Editing Ram Jam (section)

===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>{{cite web|url=http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/unhs-black-bettybam-ba-lams-its-last|title=UNH's 'Black Betty'bam-ba-lams its last|access-date=29 November 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141130091233/http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/unhs-black-bettybam-ba-lams-its-last|archive-date=30 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Big Bang, Baby: Rock Trivia|publisher=Dundurn|author=Crouse, Richard|year=2000|pages=187}}</ref>
 
The boycott failed, however, and "Black Betty" reached number 18 on the singles [[record chart|chart]] in 1977 in the [[United States|U.S.]], top ten in the [[UK Singles Chart]] and [[Australia]], and number 46 in Canada, while the ''[[Ram Jam (album)|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">{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5439a.pdf|title=RPM Top 100 Albums - November 19, 1977}}</ref>