Jerry Ragovoy
Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy ( born September 4, 1930 in Philadelphia, † July 11, 2011 in Manhattan) was an American songwriter, arranger and record producer.
Life and work
Jerry Ragovoys father was optician. Jerry taught himself piano and became interested in early for gospel and rhythm and blues, as he grew up in an African American dominated residential area. He began his career as a record seller Ragovoy in the department store Tregoobs. With its general manager Herb Slotkin 1953, he founded the record label Grand, on which the local doo-wop band The Castelles her first song My Girl Awaits Me published by the 100,000 copies were sold. After his move to Chancellor Records, he wrote arrangements for Frankie Avalon and Fabian wrote for the Song About This Thing Called Love. In 1962 he moved to New York to pursue a career as a Broadway songwriter. In the same year, he produced and arranged A Wonderful Dream for the native of Philadelphia singing group The Majors; he used for the song the pseudonym Norman Margulies. When Norman Meade, he wrote with Bert Berns song Cry Baby, Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters the 1963 grossed and thus position 4 on the Billboard charts reached.
In 1966, Ragovoy worked for Warner Brothers Records sublabel Loma. He had the song Stay With Me (Baby ) written by George David Weiss, he tried to install with the gospel singer Lorraine Ellison. Frank Sinatra said at the session, but allowed Ragovoy to use the orchestra. The song was then cover versions of the Walker Brothers, Sharon Tandy (1967 ), David Essex (1978 ), Ruby Turner ( 1994), Rebecca Wheatley (2000) and Duffy (2009) popular. Bette Midler used it in their Diva Las Vegas stage show.
His best-known song was the gospel -influenced Time Is on My Side, which Ragovoy for jazz trombonist Kai Winding and his Orchestra had written and recorded by Irma Thomas in 1964. When The Rolling Stones released their version, they scored their first Top 10 hit in the United States and played the song at her first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Another song Ragovoys was the late 1960s, popularized by Janis Joplin, Piece of My Heart which he had in turn composed with Berns and the first time in 1967 by Erma Franklin senior, Aretha Franklin's sister had been taken. Joplin then recorded the song for her album Cheap Thrills on with Big Brother & the Holding Company. Another well-known song was by Joplin Try ( Just a Little Harder ), who came from the cooperation Ragovoys with Chip Taylor, appeared on the album I Got The Ol ' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! . Their latest album, Pearl received three songs by Ragovoy, My Baby, Get It While You Can and Cry Baby. Another song, I'm Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven, the Ragovoy, had written with Jenny Dean, Joplin could not import because she died in October 1970.
In addition, he wrote soul -influenced songs for Howard Tate; Get It While You Can ( 1967) and Stop, the Jimi Hendrix recorded, and Is not Nobody Home, the later BB King box office. In 1969, Ragovoy own recording studio, The Hit Factory; The short-lived record label in 1973 Rags, appeared on the recordings of Howard Tate and Lou Courtney. In the 1970s, he was a producer of the album Keep On Moving the Butterfield Blues Band ( in which he also played piano), Streetlights by Bonnie Raitt and Then Came You by Dionne Warwick. The Grammy he won for the production of an album to the Broadway show Do not Bother Me, I Can not Cope. One of his last songs was Either Side Of The Same Town, which he wrote with Elvis Costello. In his last years he lived in Stamford (Connecticut). He died in 2011 of a stroke.
Compositions (selection )
Disco Graphical Notes
- 2008 - The Jerry Ragovoy Story: Time Is on My Side, 1953-2003 ( Ace )