Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels – "Jenny Take a Ride" (1965)

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny! 

Won’t you come along with me?

(Jenny, Jenny, WOOOO, Jenny, Jenny!)

When the director of the 1986 movie Lucas called 14-year-old actress Winona Laura Horowitz – who was appearing in her first film – and asked her how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, her father was listening to a Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels album.  So she told the director to credit her as Winona Ryder.

An autographed publicity photo of
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels

I don’t know for sure what track from that album was playing during that phone conversation, but I like to think it was today’s featured song, “Jenny Take a Ride,” which was Mitch Ryder’s first hit single.

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Mitch Ryder was born William Levise Jr. in Hamtramck, Michigan, in 1945.  His father had been a big band singer and his mother was an aspiring songwriter, so it comes as no surprise that young William became a musician at an early age.

He shortened William Levise to Billy Lee and recorded his first single – paid for by his father – when he was just 17.  Later, he joined forces with a local band called the Rivieras.  

When Four Seasons producer Bob Crewe heard their demo, he signed Billy Lee & the Rivieras to a recording contract, and moved them to New York City.

Mitch Ryder is still performing today

Because there was a California group that called itself the Rivieras, Levise’s band had to come up with a different name.  They were from Detroit, and since Detroit is identified with automobiles, “Detroit Wheels” seemed like a good choice.  Levise came upon “Mitch Ryder” while leafing through a Manhattan phone book, and thought it went well with Detroit Wheels.

(Have you figured out the theme of this year’s “28 Songs in 28 Days” yet?  Come on, people – it’s as plain as the nose on your face!)

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“Jenny Take a Ride” is a medley that combines Chuck Willis’s 1957 hit, “C. C. Rider” (which was based on a very old blues song) and Little Richard’s “Jenny, Jenny,” which was also a hit in 1957.

Bob Crewe didn’t like “Jenny Take a Ride” at first, but Keith Richards and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones – who were in the studio when it was being recorded – persuaded him to release the song as a single.  

Crewe was wise to listen to Richards and Jones: “Jenny Take a Ride” made it all the way to #10 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1965.

The Detroit Wheels had success with other high-energy medley singles, most notably “Devil With a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly,” which was a #4 hit the very next year.

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On December 9, 1967, Ryder performed “Knock on Wood” with Otis Redding on a Cleveland TV show. 

That was Otis Redding’s last performance.  The next day, Redding and several members of his band died in a plane crash while en route to Madison, Wisconsin.

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Click here to listen to “Jenny Take a Ride.”  (It’s a stick of dynamite!)

And click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: