Ric Tic...The Early Years...

[mothership1]

As Im sure you will all know Ric Tic label was owned , with its sister labels of Golden World & Wingate ,etc by Ed Wingate...

The early Ric Tic releases, Ric Tic 101-103 -Freddie Gorman , etc were released on the light blue label before turing yellow , red and the blue swirl at Ric Tic 120.when gordy bought the rights to the artists and then, in the course of time , the label, which led to its demise...

However , prior to RT 101 there were releases...

These are now s**t rare.....but do exist because Ive had the privilage of seeing them

What Im trying to find out is did Ed Wingate own the label prior to RT 101

Can anyone help ?

[mickd]

from memory ......

In 1961, few people could have been predicting the explosion in popular music that was about to engulf the city of Detroit.

One guy was taking stock however, Ed Wingate.

Already being described in the Michigan Chronicle as a successful businessman, Ed was well established in the service sector, running a string of Hotels, Cafes and Taxis.

In his mid to late thirties he was also known and respected throughout Detroit's African American community.

A close business partner of his was a lady by the name of JoAnne Jackson who was married to champion boxer Johnny Bratton.

In 1951 Johnny won the NBA World Welterweight Title in Chicago, Illinois. Source : BoxRec.com

JoAnne was also a success in business and has been described by her contemporaries as a very beautiful woman.

Berry Gordy's success with Jackie Wilson had not gone unnoticed. Nor had his procurement of a Photographers Studio on West Grand Boulevard.

Ed's business concerns were now successful enough to provide him with some spare capital and the music industry was beginning to look like a good place to invest it.

In the early part of 1961, Ed decided to pay Berry Gordy a visit to find out some more.

JoAnne recalls "It was still early days for Berry and he was looking for some additional funding. He asked Ed if he would like to become a partner.

However, my own advice to Ed was to forget it. They both had extremely powerful personalities, and I just could not see it working out. To this day, we have no regrets on that front."

In Berry's book, he talks of cash flow problems emerging from his first million seller "Shop Around", which was issued in October 1960. The more copies he pressed, the bigger his debt.

The distributors held the key, but unless you could string a couple of million sellers together, it would always be a struggle.

JoAnne continues...

"After Motown had been in place for 2 or 3 years, Ed decided that he was ready to make a move.

He suggested that we would make a good partnership as we had been partners in a lot of things.

So we decided to go to New York City to find an attorney, as there was no one in Detroit who knew the legal side of the music business.

George Schiffer had helped to establish Motown on a firm footing and it seemed like a good idea to ask for his assistance."

Schiffer was Motown's Copyright Attorney and International Adviser and he would help Gordy set up an international distribution deal with EMI in late '63 in Europe.

"He was expert in drawing up contracts on anything to do with the music business. He was very frank with us and warned us of the high mortality rate that existed in that field; although Motown was beginning to do well, and so were companies in England.

He also pointed out that we were at a disadvantage to Berry because he was able to write his own material, whereas we were not. We both admitted that we couldn't write a thing. He then suggested that we do something else with our capital as it was serious money that we wanted to invest.

Schiffer then tried to persuade us to get involved in a new commercial project. A company was coming up with the rights to airwaves, lots of stakes were available and it was based on people buying in television pictures - eventually it would become known as Cable TV. It was too much for us to contemplate; 15-20 years to wait for a return on our money. Anyway there wasn't enough detail, it seemed too dodgy.

It was obvious too that Schiffer felt that there would be a conflict of interest between representing two rival Record Companies in the same town. We respected that and eventually found another lawyer with similar credentials."

n the next few months, Ed would visit a number of studios within Detroit, however he felt that they were lacking in professionalism.

Joanne recalls, "Correc-tone was one of the studios that Ed viewed before we built our own studio, but he could see that it was struggling. They had their own label but never really got off the ground."

It was obvious to Ed that he would have to go to New York to get the expertise he needed. The city was bustling and it's music industry in overdrive. Commuting was not a problem, they just flew back and forth to New York when required.

Now that legal aspects were under control, Golden World Publishing and the Golden World label were born.

When I asked Joanne about the significance of the name Golden World, she replied, "It was just a name Ed liked, he thought that it had a nice ring to it".

For their first recording, Ed and Joanne employed George "Teacho" Wiltshire, a pianist, arranger and conductor who was highly respected in New York circles. It was clear that they had their mind set on quality from the start, all they needed now was to find the right product and the right artist.

Using advertising to find talent, singer/songwriter Sue Perrin became first to record for the company. Sue was a white artist and had a total of three releases over a period of three years.

It was clear that the fledgling Golden World saw pop music as the way forward.

or their second release, Ed and JoAnne created a new label and publishing division in Ric-Tic.

This may have been borne out of tragedy however.

JoAnne had a son to Johnny Brattton, circa 1950. He was christened Derek Truman Bratton.

Tragically Derek died, age 12, in an accident in January 1962, which was around the time of their first release on Golden World.

When I initially asked JoAnne to recall people and dates from the era, she replied "it's so difficult to recall anything really, because for me, time stopped when Derek died."

To JoAnne, Derek was known affectionately as Ric, and frequently as Ric-Tic.

It is possible therefore, that for Golden World's second release they created a new label as a memorial to JoAnne's son.

On that first Ric-Tic release, another lady would join the roster. This time it was Joyce Webb, who hailed from Texas.

Ed and JoAnne would now employ the production skills of tap-dance legend Leonard Reed, who had a wealth of experience in the entertainment industry by the time he met up with Golden World.

Born in 1906, Leonard was not only a dancer; he was also a writer and composer; an emcee at the Apollo and a producer for the Cotton Club in Harlem.

In particular, he wrote and arranged music for Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton.

It is interesting to note that Leonard was married to Barbara DeCosta who had a 45 issued on Ric-Tic in 1964.

Also working on the Joyce Webb release was famed Arranger, Sammy Lowe.

Sammy was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1918 and had already gained a world wide reputation for his Big Band arrangements.

He had also worked with The Platters on "My Prayer" and with Sam Cooke and Nina Simone.

Within a year of the Ric-Tic release he was working with James Brown on "Prisoner of Love", but his greatest Soul Music achievement would come in 1966 with James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".

Coupled with Leonard 's skills, I think Golden World were showing that they had ambitions and the fact that Joyce Webb would release something in the region of ten 45's shows that she must have been talented enough.

Another artist employed in the early days was Rocky Hart, who hailed from New England. He is credited with at least four releases for various labels from 1959-1962.

A total of eight 45's would emerge in this first wave of Golden World and Ric-Tic recordings.

However, Barbara DeCosta, Terry Warren and Leroy Smalley's careers appear to have been brief.

On 9th September 1963, a Detroit address would appear on the Golden World label for the first time.

Looking like the premises might have been one of Ed's taxi offices, two releases would emanate from 11801 12th Street.

The first by Willie Kendrick was number GW A-1, the second by Sue Perrin, was number GW B-2; a strange numbering system.

The Sue Perrin recording is significant in that she is the only artist to carry forward from the old set up. I recently saw an image of a demo of her first 45 which had her age marked on the label as 16 years.

For this release, the songwriter and producer was Marv Johnson. On the flip side William Weathersgirl's bits co-wrote "Recipe of Love" with Sonny Sanders, and Sue herself. Sonny was the producer.

We would also see for the first time a new publishing company in Myto.

JoAnne gave me the background to Myto. "It was simple really. It was made up from the names of two of my close relations, my Aunt Myrtle and my cousin Toni."

Myto would go on to publish some of the finest songs associated with the Detroit Sound.

With the new address, came a new label design.

"I designed the logo myself, which was of a world made of gold", JoAnne declares proudly.

Willie's 45 was only the ninth release since the company was formed in January 1962. Nine releases in 22 months could be deemed slow progress for a company with ambitions.

There may even have been a lull somewhere in between, but those early 45's are particularly difficult to date. more to come later ..... phew that was hard work

[mothership1]

Thank you Mick

Now on to more complicated items...

The early releases were credited to "El Baron"

Was this a corruption of Le Baron Taylor or not...

Jury,s Out on this one...

You Kin Anorak

[mickd]

You could possibly be right . I think Lebaron Taylor was already a dj by this time . I think I'm right in saying his links with Don Davis took place a few years later, how ever a lot of the guys who would been around in the ric tic/goldenworld years would have worked for lebaron and Davis at groovesville... Indeed I think many of the early groovesville tracks were cut at golden world, before they moved onto United sound. So there may possibly be a link there. However you say they are credited as El Baron .... a song writer? , I always considered Le Baron Taylor as a financier rather than one of those guys with an artisitic temperament. However it was commonplace for money men to stick there names down on the credits as an insurance policy ... If the record was a hit they could clean up not only from a publishing angle but also from a writers perspective aswell C Bell was aname that often appeared on D Town recordings but no-one knew who it was ... D Malone on the duke label was another ..... However, why would Le baron Taylor be sponsoring ric- tic records ....

In addition there was a group called the Barons in the early sixties who recorded for Mike Hanks .. could it be Mike Hanks? ..... I doubt it as Mike by that time would have been focused on his own labels and artists. Duke Browner was in the Barons as well as Tyrone Douglas who later went onto join the magic tones.... could it be Barney "duke" browner as he was a recognised song writer ...... to be honest though it sounds like a psuedonym to me though and El Baron is just too close to le baron for it to make sense. I will endeavour to find out ... any idea what tracks El Baros is credited
on

Mickd

[mothership1]

Mick

I,ll take copies of the labels

It quite baffling when you look at them...

Its all ..."Wrong"

Anyway ..discuss when we meet next

[mothership1]

However...Your point regarding the early Groovesville being recorded at Golden World is absolutley correct...

The backing tracks , as I m sure your aware were recorded by the Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra at the famous 20 grand hotel....

They (the musicians)now openly state they carried out groovesville backing tracks as well as Ric Tic/Golden World etc.

Excellent subjent of debate though.....

[mickd]

mothership1 said:

They (the musicians)now openly state they carried out groovesville backing tracks as well as Ric Tic/Golden World etc.

according to some of the guys I spoke to the recording studios were that close to one another they would do a session in one walk down the road do a second session in the next and onto another for the third. they must have been bloody busy

m

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