The Ritchie Family

The three original members were not related; the group was a creation of Jacques Morali who also formed the Village People. The group took its name from record producer Richie Rome, who added a T to the name; it originally consisted of three singers: Cassandra Ann Wooten and Gwendolyn Oliver (who eventually married musician Fred Wesley) of the girl group Honey & the Bees, and Cheryl Mason Jacks. Their manager was Jimmy Bishop, a successful Philadelphia radio personality who also managed Barbara Mason. Morali remembered Wooten and Oliver had done some session work for him, and he called them a few years later when he wanted to form a group and the Ritchie Family was born.

Following Brazil, they had success with the Arabian Nights album. Their follow up albums Life Is Music, which followed a 1930s theme, and African Queens were only mediocre successes. Each of these four albums was a concept album featuring songs of a similar theme as suggested by each album title. Each album also featured a long medley, usually running from 15 to 20 minutes.

Brazil

Their first hit single, a reworking of the 1930s song "Brazil" reached the Top 20 in the United States in 1975. It would also later be nominated for the Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 1976 Grammy awards but was beaten by "The Hustle by Van McCoy.[1] The album, also titled Brazil, sold well. By November 1 of 1975, it had been on the Billboard Album Chart for five weeks and had moved up from #72 to #62.[2] Between then and the 6th of December the album did reach #52. By then it had moved down from the previous week's position of #60 to #102.[3] The album did give them another dance hit with "The Peanut Vendor".[4] This first album featured vocals by session singers, Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson and Evette Benton. There was no actual group called The Ritchie Family at this stage.[5][6]

Arabian Nights

Cassandra Wooten and Nadine Felder from Honey & the Bees had done some background vocal work for Jacques Morali a couple of years prior and he contacted them as he wanted them to perform live as The Ritchie Family. Not wanting to do secular music anymore, Felder wasn't interested. Wooten and Cheryl Mason-Jacks had been doing some work together in a community theater group. With Wotton's former Honey & the Bee's bandmate, Gwendolyn Oliver they were looking to do background vocal music and started practicing for a few weeks until Wooten got a call back from Morali. So then in 1975, they went down to Sigma Sound Studios to audition. Singing a few bars of Brazil they got the job and became the face of The Ritchie Family. In 1976, they began recording the next album which was Arabian Nights album.[7] The single from the album was "The Best Disco in Town". The song was a medley of recent disco songs linked together with an original chorus got to #17 on the Pop charts and #1 on the Dance charts[8] and it became a worldwide hit. Described in the book Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco by Alan Jones and Jussi Kantonen as magnificent from start to finish, Arabian Knights has a travelogue type of theme to it. It begins at Istanbul and then goes to the "Lawrence of Arabia" theme and then to the finish at a Persian Market. It had a Hollywood feel with lively percussion, disco glamour and uncharacteristic male voices helping with the vocal chanting.[9]

Life is Music

Phil Hurtt who had co-produced Honey & the Bees material with Bunny Sigler had a good understanding of what qualities the vocalists could bring to the group. With their individual style he knew what they would be like together with Gwendolyn's sweet tone, Cassandra's soul and earthiness and Cheryl's more powerful vocals and embodiment of those two other qualities. So he was granted more time to work with them on their vocal arrangements. The respective talents of each vocalist were highlighted as well. The album sessions were kept within the allotted times and six songs were included. The result was a disco-pop album with some elements of Philly soul. This was also the last album that Ritchie Rome was involved with and he quit around this time. His replacement was Horace Ott for further album releases.[10] Released in 1977 Life Is Music came out on Marlin 2203. By February 12 it was at #184 on the Record World Top 200.[11] By the 15th of March it was at #13 on the album chart in Italy.[12] By May 10th it was at #10.[13] The single "Life is Music" peaked at #102 on the Pop charts, #8 on the Dance charts and #74 on the R&B charts.[14]

African Queens

The album was another themed release with a historical nod to three African queens. With the rhythm backing by the group Gypsy Lane the album had a bit more of the driving Euro type snare drum beat to it than the lush Ritchie sound of the previous releases.[15] In July 1977, it was announced in Billboard that TK Productions was embarking on a massive campaign for the group's African Queens album. The campaign involved mounting an African Queens billboard in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, African Queens kites being flown around the country with kite flying contests being linked to radio stations. There were also African Queens canvas tote bags, tee shirts. Included were full-color photos of Cassandra Wooten, Gwendolyn Oliver and Cheryl Mason Jacks dressed as African queens, Nefertiti, Cleopatra and Queen of Sheba.[16] The album also included the song once done by Martin Denny, "Quiet Village".[17]

The 1978 album, American Generation, featuring the new line-up was a slight departure from disco and more in the style of Europop, although one of the singles from it was called "I Feel Disco Good." The group abandoned the exotic and highly kitsch costumes of their earlier incarnation in favour of a more contemporary, sexually provocative style. For the next album, Bad Reputation, they brought in Victor Willis (original lead singer of Village People) joining Jacques Morali in writing the material. Holt soon departed (and formed her own group Ednah Holt and Starluv) and was replaced by lead singer Vera Brown; the group enjoyed success with "Put Your Feet to the Beat."

The Ritchie Family line-up of Brown, Smith-Lee and Draher next recorded the Give Me A Break album, which contained the hits "Give Me A Break" and "Never Be Able to Set You Free." Continuing with album releases, the next was a markedly different partnership with Jacques Fred Petrus and Mauro Malavasi, the pair behind Change. The album they recorded was I'll Do My Best For You Baby; following that was All Night All Right (1983). By this time, Dodie Draher had left the group and newcomer Linda James took over her spot.

In 1980, they joined Village People for the movie Can't Stop the Music. The film was a resounding failure and still appears on many critics' "worst ever" lists; however, the soundtrack album sold well in some parts of the world. Disco music had peaked in major territories such as the USA.

After deciding to split, when group owner Jacques Morali discovered he had AIDS, the group continued as Vera Brown and the Rich Girls for one song called "Too Much Too Fast" that failed completely. Vera Brown has reformed The Ritchie Family, with Dodie Draher and Jacqui Smith-Lee, but without further releases. With original members Wooten, Mason-Jacks and Oliver, the group achieved its highest grossing sales.

Original members Cassandra Wooten, Cheryl Mason-Dorman and new member Renee Guilory-Wearing have reformed the group and are now touring. The Ritchie Family is featured in Jim Arena's book First Ladies of Disco, released in June 2013.[28] In July 2016, The Ritchie Family released a single "Ice" on Martha Wash's Purple Rose recording label.[29] The song was later remixed and released as a maxi-single of six tracks.[30]

• The Ritchie Family at AllMusic