The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock and roll scene, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels’ blue-eyed R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists. Ryder reached the Top Ten in early 1966 with the single “Jenny Take a Ride,” a frenzied combination of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny” and Chuck Willis’ “C.C. Rider.” It remains one of the quintessential moments in blue-eyed soul with its breathless intensity setting the tone for the remainder of the band’s output. Ryder & the Detroit Wheels returned to the charts weeks later with “Little Latin Lupe Lu” and scored their biggest hit that autumn with the Top Five smash, “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly.” “Sock It to Me Baby!” followed in early 1967, but Ryder soon split from the rest of the band to mount a solo career. But the years of performing were taking their toll, and Ryder began suffering from throat problems. He retired from music in 1973. Ryder resurfaced in 1978 with How I Spent My Vacation. Naked But Not Dead appeared a year later. In 1983, ardent fan John Cougar Mellencamp agreed to produce Ryder’s major-label comeback, Never Kick a Sleeping Dog, which generated a hit with its cover of the Prince classic, “When You Were Mine.” His first new studio album in nearly 30 years, the Don Was-produced The Promise, appeared in 2012. Ryder continues to rock to this day.
