Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

Emerging from Detroit during the 1960s, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels ranked among the era's most forceful blue-eyed soul ensembles, attaining widespread recognition after five Top 30 singles charted from January 1966 to May 1967. Although Mitch Ryder's commanding vocals anchored the performances, the ensemble's lean and aggressive instrumental drive equalled his fervor on standout recordings, propelled especially by guitarist Jim McCarty and drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek. Following repeated engagements at Michigan clubs that honed their abilities, the group's defining style—vigorous soul and R&B executed with rock & roll urgency—produced hits such as "Jenny Take a Ride," "Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly," and "Sock It to Me -- Baby!" until Ryder departed to pursue solo work. Rev-Up!!: The Best of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels offers an outstanding single-disc overview of those key recordings, while Sockin' It to You: The Complete Dynovoice/New Voice Recordings gathers nearly all tracks from their formative years.

William Levise, Jr. entered the world in Hamtramck, Michigan on February 26, 1945. His father had performed with dance bands and his mother possessed songwriting experience; both encouraged Levise when he developed an affinity for blues and rock & roll and expressed interest in singing, to the extent that the family financed his debut single, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be" b/w "Fool for You," issued in 1962. Though the release failed to achieve commercial success, it generated sufficient local notice among musicians for Levise to receive an invitation to join the multi-racial vocal group the Fabulaires, which later transformed into the combo the Peps with Levise as its sole white member. (Joe Harris, one of the ensemble's originators, subsequently joined the Undisputed Truth, whose 1971 single "Smiling Faces Sometimes" became a major hit.) Upon exiting the Peps—reportedly because Ryder objected to the racism endured by his bandmates—he began steady appearances at the Detroit-area club the Village, where he meshed effectively with the house band the Rivieras, whose lineup featured Jim McCarty on guitar, Earl Elliott on bass, and Johnny "Bee" Badanjek on drums. Levise recruited a second guitarist, Joe Kubert, whom he had known since high school, resulting in the act adopting the name Billy Lee & the Rivieras.

Billy Lee & the Rivieras developed into a prominent attraction at Detroit clubs and teen venues, particularly once local radio DJ Dave Prince assumed a mentorship role and regularly scheduled them at events he organized at Detroit's Walled Lake Casino. In 1964 they issued a single on the local Hyland label, "You Know" b/w "Won't You Dance with Me?" The record attracted minimal attention yet reached Bob Crewe, the songwriter, producer, and former teen idol renowned for collaborations with Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon and the Four Seasons. Crewe recognized commercial promise in the group and promptly secured both a management agreement and a contract with his New Voice Records imprint. Because another act already used the name the Rivieras (having scored a hit with "California Sun"), the ensemble became the Detroit Wheels and their frontman adopted the stage name Mitch Ryder.

After relocating the band to New York City for five-night weekly engagements that refined their presentation, Crewe issued the first Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels single in 1965, "I Need Help! (Help! Help!)" b/w "I Hope," both tracks original compositions by Crewe. The release met with limited interest, yet the follow-up, "Jenny Take a Ride!" (a medley of "Jenny Jenny" and "C.C. Rider"), reversed their trajectory; appearing in December 1965, it reached number ten on the national singles chart by the close of January 1966 and established Ryder & the Wheels. March 1966 brought the next single, "Little Latin Lupe Lu," which climbed to number 17, while the following May saw the arrival of their debut album, Take a Ride, largely devoted to the soul and R&B standards central to their live sets. By this juncture bassist Earl Elliott and guitarist Joe Kubert had departed the Detroit Wheels; the group chose not to replace Kubert and instead added Jim McCallister on bass. These adjustments produced no slowdown, and in November the explosive medley "Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly" advanced to number four, marking their highest-charting single. The track appeared on their second album, 1966's Breakout!!!, which blended R&B standards with Crewe originals.

February 1967 yielded another success, "Sock It to Me Baby!," which attained number four and anchored the third album from Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, 1967's Sock It to Me!, consisting entirely of songs written or co-written by Bob Crewe apart from a cover of the Bacharach/David standard "Walk on By." Although the band continued to sell records, Crewe sought to establish Mitch Ryder as a solo performer and to reposition him from a hard R&B vocalist toward an entertainer capable of Las Vegas engagements alongside rock & roll shows. The Detroit Wheels expanded into a ten-piece road orchestra and participated in a touring rock revue, after which Crewe eventually eliminated the original Detroit Wheels. Their final hit, "Too Many Fish in the Sea," reached a modest number 24 and appeared on Mitch Ryder Sings the Hits, a Crewe-assembled collection that presented earlier Detroit Wheels material in fresh mixes incorporating horn and string overdubs. By late 1967 the first Mitch Ryder solo album, What Now My Love, had surfaced—a refined effort alternating brassy rock & roll with elaborately arranged middle-of-the-road selections. Ryder's vocals remained potent, yet the project lacked the drive that distinguished his Detroit Wheels recordings, and although the title track achieved minor chart placement, fans and buyers responded unfavorably. Ryder's subsequent album, The Detroit-Memphis Experiment, paired him with Booker T. & the MG's; it represented a promising direction but emerged amid a significant rupture between Ryder and Crewe after Crewe transferred Ryder's contract to Paramount Records and Ryder filed suit for unpaid royalties.

Following the dissolution of the Detroit Wheels, Ryder and Badanjek collaborated in the group Detroit, which released one album for Paramount in 1971 containing their rendition of Lou Reed's "Rock & Roll," a regional success that earned praise from Reed, who later enlisted Detroit guitarist Steve Hunter for his own ensemble. Detroit disbanded before completing a second album, and after a brief withdrawal from music Ryder reemerged as a solo artist with 1978's How I Spent My Vacation. Jim McCarty formed the blues-rock band Cactus alongside Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge; he and Badanjek later reunited in the Detroit-based hard rock outfit the Rockets. The Detroit Wheels catalog received extensive reissues in subsequent years; Rev-Up!!: The Best of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, initially issued by Rhino Records in 1990 and reissued by EMI in 2007, compiled their principal recordings, while the three original New Voice albums appeared again via Sundazed in 1993. In 2020 the U.K. label Cherry Red issued Sockin' It to You: The Complete Dynovoice/New Voice Recordings, presenting Take a Ride, Breakout!!!, Sock It to Me!, Mitch Ryder Sings the Hits, and What Now My Love in their entirety together with several non-LP singles.