Minnie Riperton
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Minnie Riperton (1947-1979) Cover of her best selling album, Perfect Angel, which contains Lovin' You |
Minnie Julia Riperton (
November 8,
1947 -
July 12,
1979) was a
soul singer from
Chicago, Illinois, most noted for her abilities in the
whistle register and her 1975 hit single "Lovin' You". Having possessed a rare five octave vocal range, she displayed the ability to imitate instrumentation and even birds.
As a child, Riperton studied
music,
drama, and
dance, and seriously considered a career in
opera. However, her affiliation with the famous
Chess Records record label soon allowed her to sing backup for
Etta James,
Fontella Bass, and
Stevie Wonder. Riperton sang lead vocals for several small, unsuccessful bands before teaming up with her husband, composer
Richard Rudolph, to start her solo career. Stevie Wonder agreed to produce her album,
Perfect Angel, featuring "Lovin' You", a ballad to her two-year old daughter Maya.
Riperton was diagnosed with breast
cancer and had a
mastectomy in 1976. She became an active spokeswoman for the
American Cancer Society and was awarded the
Society Courage Award from President
Jimmy Carter. She died in 1979 at the age of 31 and was interred in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in
Los Angeles, California.
In addition to her musical legacy, Minnie Riperton is survived by her son,
Marc Rudolph and daughter,
Maya Rudolph, a current cast member of
Saturday Night Live.
Early childhood
Minnie Julia Riperton was born on
November 8 1947 to Daniel and Thelma Riperton. The youngest of eight children in a very musical family, Riperton embraced the arts very early in life. Although she started in ballet and modern dance, Riperton's parents recognized her
coloratura abilities early in life, and she soon shifted to music and voice.
Minnie Riperton received operatic vocal training at the Lincoln Center by Miss Marion Jeffery. There she would practice breath control, holding vowels for extended times and phrase enunication, with particular care for
diction. Jeffery also would train all of her range, which is rather unusual in operatic training as many classical purists deem the
seventh octave unmusical.
While studying, Riperton sang
operettas or a
show tune, in preparation for a life in opera. Jeffery was so convinced in her pupil's
coloratura abilities, she strongly pushed her to study the classics further at Chicago's Junior Lyric Opera. However, this was the '
60s and Minnie was becoming very interested in soul,
rhythm and blues, and
rock. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at
Loop College, but dropped out after a mere three weeks.
Early career
Riperton's first professional appearance occurred when she was 15 as part of
The Gems. Raynard Miner, a blind pianist, heard Riperton during her membership in Hyde Park's A Capella Choir. The Gems had relatively limited commercial success with
Chess Records, but the group proved to be a good outlet to expose Riperton's talents to the music industry at large. Eventually the group became a session trio (to back other albums) 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 former has achieved cult-status with
Northern Soul fans and remains a favorite. The latter was a
Motown-styled song reminiscent of
Tammi Terrell. In 1968 "Watered Down" was released as a follow-up, under the name the Starlets. Ultimately it was the last release of Riperton's 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 "showbiz name",
Andrea Davis, for the release of those two singles. Afterwards, she would use her real name.
Rotary Connection
Some months after her Andrea Davis singles hit the radio, Riperton would join the
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 she was in Rotary Connection, she met Richard Rudolph, her future husband and songwriting partner. 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.
"Lovin' You"
In 1973, a college rep for
Epic Records found Riperton, then a semi-retired homemaker and mother of two in
Gainesville, Florida. After he heard a demo of the song "Seeing You This Way", which showcased her
coloratura, 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. After meeting with Stevie Wonder and recording the background for his song "It Ain't No Use" with
Deniece Williams and
Lani Groves, Wonder produced Minnie's second LP entitled
Perfect Angel. Including 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 really caught on. In 1974, the song went to the top of the charts in the US, number two in the UK in 1975, and number three on the
R&B charts in the US. The album
Perfect Angel went platinum, and Minnie was finally revered as the "lady with the high voice". The album also featured the song "Every Time He Comes Around", featuring
Deniece Williams as the operatic soprano in the background. People who don't know the music of Riperton well may believe her to be a
one-hit wonder, despite having a fairly successful R&B career.
Later career
After
Perfect Angel, Minnie Riperton and Richard Rudolph started on Riperton's second album
Adventures in Paradise. Keyboardist
Joe Sample played throughout the album and helped co-write "Adventures in Paradise". 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. Riperton would sink back into mainstream obscurity, but enjoyed a good career in R&B.
In 1976, Riperton's attorney Mike Rosenfeld and her husband orchestrated a move to
Capitol Records. After inking a new deal with Capitol, Minnie released her third album titled, "Stay in love". This album featured another colloaboration with Stevie Wonder in the funky, disco tune, 'Stick Together'.
1979 saw the release of her fourth (and final during her lifetime)album, eponymously called
Minnie. The last song Minnie recorded was
Give Me Time, a melancholy ballad once again featuring
Stevie Wonder. Her last televised performance was on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show (aired July 6, 1979), where she performed
Memory Lane, featuring her enunciating the phrase "Oh Why", high in the
seventh octave.
Illness and death
In 1976 Riperton revealed to
Flip Wilson, who was guest-hosting for Johnny Carson, that she had breast cancer.
Minnie continued touring in 1977 and 1978, but eventually the cancer took its toll. Despite a mastectomy, the disease had already spread to her
lymph nodes and in 1979 was discovered to be
terminal. At the end, Minnie entered
Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and at approximately 10:00 a.m. on
July 12,
1979, she died, with her husband by her side, aged 31.
Post-demise
After Riperton passed, several artists recorded posthumous duets with Minnie, including Peabo Bryson and Michael Jackson. After her last single, Give Me Time, Love Lives Forever was released in 1980. Richard Rudolph had a song that never got recorded. The song,
Now That I Have You was given to
Teena Marie, who recorded it (and co-produced it with Rudolph) for use on her sophomore LP
Lady T. Finally, in 1982, Capitol Records released The Best Of Minnie Riperton, a
greatest hits collection.
Aside from her various hits, Riperton is perhaps best remembered today for her ability to sing in the
whistle register. She had a rare facility in this register. 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), easily singing well into the
seventh octave. 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. Having an innate ability to imitate many instruments helped lead to her discovery while she was a secretary at Chess Records.
* On the
South Park episode
Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride, Uncle Jimbo and his war buddy, Ned, devise a plan to have a team mascot explode when John Stamos's older brother, Richard, hits a high F in the song, "Lovin' You".
*
Deniece Williams,
Mariah Carey and
Tamar Braxton have stated that Minnie was an inspiration in the development of their vocal talents.
* "Lovin' You" was sampled in Stagga Lee's "Roll Wit M.V.P."
* In
1989 British ambient group
The Orb sampled Lovin' You on their breakthrough single, "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld".
* In
1991 Shanice Wilson covered "Lovin' You", updating it for a 90's sound.
* In
1991 &
1993, rap group
A Tribe Called Quest sampled Riperton's "Baby This Love I Have" for the song "Check the Rhyme" off of the
The Low End Theory. Following that, on their next album,
Midnight Marauders, they sampled "Inside My Love" for "Lyrics to Go".
* In
1992 Rachelle Ferrell sings (and sustains) an
E7 in "It Only Took A Minute", demonstrating a technique of Minnie Riperton, to sing a note so high, it loses any real human color and thus sounds instrumental.
* In
1997,
Wayne Newton and
Beverly D'Angelo sang "Lovin' You" in the movie
Vegas Vacation.
* In
1997, her song "Inside My Love" was used by
Quentin Tarantino in his movie
Jackie Brown (film).
* In
1999,
Mariah Carey mimicked Riperton in her song "Bliss", the third track on her album
Rainbow. Carey can be heard singing the phrase 'On and On' in such a manner her voice sounds almost like a steaming tea kettle to illustrate her feelings.
* In
2000, her song "Inside My Love" was used in a sex scene for the movie
Road Trip.
* In
2001 one of Riperton's earlier songs, "
Les Fleur", was covered by
4hero, using
Carina Andersson as the lead vocalist.
* In
2001 Welsh based DJ
Jeιan Jacques Smoothie scored a worldwide hit with "2 People", which directly sampled Riperton's "Inside My Love". By the way the song was done, it almost appeared as if Riperton was actually a guest vocalist rather than a sampled voice.
* In
2001 On an episode of Girlfriends, Joan (
Tracee Ellis Ross) sings Lovin' You into a hairbrush (imitating a singer), and sings the F6 so off-key and
shrill, Yvonne (
Cee Cee Michaela Harshaw) kicked in the door believing Joan to be in distress.
* In
2002 Chanté Moore played a wedding singer on Girlfriends and sang "Lovin' You", executing the high note in her own style.
* In
2003 Kenny Lattimore and wife Chanté Moore covered "Here We Go".
* In
2003 Japanese R&B singer
Ken Hirai covered Riperton's song "Lovin' You" in his album "Ken's Bar"
* In
2004 Adam Lopez instrumentalized in the background of his song "Stay With Me", imitating a piccolo in a manner similar to Minnie Riperton.
* In
2005 Tireh duplicated Riperton's bridge acrobatics that she displayed on her climax for "Memory Lane" by sustaining notes in the whistle register to mimic the sound of a violin, in his song titled "Who Would Have Known".
* "Inside My Love" samples the middle-8 Rhodes riff.
* British-American singer-songwriter
Julia Fordham wrote and recorded the song "Roadside Angel" as a tribute to Minnie. It appears on her 2001 album
Concrete Love, which also includes Julia's cover of "Lovin' You" as an unlisted bonus track. A live version also appears on Julia's album
That's Live.
* In
2006 Japanese singer
Minako Honda covered Riperton's song "Lovin' You" in her album "Kokoro wo komete...(心'込めて...)" which was released after she died in 2005. As compared with the original melody, it is arranged in a lower scale by one seminote.
* In
2006 Hip Hop artist
Busta Rhymes sampled "Inside My Love" for the song "You Can't Hold The Torch" from "The Big Bang" album
* Also, in 2006
Nas used where "
Rainy Day In Centerville" for his song "
Where Ya'll At?"
* In
2006 Gangster rapper
Ice Cube sampled "Back Down Memory Lane" for the song "Growin Up" from the "Laugh Now, Cry Later" album
Trivia
Minnie Riperton was largely responsible for the label of "coloratura soprano" in non-classical music. The term in pop music usually denotes a singer of acrobatic range.
Maya Rudolph, best known for her work on the NBC sketch show, "Saturday Night Live", is Minnie Riperton's daughter.
Minnie Riperton was a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.(ΖΦ'), a sorority founded on Howard Universty Campus on January 16,1920. It's creed: scholarship, service, sisterly love, and finer womanhood.
*
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