Ram Jam

Ram Jam was an American rock band formed in New York City and active in 1977 and 1978, mainly known for their hit single "Black Betty".

Overview

The band consisted of Bill Bartlett (guitar and lead vocals), Howie Arthur Blauvelt (bass), Pete Charles (drums), and Myke Scavone (lead vocals).<ref name="LarkinHM">Template:Cite book</ref> Jimmy Santoro, who toured with the band in support of their debut album, joined on guitar for the follow-up album. Bartlett was formerly lead guitarist for bubblegum group the Lemon Pipers, while Blauvelt played with Billy Joel in several bands: the Echoes (also renamed the Lost Souls and then the Commandos), the Hassles and El Primo.<ref name="LarkinHM"/> The band was originally known as 'Creekside Killshack'.

History

Early days

Bill Bartlett went on from the Lemon Pipers to form a group called Starstruck. Starstruck originally included Steve Walmsley (bass) and Bob Nave (organ) from the Lemon Pipers. Walmsley left the band and was replaced by David Goldflies (who later played for years with Dickey Betts and Great Southern and the Allman Brothers). While in Starstruck, Bartlett took Lead Belly's 59 second long "Black Betty" and arranged, recorded and released it on the group's own TruckStar label.<ref name="LarkinHM"/> "Black Betty" became a regional hit, then was picked up by producers in New York who formed a group around Bartlett called Ram Jam. They re-released the song, and it became a hit nationally. The Ram Jam "recording" was actually the same one originally recorded by Starstruck (albeit significantly edited to rearrange the song structure), the band at that time comprised Bartlett (lead guitar and vocals), Tom Kurtz (rhythm guitar and vocals), David Goldflies (bass), and David Fleeman (drums). The rest of the tracks on the first studio album containing "Black Betty" were played by the Ram Jam lineup. Even though the song was credited to Huddie Ledbetter, the NAACP and Congress of Racial Equality called for a boycott due to the lyrics.<ref name="LarkinHM"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The boycott failed, however, and "Black Betty" reached number 18 on the singles chart in 1977 in the U.S., top ten in the UK Singles Chart and Australia, and number 46 in Canada, while the Ram Jam album reached the U.S. top 40. It was also a hit in the Netherlands, reaching number 4. In Canada, the album reached number 33.<ref name="CAN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Later

Their subsequent album Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram achieved little success, despite the addition of Long Island, New York, lead guitarist Jimmy Santoro.Template:Citation needed The Portrait album was re-issued on Rock Candy Records from England in 2006. It is listed in the Top 100 lists in Martin Popoff's book The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal Volume 1: The Seventies.

Post-hits

In the 1990s, both studio releases by Ram Jam were packaged together as a German import record entitled The Very Best of Ram Jam.<ref name=auto1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref><ref name=auto>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The cover of the album features the same artwork as the self-titled debut album, and the track list is simply the ten titles from Ram Jam followed by the ten titles from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram. While the original Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram started with the songs "Gone Wild" and "Pretty Poison", these two were moved to the end of The Very Best of Ram Jam.<ref name=auto1/><ref name=auto/>

In 1991, producers Kasenetz and Katz released a hip-house single called "We Rock the Mansion" as Ram Jam, which failed to chart. In 1994, they released an album called Ram Jam in France with a group of session musicians fronted by vocalist Don Chaffin, which failed to chart as well. Two singles were released from the album, "Ram Jam, Thank You Mam" (under which title the album was reissued in Germany in 1995) and "Black Betty '95", a cover of the 1990 "Rough 'n Ready" remix of the original Ram Jam song, both of which didn't chart. A 12" single of "Ram Jam, Thank You Mam" was also released in 1994, featuring a 7-minute rearrangement of the song.

A remix of "Black Betty" by Ben Liebrand reached number 13 in the UK Singles Chart in 1990.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref> Cover versions of the song also appear on the 2002 album Mr. Jones by Tom Jones and on the 2004 album Tonight Alright by Australian rock band Spiderbait.

Bill Bartlett still plays guitar, but in the early 1990s transformed himself into a boogie-woogie piano player.Template:Citation needed He also plays banjo, harmonica, and has written dozens of songs. Santoro still plays professionally in various bands in New York, and teaches music at an elementary school on Long Island. Scavone, who now resides in New Jersey, after many years detached from the music industry, recorded an album of 12 songs, both originals and cover versions with his former teenage garage rock band called the Doughboys. It was featured at the 40th Reunion of John Zacherle's Disc-O-Teen in 2004, which coincided with Zacherle's 84th birthday. The album, entitled Is It Now, included liner notes by John Hawkins, the original keyboard and piano player for the Nashville Teens.

Howie Blauvelt died in 1993 at age 44, and Pete Charles (full name Peter Charles Picardio) died in 2002 at age 49 from unknown causes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Scavone continues to write and record original music with the Doughboys. In 2015, Scavone was recruited to play harmonica, percussion and backing vocals with his longtime heroes, the Yardbirds.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Band members

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Final lineup

• Myke Scavone – lead vocals, percussion Template:Small
• Bill Bartlett – guitar, lead vocals Template:Small
• Jimmy Santoro – guitar Template:Small
• Howard Arthur Blauvelt – bass, backing vocals Template:Small
• Pete Charles – drums, percussion Template:Small

Template:Col-2 Touring musicians

• Glenn Dove – drums Template:Small
• David E. Eicher – keyboards Template:Small
• Dennis Feldman – bass Template:Small
• Greg Hoffman – guitar Template:Small
• Sherwin Ace Ross – vocals Template:Small

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:700 height:auto barincrement:22 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:70 top:10 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:1977 till:10/31/1978 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1977 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1977

Colors =

id:lvocals value:red        legend:Lead_vocals
id:guitar  value:green      legend:Guitar
id:bass    value:blue       legend:Bass,_backing_vocals
id:drums   value:orange     legend:Drums
id:perc    value:claret     legend:Percussion
id:bars    value:gray(0.95)

BackgroundColors = bars:bars

BarData =

bar:Scavone  text:Myke Scavone
bar:Bartlett text:Bill Bartlett
bar:Santoro  text:Jimmy Santoro
bar:Blauvelt text:Howard Arthur Blauvelt
bar:Charles  text:Pete Charles

PlotData =

width:11
color:lvocals
bar:Scavone  from:start      till:end

color:guitar
bar:Bartlett from:start      till:end
bar:Santoro  from:06/01/1977 till:end

color:bass
bar:Blauvelt from:start      till:end

color:drums
bar:Charles  from:start      till:end

width:3
bar:Bartlett from:start      till:end      color:lvocals
bar:Scavone  from:start      till:end      color:perc
bar:Charles  from:start      till:end      color:perc

</timeline>

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Chart positions			Label
		US 200 <ref name="Awards">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	AUS <ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref>		CAN <ref name="CAN"/>
1977	Ram Jam	34	16	33	Epic
1978	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram	—	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Compilation albums

• The Very Best of Ram Jam (1990)

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions			Certifications
		US Pop <ref name="Awards"/>	AUS <ref name=aus/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>		UK <ref name="UK">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1977	"Black Betty"	18	3	7	BPI: Platinum<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	"Keep Your Hands on the Wheel"	―	―	―
1978	"Pretty Poison"	―	―	―
	"Hurricane Ride"	―	―	―
1990	"Black Betty" (Ben Liebrand remix)	―	17	13
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

See also

• List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States

External links

• Template:Allmusic
• {{#if:Ram Jam|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs|{{#if:Template:Wikidata|Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs}}}}