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:

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels – "Sock It To Me – Baby!" (1967)

Sock it . . . to me baby
Sock it . . . to me, baby
Sock it!

After losing the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California governor’s race, Richard Nixon spent the next few years licking his electoral wounds.

Nixon, who wasn’t exactly “Mr. Personality,” knew he’d have to do things differently if he hoped to make a political comeback.  As part of his efforts to become more personable and appealing to voters, Nixon hired a former NBC comedy writer named Paul Keyes.  

Paul Keyes and Richard Nixon

Keyes persuaded Nixon to appear on the series premiere of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, which aired on September 16, 1968 – less than two months before the 1968 presidential election.  (That contest pitted Nixon against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate George Wallace.)

The Laugh-In crew asked Nixon to say “What’s a bippy?” when it was time to film his cameo for the show.  Nixon wasn’t sure what a bippy was, so he declined.  He also didn’t want to say “Good night, Dick.”  (Dan Rowan always closed the show by telling his co-host, Dick Martin, “Say good night, Dick,” which Martin answered by saying, “Good night, Dick.”)

Nixon eventually agreed to say “Sock it to me” – which he delivered more as a question than as a statement:

It’s incredible to me that Richard Nixon agreed to appear on Laugh-In, much less did so when the election was only a few weeks away.  Of course, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appeared on Saturday Night Live, but they appeared a full year before the election.  

“Sock it to me” wasn’t new with Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh-In.  To the contrary, it had been in use for over 100 years, as this excerpt from an 1866 book about the American Civil War shows:

Now then, tell General Emory if they attack him again to go after them, and to follow them up, and to sock it to them, and to give them the devil.

Some people believe that Nixon’s Laugh-In appearance contributed to his winning the very close 1968 election.  Lena Horne – who was no fan of Nixon – reportedly was so angry that she kicked Dick Martin in the shin when she saw him after the election.

Martin defended himself by pointing out that Humphrey was invited to appear on Laugh-In as well, but passed on the invitation.  (Laugh-In’s creator, George Schlatter, later said that he planned to have Humphrey say, “I’ll sock it to you, Dick!”)

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Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels’ “Sock It To Me – Baby!” was released over a year before Nixon’s Laugh-In cameo.    

A few months later, Aretha Franklin released “Respect.”  Aretha’s backup singers chant “Sock it to me” repeatedly during the chorus of “Respect.”

By the way, Mitch Ryder's real name was William S. Levise, Jr.

Click here to listen to “Sock It To Me – Baby!”  I can’t think of another record that used a slide whistle to such good advantage.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: