Ritchie

With his debut single reaching sales of 500,000 units and his first LP attaining 700,000 copies, Ritchie also contributed meaningfully to the Brazilian musical developments that helped shape the rock style prominent during the 1980s. Born to a military officer, Ritchie resided in Kenya through age two, performed Schubert and Britten in a German church choir, and spent time living in Denmark, Italy, and South Yemen. He entered the 27-member pop-folk ensemble Everyone Involved in 1971, a collective assembled solely to oppose construction of a viaduct above London’s Piccadilly Circus. The group issued the album Either/Or; during those sessions Ritchie befriended guitarist Mike Klein’s Brazilian associates Lúcia Turnbull, Rita Lee, and Arnolpho Lima (Liminha, then bassist for Os Mutantes and later a leading Brazilian pop/rock producer). Drawn to Os Mutantes, he soon began a relationship with a Brazilian woman and arrived at her Rio home in September 1972. That same day, during a sound check at the 7th International Song Festival (FIC) in Maracanãzinho, he was captivated by Raul Seixas’s performance and resolved to remain in Brazil. The relationship ended the following week, leaving Ritchie without lodging; he therefore accompanied Os Mutantes to São Paulo, where the band was based. There he co-founded Escaladácida alongside Azael Rodrigues, Sérgio Kaffa, and Fábio Gasparini. The quartet was scheduled to record for Continental in 1973 when it disbanded. By then married to Carioca Leda Zucarelli, Ritchie returned to Rio, where he supported himself by teaching English and studied flute with virtuoso Paulo Moura. He next joined the progressive group A Barca do Sol, an early important platform for future MPB figures including Jaques Morelembaum. Recruited as flutist, he sought vocal opportunities, yet fellow members resisted because of his pronounced British accent. Discouraged, he departed, only to be recruited by former associates Lulu Santos and Luiz Paulo Simas for the band Vímana, a pivotal bridge between Os Mutantes and the emerging Brazilian rock of the 1980s. After Vímana dissolved in 1978, Ritchie resumed English instruction, securing a position at Berlitz. The next year he cut a demo with Jim Capaldi, formerly of Traffic. In 1980 Capaldi invited him to produce the solo album Let the Thunder Cry; Ritchie traveled to London for the project, which featured drummer Andy Newmark, saxophonist Mel Collins, percussionist Reebop Kwaku-Baah, and drummer Simon Kirke of Free.

Upon returning to Brazil, Ritchie began assembling material with Bernardo Vilhena, the lyricist for Vímana’s songs. They composed fifteen tracks rapidly, and Inácio Machado financed a demo at Warner’s Rio basement that included Lobão, Liminha, Zé Luiz (early saxophonist with Blitz), Mayrton Bahia, and guitarist Steve Hackett, the ex-Genesis member married to a Brazilian. The recordings captured “Vôo de Coração” and “Baby, meu Bem.” The following day Warner producer Fernando Adour auditioned the material and forwarded the tape to CBS, then seeking a new act in the Blitz mold. Cláudio Condé contacted him that same day to offer a contract. The debut single “Menina Veneno,” a commercially oriented pop ballad, appeared in February 1983 and quickly became a hit in the Northeast. Backed by an aggressive CBS campaign, the track sold 500,000 copies while the album Vôo de Coração reached 700,000. The LP contained the three tracks already mentioned plus two further successes, “Pelo Interfone” and “Casanova,” the latter boosted by its placement in the soundtrack of the TV Globo soap opera Champagne. The follow-up E a Vida Continua, issued in 1984, moved 100,000 units; the third release, Circular, sold fewer than 100,000. Convinced that CBS was deprioritizing his output to safeguard relations with its flagship artist Roberto Carlos—a suspicion later corroborated in a 1986 Tim Maia interview with Isto É—Ritchie obtained a surprising release from his remaining contractual obligation and moved to Polygram. Lacking fresh material, he presented “Transas,” written by his manager Paulinho Lima with Nico Resende, to Polygram producer Mariozinho Rocha, who had helmed As Aventuras da Blitz for EMI-Odeon. Rocha championed the song, placing it in the Rede Globo soap opera Roda de Fogo and driving single sales to 100,000 copies. The subsequent album Loucura & Mágica (June 1987) sold only 25,000 units, yet Ritchie’s concerts featuring earlier hits continued to draw large crowds. Trusting his ability to rebound, he issued Pra Ficar Contigo in 1988, which moved just 13,000 copies. After a two-year effort to mount a comeback alongside keyboardist William Forghieri (ex-Gang-90 and Blitz), Ritchie delivered his sixth album, Sexto Sentido, in 1990. Despite strong tracks “Eu e Meu Rádio” and “Obsessão,” it sold merely six thousand copies. Following that disappointment he did not record again until 1993, when he formed Tigres de Bengala with Forghieri, ex-A Cor do Som members Dadi and Mu, Vinícius Cantuária, and Cláudio Zoli; the project also failed commercially. In 1995 the sertanejo duo Zezé di Camargo e Luciano revived “Menina Veneno” to peak popularity.