Celebrity Underrated - The Minnie Riperton Story

foreign [Music] publishing has released a YouTube elevation blueprint with examples and tips from yours truly celebrity underrated from monetization techniques to marketing your channel if you're ready to start your YouTube journey and become successful go to the link in the bio and click the claim book button to purchase your copy today foreign [Music] you know there are some great singers with some phenomenal vocal ranges from Whitney Houston to Adele but here's the crazy part they only can hit high notes to four octaves it's hard to believe that Whitney only can hit four octaves it seems like she can go higher than that but I do know her mother can go higher because that's her on the background on Aretha Franklin song Ain't No Way in the background but if you can go up to five octaves and over that's a special gift for a singer you know Mariah Carey can do it R B singer uh Gene Carr can do it Chinese can go up five octaves Celine Dion Tamar Braxton Terry Ellis from the group in Vogue and there's many more artists that can do that some say prince has a six Active singing vocal range R B singer Betty Wright went to seven octaves on the song no pain no gain and R B singer Shante Moore has a eight octave vocal range wow that's crazy but you know one of the most famous singers that can sing in a five octave voice was Minnie rippington she could sing in a five octave range they call her the queen of the whistle register the lady with the unbelievable voice the Nightingale Songbird but the whistle register now the whistle register also called the flute registered the whistle notes or Bell notes is the highest register of the human voice lying above the model register in falsetto register her voice was an instrument Minnie Riperton had a voice like no other she can sing opera Jazz pop rock r b she and she wrote On songs you know Mariah Carey said Minnie Riperton was one of her biggest musical influences and everybody that met many loved them they just the world just loved many actor Denzel Washington said and when he was in school her perfect angel album saved him and actress Pam Greer said if she could had a if she would have had a daughter she would name her many many and Pam Grier was very good friends but I must say that uh this is one of the saddest stories I've probably done because she was just getting started to be one of the best she was in her prime man before she passed away so young So Young when she died man let's get to the story right now many Julia rippington was born on November 8th 1947 in Chicago Illinois and you know she grew up on the south side of Chicago and Bronzeville housing you know a lot of a lot of famous celebrities came from that Bronzeville neighborhood Nat King Cole you know he moved there when he was four years old Sam Cooke came from there Lou Rawls singer uh Dinah Washington moved there as a child Quincy Jones came from there Herbie Hancock and many more now she was the youngest of eight children from her parents you know a mother was a housewife and her father worked for the railroad he was a poor man Porter now growing up she always wanted to sing and you know be an Entertainer and she was always singing for family and friends when they would come by the house to visit plus you know her older brother Minnie's older brother was a jazz pianist but you know Minnie used to you know she used to play outside and sing make up songs when she was very young she said in an interview she was hit by a car too and left a scar on her leg but you know as a child you know she studied music drama you know at the dance Chicago's Lincoln Center which was located right across the street from where she lived they say about you know by the age of three years old she studied modern dance five years old she took ballet classes by nine years old she started taking singing lessons and at the age of 11 years old she was taking Opera lessons she did opera singing for nine years to become classically trained and you know that's when she started to develop a five octave vocal range her teacher at the time named Marion Jeffrey she knew many had a special gift you know she would have her practice breathing and freezing and she trained her how to use her full range so by the time many got in her teens she started singing at church in the church choir and you know she was singing at our high school too and that's around the time she fell in love with R B music she also started singing background at a local studio for ten dollars but during High School in 1963 around the age of 14 years old is when she ended up getting her first record deal she signed with a girl group called The Gems now how she got in that girl group called The Gems see at the time a blind pianist named Renard Miner who assigned to chess records and was working with the gems he needed another female singer because the one of the girls in the group had left right so that's when Renard Miner started searching for singers at high schools and he had went to Minnie's high school and he heard many singing in the school choir and thought she sounded great and asked her that she wanted to join the gyms and you know once she got with the gems they put out some songs like that's what they put Erasers on pencils for uh they had a song called I can't help myself another song called Can't Take a Hint you know they released a bunch of material but you know nothing really topped the charts and that's when they started doing a lot of background for all the Chess Records artists and they had changed their name from The Gems to the girls three and just and then to Dot and me I mean they song they sung uh background on fatala bass his song called Rescue Me that was a big song that hit number one on r b charts for four weeks and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. you know there's some background on the song by The Dells called there is they did background for Etta James Muddy Waters Billy Stewart Bo Diddley I mean all the Chess Records artists at the time they were singing background for them and you know many even went on the road and filled in for Etta James one time and she said Etta James was a big influence on her too and many you know many of that girl group she was in they were still trying to make it and be successful as a group and they had put out another single call my baby's real they had changed their name again going by the name the start let's but you know they just couldn't get a hit record it just didn't happen for them so you know the group broke up and plus really many was just the town she's just too talented over the rest of the girls in that group her voice was just too good and she ended up now many stayed with Chess Records while the other girls left you know they kept him around to keep many around they gave her a job as the front door receptionist and part-time secretary at chess records because they knew she was a special singer with that vocal range that vocal range she had they wanted to do something with that voice now many also got into acting and you know she did a Coca-Cola commercial because you know Chess Records they had their own radio station at the time called wvon and you know she would do Jingles for them and everything and she and she was taken Under The Wing by Billy Davis now Billy Davis was an anr director for chess records at the time and that's when they started working together him and many and he got many he changed Minnie's name to Andrea Davis and that's when she released a song called Lonely Girl and another song she had called you gave me soul but after that you know Leonard Chess son Marshall chest he started his own label called Cadet concept records and he wanted to put a uh a group together the group he wanted to put together was an interracial band that did psychedelic Soul jazz type of music right and the name of the band was called rotary connection because you know at that time it was the mid late 60s and it was the hippie and psychedelic era you know Jimi Hendrix and all of them the doors all of them and Marshall chess he had asked many to be the lead singer for rotary connection you know they started working and they did over six albums and you know they opened up for Legends like Led Zeppelin John Lennon the Rolling Stones Janice Joplin and even went on the road as the backing band for Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf and it was around that time too that many met her future husband songwriter and producer Richard Rudolph now how they met you know many was with her band rotary connection performing at a theater that he was managing Richard was managing the theater and after the show the first moment they saw each other it was love at first sight the first moment he saw her at the top of the stairs as he was walking down it was just a connection she just stood there looking at him he was looking at her they locked eyes there was this love at first sight and the rest is history and you know during those days though man in the 60s racism was still bad real bad people didn't like to see interracial dating at that time it was frowned upon man a lot of people had a problem with them dating but many and Richard said that they saw no color and didn't think of themselves as black and white many said uh in the interview right by the husband Richard Wright she said he's Jewish and a Jew is in white in the south and when she first saw him at the time she was seeing three different guys but she wasn't having sex with each one of the guys she saw she just saw each guy for a different reason but she said obviously there was something lacking in each one of those guys and they were black but she said she dated Japanese African Muslim Indians she don't care about race she's into people she also stated that her parents were angry at first but you know they got over it because they just wanted her to be happy but anyway so they started dating they got married and they had their first child which was their son mark and they also started working on music together and around that time it was a guy named Charles Stepney who was a record producer a ranger songwriter and musician for chess records he wanted to make many a bigger star he loved the voice he knew she had a special voice so he started working with her and they started working on her solo album and on September 23rd 1970 she released her debut album titled come to my garden which was a musical orchestra's type of album with live instruments and you know she was just showing off her beautiful vocal range and harmonies on that album but the album didn't really make an impact on the charts and then her group the group she was in rotary connection they was also dropped from Chess Records around that time you know after that many did continue to record music and she said a lot of music industry executives were interested in signing her once they heard her music but once they met her face to face and found out she was black they changed their mind you know they'll tell her like if they sign her they didn't know how to Market her plus her name didn't sound black wow that's crazy so you know after all that man that's when Minnie and her husband they moved from Chicago to Gainesville Florida because when they were in Chicago nobody would rent a place to them because they were an interracial couple it's the 60s so nobody would rent them a place so they moved to Florida in the country so once they got to Florida you know many kind of she kind of retired from the music business and just and just wanted to be a homemaker and raise our kids because by now she had had her second child her daughter Maya Rudolph but you know like you said it was kind of semi-retired but you know many and Richard continue to write songs in their spare time and look one day in 1973 a guy named Steve slutsaw who was a college rep for Epic Records at the time he was a big fan of Minnie's old group the rotary connection and the crazy part is he was searching for her now he was searching for many since the group wrote a reconnection had broken up and when he heard that she was living in Florida that's when he went down there looked up and found her and once he connected with her he took one of her old demos back to Epic Records and let his bosses hear her music and they loved it and then they met many in Florida and she sung live for them she sung the song seeing you this way live to them and after that that's when they gave her a record deal so once she got that record deal they moved to LA and Epic Records had asked many who would she like to work with and help produce this album Manny said I want to work with Stevie Wonder she said she want to work with Stevie because she was a big fan of his music and Talent Plus you know she had met Stevie back in the day back in 1971 in Chicago she was doing something with Quincy Jones When Stevie told her back then when he met her backstage that her voice was like an angel and it was a dream to work with her so for this new album you know her label Epic Records told her that you might not be able to get Stevie because Stevie might be too busy because at the time Stevie was the hottest artist out he had just released the classic album number one album called talking book you know that album had You Are My Sunshine on there that hit number one won a Grammy Superstition was number one that won two Grammys and don't forget the song You and I we conquer the world another beautiful song and right after that he released the album innovisions but anyway to their surprise once many got in contact with Stevie and talked to him on the phone man Stevie was so excited to work with her he told many to come to the studio right now because he wanted her to do some background for his new album and you know many she's some background on a song called it ain't no use with Denise Williams as part of the Wonder Love and many also did a background vocal on uh the song called creeping but you know her and Stevie got together he ended up producing her whole album for free he refused to be paid even though you know Barry Gordy at Motown wasn't happy that he was working on her album you know Barry Gordy was all about Motown at that time he didn't want his artist working with Outsiders so that's when Stevie Stevie Wonder used a fake name for the credits he created the name uh El Toro negro for scoreboard Productions many said working with Stevie was the most beautiful experience and you know they became real close to the point that Stevie Wonder used to come over to a house and she said Stevie Wonder would thumb wrestle with her dad her brother and Minnie and eat her cooking even John Lennon from the Beatles one day came to the studio to talk to Stevie Wonder and he heard many singing he was an entrance listening to many and you know Stevie thought Minnie's voice sounded like an angel and he was the one that named her album perfect angel and on August 9th 1974 she released her second album titled perfect angel and on that album cover she had on overalls right and ice cream was dripping down her hands she loved ice cream that's why that picture but the album the perfect angel album hit number one on the r b chart for three weeks and with certified platinum and you know what the crazy part is right when they release the first three singles from that album the first three singles reasons was one of them every time he comes around and seeing you this way it really didn't make an impact on a church like that and Epic Records wanted her to start working on her next album but what they didn't know was a lot of small radio stations was playing the song loving you and when many were performing at shows she saw the people in the crowd get real intimate you know putting their arms around each other and just having a romantic loving moment so that's when they released it as the fourth single and the next thing you know the song loving you took the World by storm and in three months it hit number one on a U.S Billboard Hot 100 pop charts and number two on a UK singles chart and number three on a billboard r b chart it became the biggest hit in her career it was written by her husband Richard Rudolph and many you know many said she came up with the melody to calm her baby daughter Maya Rudolph and you know when Stevia once Stevie added that piano he played two pianos on that song and once Stevie added the piano to it and many said that the bird chirping was recorded accidentally and it just kept it in the song but on a demo version of the song when they wrote it back in Florida a bird was actually outside singing and chirping wow but loving you man that was a beautiful song I still listen to it to this day because the way she hit that high note on there unbelievable man and the song has been covered loving you've been everybody covered that song Shanice did a good version of it like I said earlier Shanice has a five octave vocal range too she can hit them high notes too you know another song on that album that people love was called edge of a dream which was dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr who had been killed just a few years before she recorded it now that same year she also did a song called if I ever lose this heaven with Al Jarreau and Leon Ware on Quincy Jones album body heat but you know after that she started working on on her next album because her label wanted to catch that wave while she was still hot from the perfect angel album that Stevie had just produced for and they wanted to work with Stevie Wonder again but see Stevie was just too busy this time around he was working on his album songs in the key of life which I think is one of the greatest albums ever created in music history and you know still on that album songs of the kid life many did sing background on the song ornate pain but for her next album they couldn't get Steve you know he was just too busy and on May 22nd 1975 she released her third album title adventures in Paradise and you know that album hit number five when the Billboard top Soul albums chart and number 18 on the billboard 200 chart and went certified gold and look right on that album cover right you'll see many sitting next to a real lion but here's the crazy part because she was almost killed by a different Lion on a photo shoot now the story with that incident goes right because see her label Epic Records thought it would be a good idea to shoot a commercial for her album but they wanted the same setup like the album cover with the lion but they just wanted to shoot a live version with her sitting next to the lion and you know many agreed to it as she was like yeah we can do it as long as you get the same lion for the album cover you get the same line from the album cover that's cool because he was actually a nice well-behaved lion so on the day of the shoot when she walked in then he said she could tell that this was a different lion and while sitting next to the lion the lion looked at her and jumped on her but the Lion's handlers and her husband tamed the lion she was very lucky she really she didn't really get hurt but the line did scratch up on the chest and the arms and everything but Minnie said she wasn't scared at all wow that's crazy you know there's a clip of the whole line incident on YouTube she was talking to Sammy Davis Jr and Richard Pryor in the interview and she showed that clip was on YouTube check it out when y'all get a chance but you know on that album she had a single call inside my love that was my junk too right there and that song Hit number 26 on the r b charts and number 76 on the pop charts what she faced a lot of backlash for that song because they was trying to say that the lyrics were too sexually explicit and that's when radio kind of slowed down from planet and then they banned the song it was the line in the song when she said will you come inside me do you want to ride my love that they had a problem with even though many didn't mean it like that whatever but that song inside my love has been covered by a lot of artists too today Trina Broussard Shantae Moore Delilah and many more artists but you know some say that album right the adventures in paradise album is the beginning and creation of the Neo Soul music movement that influenced artists like D'Angelo and Jill Scott and all of them wow that's crazy you know after that 1976 she attended the Flip Wilson show when I was special called flip Sun Valley Olympiad which was his comedy version of the Winter Olympics right she attended that and while there many had told her husband about a tiny little lump in her breasts so you know after the Flip Wilson show she had went to go see a doctor and you know they just thought it was nothing but when they did the biopsy the doctors told her that that loan was breast cancer and had been metastasized now what does it mean when cancer metastasizes it's cancer that spreads from where it started to a distant part of the body and for many types of cancer is also called stage four cancer the process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis the doctors thought she should have a mastectomy ASAP they wanted her to remove her right breast immediately and many did you know she went and got another opinion a second opinion but they told her the same thing that she should get a mastectomy asaps and you know it's crazy because at the time she was in good shape her health was Flawless she ate right her music career was starting to Skyrocket and everything but you know she got to thinking like man she want to be here for her kids so a couple days later she went and had the mastectomy done she removed her right breast she had the surgery well here's the crazy part though the doctor the oncologist said it was too late and said that the cancer had already spread into her lymph nodes and gave her six months to live wow that's sad man but you know many many were strong and she didn't let it get her down the only thing she was worried about was leaving her kids and she just couldn't understand how she got breast cancer because she didn't smoke she didn't drink she ate right worked out and everything and you know I guess a lot of people that was close you know the people close to her around her was saying that she should keep the news quiet but many felt that she wanted to bring awareness to it and tell women to go get a checkup so she became one of the first celebrities to go public with a breast cancer diagnosis she first spoke about it publicly that same year in 1976 to Flip Wilson now Flip Wilson was filling in for Johnny Carson on tonight's show you know she was telling him that she was suffering from breast cancer and had and had surgery and you know at the time Flip Wilson was the honorary chairman of the American Cancer Society cancer fund but here's the thing she didn't tell nobody that she had six months to live she just told the world that she had breast cancer but she didn't tell the world that she only had six months to live and you know people praised her for a strength and courage President Jimmy Carter presented the American Cancer society's courage award to her at the White House and you know she also became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society you know she started doing chemo months later had passed by and you know what she felt great and continued with her career she started to feel good because she's she started smoking marijuana which helped her with the cancer because the medicine the doctors was giving her would make her sick and make her gain weight and just made her feel depressed for weeks and she didn't want to feel like that so she smoked marijuana it was the doctors that suggested that she tried marijuana because it takes away the nausea caused by the chemotherapy it relaxes you and you know she felt better many felt better and started eating healthy she was working out exercising more she always she was already doing this anyway you know she loved playing tennis she was good friends with uh tennis Legend rest in peace to uh Arthur Ashe and she was working on the clothing line she was just looking up to good things that was coming in her life at that time and in 1977 she released her fourth album titled stay in love a romantic fantasy set to music which was more full of that album was more full of disco style type of music because disco was the top genre at the time this is 1977. and you know this album didn't really top the charts though even though she did have a Stevie Wonder collaboration which was the song called stick together that hit number 23 on Billboard's Hot Dance Play and guess who did and guess who did the background vocals for that song actress Pam Greer wow you know Minnie and Pam Grier became good friends after Bobby Womack introduced them to each other her and Pam Grier used to hang out in all these do all type stuff it was good friends man but you know overall that album was a failure because Epic Records didn't really promote it and you know they didn't let her be more creative so that's when she decided to leave Epic Records and she signed with Capital Records Capital gave her a million dollar contract now with Capital Records on May 9 1979 she released her fifth album titled mini which hit number five on the r b charts and hit number 29 on the pop charts but the first single Memory Lane is probably one of my favorite Minnie Riperton songs Back Down Memory Lane family used to play that all the time man her voice just sounded so beautiful on that song and you know if you listen to the lyrics it was almost like she was saying goodbye to a husband in that song or something like she was saying goodbye to the world it's a beautiful sad song to me and look at the music video to memory lane she just looked so sad to me man but you know she continued to perform but then her arm was giving her problems her arms started hurting so bad and that's when she discovered she had a tumor in her right arm which started causing her problems then you know doing that chemo that caused her hair to fall out and many refused to wear a wig but like I said that that chemo man would just make her so sick she was dealing she was dealing with so much pain around that time of that album many and you know the people that was close to her said they don't know how she dealt with it but she was so strong many was a strong woman that was fighting for her life to live man and like I said she didn't tell nobody that she really was dying because she didn't want no pity or sympathy from fans when she released her music she wanted them to buy her music because they liked it not because of her terminal illness she didn't she didn't tell her family or close friends that she was really dying not even her parents knew because she didn't want to worry them you know that's how that's how many was her mother said Minnie's mother said that she didn't even know her baby girl was dying because she called her twice a week and you know every time she talked to Minnie she was just so happy and cheerful that was mini spirit she just didn't want to leave her kids man many loved her children but on July 12th man 1979 10 o'clock in the morning Minnie Riperton died in the arms of her husband Richard wow man they said she was listening to a cassette of a song that Stevie Wonder had written and recorded especially for her when she passed wow you know her husband Richard said the hardest thing to do was telling their kids that she was gone and it's sad because many died on July 12th and her daughter Maya birthday was on July 27th many were strong man because she lived a little over three years from that day the doctors told her that she only had six months to live you know when 1980 Capital Records did release her final album titled love lives forever but you know many man she was a special special gift man and I would love to see a movie or an official documentary about her life or autobiography book you know after she passed away Chicago Housing Authority changed the Princeton Apartments to many Julia rippington apartments in honor of her that's big right deal that's big and you know her daughter Maya Rudolph was six years old when Minnie died but she turned out to be a great actress and comedian though you know she was on uh SNL Saturday Night Live she did a good job and she could sing too Maya Rudolph can sing too now Minnie's son Mark Rudolph he was 11 years old when Minnie died and now he he's in the music industry and he can play over 25 different musical instruments wow but man many she was a perfect angel with that voice she had a one-of-a-kind vocal voice man wow so young she was only 31 years old 31 years old man rest in peace Minnie rippingtons

Channel: Celebrity Underrated

Views: 96,863

Keywords: celebrityunderrated, celebrity underrated, accidental demise, unsung, comedy hype, forensic files, vladtv, e true hollywood, tv one, how did, why did, documentary, mtv, grammys, funny moments, biopic, songwriter, pop r&b, what happened to, illness, r&b singer, etta james, leonard chess, breast cancer, minnie riperton, maya rudolph, lovin you, stevie wonder, 5 octaves, rotary connection, memory lane

Id: fWFXbwvcIbA

Length: 36min 53sec (2213 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2023