The Ritchie Family

The Ritchie Family are an American vocal group based in Philadelphia that achieved several hits during the disco era. They have reunited and continue to perform. Their latest single "Whatcha Got" was released in 2021.

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.

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. The album, also titled Brazil, sold well. By November 1, 1975, it had been on the Billboard Album Chart for five weeks and had moved up from #72 to #62. Between then and December 6 the album did reach #52. By then it had moved down from the previous week's position of #60 to #102. The album did give them another dance hit with "The Peanut Vendor". 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.

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 Wooten'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. 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 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.

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 Richie Rome was involved with and he quit around this time. His replacement was Horace Ott for further album releases. Released in 1977 Life Is Music came out on Marlin 2203. By February 12 it was at #184 on the Record World Top 200. By March 15 it was at #13 on the album chart in Italy. By May 10 it was at #10. The single "Life Is Music" peaked at #102 on the Pop charts, #8 on the Dance charts and #74 on the R&B charts.

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. 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. The album also included the song once done by Martin Denny, "Quiet Village".

By 1978, the three members, Wooten, Oliver and Mason-Jacks were dismissed without warning. It came as a shock to them as one day they were there and the next day they weren't. Even their songwriter Phil Hurtt was just as surprised. He went to the studio to attend the recording sessions and there were three new members in front of him. They had been replaced by Jacqui Smith-Lee, Theodosia "Dodie" Draher and Ednah Holt. It was believed that Morali had planned not to renew their contract and he had already been looking for some replacements. Gwendolyn Oliver stepped away from performing and Cassandra Wooten and Cheryl Mason-Jacks later teamed up with Michelle Simpson and formed CasMiJac.