The Spotlight Is On Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

The music of Mitch Ryder was pure rock 'n roll music of the sixites.  I had the pleasure of watching him perform live in the mid 60s.  This occasion as were many others was nothing less than a fond  memory.  Mitch Ryder was excellent showman and had a great voice for the rock music he sang.  Because of that I decided to feature him as this month's spotlight artist.

Mitch Ryder (born William S. Levise Jr., February 26, 1945, in Hamtramck, Michigan) and recorded over two dozen albums in more than four decades as a performer. 

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.

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. Ryder next appeared fronting a band called Billy Lee & The Rivieras, which had limited success until they met the songwriter / record producer, Bob Crewe. 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.

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.

Winona Ryder took "Ryder" as a stage name, after seeing a Mitch Ryder album in her father's collection. Actor Stephen Wozniak portrayed 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.