It was the last release of Riperton's former girl-group. "My Baby's Real" by the Starlets and "He Makes Me Feel So Good" by the Gems can be purchased on CD on Ace's Where the Girls Are V.3.



Andrea Davis

While a part of 'Studio Three', Riperton met her mentor producer Billy Davis. He would write her first local hit "Lonely Girl" and "You Gave Me Soul". In honor of Davis, she used the psuedonym Andrea Davis for the release of those two singles.



Rotary Connection

Some months after her Andrea Davis singles hit the radio, Riperton joined Rotary Connection, a funky rock-soul group creation of Marshall Chess: the son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess. The band consisted of Riperton, Chess, Judy Hauff, Sidney Barnes and Charles Stepney. While in Rotary Connection, she met her future husband and songwriting partner Richard Rudolph. The group released their debut in 1967, eventually releasing four more albums, 1968's Aladdin, the Christmas album Peace, Songs, and finally 1970's Dinner Music.



"Come To My Garden"

Riperton's first solo album, Come To My Garden (1970)--produced, arranged, and orchestrated by Charles Stepney--was released on GRT Records. She was presented as a solo artist by Ramsey Lewis on Saturday, December 26, 1970 at Chicago's famed London House. She performed several numbers from the album accompanied by Charles Stephney--the albums producer. Although commercially unsuccessful, Come To My Garden was considered a masterpiece by critics .



"Perfect Angel" and "Lovin' You"
Main article: Lovin' You (Minnie Riperton song)

In 1973, a college intern for Epic Records, found Minnie in semi-retirement. She had become a homemaker and a mother of two in Gainesville, Florida. After he heard a demo of the song "Seeing You This Way", the rep took the tape to Don Ellis, VP of A&R for Epic. Minnie signed with Epic Records, and the family moved to Los Angeles, California. The subsequent album Perfect Angel turned out to be one of Minnie Riperton's best selling albums. Included were the rock-soul anthem "Reasons", the second single "Take A Little Trip", and the third single "Seeing You This Way." Sales of the album started out slow. Epic was ready to move on to the next record, but Rudolph convinced them to release another single. With the fourth single "Lovin' You", the album caught on, and in April 1975, the song went to the top of the charts in the US, number two in the UK , and number three on the R&B charts. Perfect Angel went gold, and Minnie Riperton was finally revered as the "lady with the high voice, and flowers in her hair." The album also featured the song "Every Time He Comes Around", with Deniece Williams singing the background vocals. According to the liner notes from Riperton's Petals compilation CD, the melody to "Lovin' You" was created as a distraction for Maya when she was a baby, so that Minnie and Richard could hang out.



Later career

After Perfect Angel, Minnie Riperton and Richard Rudolph started on Riperton's third album-- Adventures in Paradise. Leon Ware, co-wrote the title song "Adventures in Paradise," and co produced the album. The album was a modest success. Despite the R&B hit "Inside My Love" (a number five US R&B hit, later covered by Trina Broussard, and Chanté Moore), the album didn't match the success of Perfect Angel. Her fourth album for Epic Records entitled Stay In Lovefeatured another colloaboration with Stevie Wonder in the funky, disco tune "Stick Together". She also sang backup on Stevie Wonder's song "Ordinary Pain" from 1976's Songs in the Key of Life.

In 1978, Riperton's attorney Mike Rosenfeld and her husband orchestrated a move to Capitol Records for Minnie and her CBS Records catalogue. In April of 1979, Minnie released her fifth and final album: Minnie. Her last televised performance was on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show (aired July 6, 1979), where she performed "Memory Lane" and "Lover and Friend".



Illness and death

In 1976, Riperton revealed to Flip Wilson, who was guest-hosting for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, that she had undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer. At the time of her diagnosis, Minnie found out that her cancer had already spread to the lymphatic system. Despite such a grim prognosis, Minnie continued touring in 1977 and 1978, and became the National spokesperson for the American Cancer Society 78-79 campaign. Eventually the cancer would take its toll, and by June 1979, Minnie was confined to bed. She entered Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California for the last time on July 10. On Thursday July 12, 1979, Minnie Riperton died peacefully in her husband's arms. According to Jet magazine's August 3, 1979 issue, Minnie and her husband were listening to a recording of a song Stevie Wonder had written for her when she died.[citation needed] Her family inscribed her headstone with a lyric of her most famous song, "Lovin' you is easy cause you're beautiful."[1]



Posthumous recordings

After Riperton died, several artists contributed vocals posthumously to tracks Minnie had recorded before her death to compile Richard Rudolph's final tribute to his beloved wife - "Love Lives Forever." Included were Peabo Bryson, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder to name a few. Her last single, "Give Me Time" was released in 1980. Richard Rudolph wrote the song, "Now That I Have You", for Riperton, but she never got the chance to record it; he gave the song to Teena Marie, who recorded it (and co-produced it with Rudolph) on her second LP Lady T. Finally, in 1982, Capitol Records released The Best Of Minnie Riperton, a greatest hits collection.



Vocal ability

Aside from her various hits, Riperton is perhaps best remembered today for her ability to sing in the whistle register, in which she had rare facility. Riperton possessed a five-octave vocal range talent (the liner notes to her Petals legacy album ascribe to her a five and a half octave range). What set Riperton apart from most other whistle register singers was her ability to enunciate in the high registers. This feature is most notably heard in the song "Here We Go," where she sings "here we go" in the high register. It is unmistakably enunciated despite its high pitch. Enunciation can also be heard in songs such as "Inside My Love," "Adventures in Paradise," and "Expecting", also in "Only When I'm Dreaming" and "Teach Me How To Fly" with the Rotary Connection. She was also noted for her ability to sound almost mechanical or instrumental in the whistle register. In "You Take My Breath Away," she sings a crescendo scale ending two octaves above the staff. She has also been credited for her ability to sustain notes in the sixth and seventh octave for long periods of time, as in "Reasons", "Could It Be I'm In Love", "Adventures In Paradise" and "Inside My Love." Having an innate ability to imitate many instruments helped lead to her discovery while she was a secretary at Chess Records.




Discography


Albums

Come To My Garden (GRT, December 26, 1970)
Perfect Angel (Epic, August 9, 1974[2])
Adventures In Paradise (Epic, May 22, 1975)
Stay In Love: A Romantic Fantasy Set To Music (Epic, March 17, 1977)
Minnie (Capitol, May 9, 1979)
Love Lives Forever (Capitol, October 18, 1980)
Compilations
Capitol Gold: The Best Of Minnie Riperton (Capitol, 1993)
Her Chess Years (Chess, 1997)
Petals: The Minnie Riperton Collection (The Right Stuff, 2001)
Les Fleurs - The Minnie Riperton Anthology (EMI, 2001)



Singles

"Reasons"/"Every Time He Comes Around" (Epic, June 14, 1974)
"Seeing You This Way"/"The Edge of a Dream" (Epic, August 21, 1974)
"Lovin' You"/"The Edge Of A Dream" (Epic, January 13, 1975)
"Inside My Love"/"Don't Let Anyone Get You Down" (Epic, July 15, 1975)
"When It Comes Down to It"/"Minnie's Lament" (Epic, October 6, 1975)
"Simple Things"/"Minnie's Lament" (Epic, January 19, 1976)
"Adventures in Paradise"/"When It Comes Down to It" (Epic, April 7, 1976)
"Stick Together"/ "Stick Together" (Part 2) (Epic, March 6, 1977)
"Can You Feel What I'm Saying"/"Wouldn't Matter Where You Are" (Epic, June 25, 1977)
"Young, Willing, & Able"/"How Can I Love You More" (Epic, September 16, 1977)
"Memory Lane"/"I'm A Woman" (Capitol, April 8, 1979)
"Lover and Friend"/"Return to Forever" (Capitol, August 26, 1979)
"Here We Go"/"Return to Forever" (Capitol, August 5, 1980)
"Give Me Time"/"Island in the Sun" (Capitol, January 18, 1981)

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