Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, high-energy 1960s rock band. membership: Mitch Ryder (real name, William Levise Jr.), voc. (b. Hamtramck, Mich., Feb. 26, 1945); James McCarty, gtr. (b. 1947); Joseph Cubert, gtr. (b. 1947; d. 1991); Earl Elliot, bs. (b. 1947); Johnny “Bee” Badanjek, drm. (b. 1948).

Like a V8 in a small car, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels burned high-energy tire tracks across the pop music landscape during the mid-1960s. While their careers as hit makers lasted less than two years, their effect on the future of rock, particularly rock out of the Midwest, was incalculable. They’ve been cited as mentors for artists as diverse as Was (Not Was), the MC5, Iggy Pop, Bob Seger, and Ted Nugent.

Mitch Ryder was born William Levise. In his early teens, Detroit became the pop/soul capital of the world, thanks to the many hits produced by Motown Records. By high school, Levise began making a name for himself in the band Tempest, playing in the black clubs in Detroit. By 17, he cut an R&B tune with a local gospel label and was fronting a black vocal trio called the Peps. He ran into a band featuring guitarists James McCarty, bassist Earl Elliot, and drummer Johnny Badanjek. They started working together as Billy Lee and the Rivieras, adding rhythm guitarist Joe Cubert to the mix. Their show was so powerful that soon no one would let them open for them. They found themselves headlining over Motown groups. This attracted the attention of Four Seasons’ producer Bob Crewe, who signed them and moved them to N.Y.

The band spent a few months playing in clubs and refining its show. They had to change their name (an Ind. band called the Rivieras had a #5 hit in 1964 with “California Sun”), with Levise taking the name Mitch Ryder by pulling two random names out of the phone book. The Rivieras became the more generic Detroit Wheels. Their first single, “I Need Help,” tanked. For their second, they cut “Jenny Take a Ride” a medley of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny” and Chuck Willis’s “CC Rider” (which became “See Mitch Ryder” by the second verse). Powered by the band’s manic soul energy, the song hit #10 early in 1966. They followed this with another piece of high-octane rocking soul, “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” which hit #17. Next, they tried to expand their sound, recording a ballad, but found their audience wouldn’t accept a slow number. They came back to their forte with the medley of “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly” toward the end of 1966. They kicked off 1967 with “Sock It to Me Baby,” a high powered bit of funky rock that hit #6. At the height of this success, bands like The Who and Cream were opening for them in concert.

However, Crewe’s agenda was different than that of the band’s. He had scored success by promoting Frankie Valli, lead singer of the Four Seasons, as a lounge balladeer, and had similar plans for Ryder. When the group’s attempts to record ballads floundered, Crewe urged Ryder to go out on his own. In mid-1967, he convinced Ryder to cut the Wheels loose and set him up in the studio with strings and songs by Rod McKuen and Jacques Brel. Ryder cut What Now My Love, and the title track even reached #30. Unable to look his rock ’n’ roll face in the mirror, Ryder severed his ties with Crewe (eschewing all further royalties in the bargain) and went to Memphis where he cut 1969’s The Detroit Memphis Experiment. While a musical success, it didn’t find an audience. Neither did his next band, formed with Badanjek, which they called Detroit, though he so impressed Lou Reed with a version of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” that Reed hired the band’s guitarist Steve Hunter.

For the next seven years, Ryder took a day job in a Denver warehouse, worked on his songwriting, playing only occasionally, and kicked a drug habit. In 1978, he self-released the autobiographical album How I Spent My Vacation followed by Naked but Not Dead. While he only reached a few diehard fans in the U.S., the records attracted a fair bit of interest in Europe, particularly in Germany. At about the same time, Badanjek and Mc-Carty formed a band with vocalist David Gilbert called Rockets. They released five records between 1977 and 1983, even managing to score a #30 hit in 1979 with a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.”

During the 1980s, Ryder recorded mostly for his European fans. John Mellencamp put some of his newfound stardom to work for an artist he regarded as a spiritual mentor, producing Ryder’s Never Kick a Sleeping Dog in 1983. The album won heavy critical praise and even a modicum of airplay for a reworking of Prince’s “When You Were Mine,” but sold poorly. That same year, Ryder recorded the song “Bow Wow Wow Wow” on Was (Not Was)’s Born to Laugh at Tornadoes. Looking for a hit, during the Iran/Contra hearings, Ryder reworked “Good Golly Miss Molly” into the novelty single “Good Golly, Ask Ollie.”

However, through the late 1980s and 1990s, Ryder’s European records kept him busy. Between the acceptance of his new music there and the demand for his old hits on the oldies circuit here, Ryder maintained a very satisfactory musical career. Early in 2000, J-Bird records made his self-released and European albums available in the U.S.

Discography

mitch ryder and the detroit wheels:Take a Ride (1966); Breakout!!! (1966); Sock It to Me (1967). mitch ryder:What Now My Love (1967); Mitch Ryder Sings the Hits (1968); The Detroit Memphis Experiment (1969); Detroit with Mitch Ryder (1971); How I Spent My Vacation (1978); Rock ’n’ Roll Live (1979); Naked but Not Dead (1979); We’re Gonna Win (1980); Live Talkies (1981); Got Change for a Million (1981); Smart Ass (1982); Never Kick a Sleeping Dog (1983); In the China Shop (1986); Red Blood, White Mink (1988); Beautiful Toulang Sunset (1995); Rite of Passage (1995). rockets:Love Transfusion (1977); Rockets (1979); No Ballads (1980); Back Talk (1981); Live Rockets (1983).

—Hank Bordowitz