Arthur Marcus Ripp (born 1940) is an American music industry executive and record producer.
Career Early career Ripp began his career as a singer, initially informally harmonizing rock and roll songs with friends from high school. In 1957, Ripp formed an official singing group with neighborhood friends; the group was signed by ABC-Paramount Records as backup singers for ABC solo artists. The singers sang backup for Paul Anka on his 1957 hit "Diana" and broke up shortly thereafter.
Ripp rejoined with some of his informal singing partners (Mario "Skippy" Scarpa, Stu Silverman, and Joe Tedesco) to form "The Four Temptations". The quartet wrote its own songs and was signed by ABC-Paramount Records, which released the group's first single in 1958. The A-side, "Cathy" (named after Scarpa's newly born niece), was written by Scarpa and Ripp; the B-side was "Rock & Roll Baby", written by Scarpa, Ripp, and Silverman. When the group rejected opportunities offered by the record company to record others' songs, the record company withheld further recording opportunities, and the group disbanded.
Ripp shifted from performing to being behind-the-scenes in the music business. About his potential as a performer, Ripp states, "I sucked. I was no Elvis Presley and I wasn't a writer." Additionally, Ripp states, "I started walking around Broadway and I'd see these kids who were making records and not getting paid. They could have a number one record on the charts and end up owing the record company a half a million dollars ... I thought, 'This business has some system.' ..."
In 1958, Ripp targeted George Goldner to be a potential mentor. Goldner, based in New York City, was a music industry entrepreneur who owned copyrights, produced records, and owned record companies. Goldner was, in the words of American blues singer and songwriter Jerome "Doc" Pomus, a "very hip, New York kind of tough guy." After Ripp spent weeks informally observing Goldner at work, Goldner formally hired Ripp to be a go-fer.
Ripp worked with songwriter and producer Richard Barrett within Goldner's organization, where Ripp got a "street education in the record business equal to none". Ripp learned how Goldner worked a studio, structured a record contract, and got records played on the radio.
Functioning as manager instead of performer, Ripp put together the New York vocal group "The Temptations", (formed at least a year before the name was used by the different and better-known Motown group). Ripp's Temptations recorded for Goldner's Goldisc Records; its three singles were released in 1960 and 1961. The song "Barbara" charted nationally, reaching number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1960.
Ripp quickly rose in the music publishing, recording, and distribution business. In 1961, after Goldner transferred his Gone and End record labels to music industry executive Morris Levy, Ripp became national promotion director at Nevins/Kirshner Associates, Inc., founded by Al Nevins and Don Kirshner. (The company was the parent of Dimension Records and its music publishing division Aldon Music (BMI). Aldon, located at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan, played a significant role in shaping the so-called "Brill Building Pop" sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s.) In 1962, Ripp partnered with music publisher Aaron "Goldie" Goldmark and was named vice president of three of Goldmark's newly established businesses: Goldie Records, Inc., Armada Music, Inc. (ASCAP), and Fredella Music, Inc. (BMI) (which were together known as Goldmark Music, Ltd. in association with Chappell, Ltd.). During the summer of 1962, Goldmark and Ripp collaborated to generate worldwide distribution arrangements that were described by Billboard as having "angles never before achieved in the business."
In 1963, Ripp produced "Just One Look" for Doris Troy. The song peaked at number ten on the Billboard pop chart and at number three on the Rhythm and Blues chart. It was listed as one of the 7,500 most important songs of the Rock-n-Roll era and was covered by The Hollies as their first single.
In 1963, when Goldmark was selected to head Premier Albums' newly established publishing and master-production operations, Ripp followed and was named chief of "A&R" (Artists and Repertoire) for Premier's subsidiary, Award Music, which was the master-production business. As A&R Chief, Ripp signed singer Carl Dobkins Jr. Also under contract with Award during Ripp's tenure were Jimmy Jones and The Hollywood Flames, both of whom were on the Vee-Jay record label.
Kama Sutra
In 1964, Ripp joined Hy Mizrahi and Phil Steinberg in Kama Sutra, initially an independent production company based in New York. As a production house, the company established a "consistent and impressive track record" in the singles market; Kama Sutra hit "immediately and often."
Ripp's work included an association and collaboration with the songwriting-and-production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had co-founded the Red Bird Records label with Goldner in 1964. In 1964, Red Bird released "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)", which became a hit for the girl group The Shangri-Las; Ripp is credited with having "discovered" the group and shares a producer credit with Jeff Barry on the song. (American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, whom Ripp as a future record-label owner would sign to a recording contract about seven years later, recalls playing piano on the single; whether his playing was used on the demo version that had been produced by "Shadow" Morton or on the master version that had been produced by Barry and Ripp is unclear.) Also, when Leiber and Stoller's time-consuming work with The Drifters and The Coasters demanded much of their attention, Ripp was selected to take over production of singles for Jay and the Americans, released on United Artists. When the band "hit" in 1964 with the Ripp-produced "Come A Little Bit Closer", the band was invited to participate in the first Beatles' tour of the U.S. along with The Righteous Brothers and also played with The Rolling Stones at Carnegie Hall.
Although Kama Sutra signed a major production contract in early 1965 with record label Columbia Records (with whom Ripp as principal of Family Productions would later negotiate regarding control of Billy Joel's contract in the 1970s), its primary and most significant distribution deal, established in mid-1965, was with MGM.
In 1965, after accountant Art Kass (a former employee of MGM Records) joined the management team, Kama Sutra expanded and became a record label, with Ripp as musical director. It opened a location in California, which was becoming the center of American popular music production. The west coast office was ultimately headed by Bob Krasnow; Ripp shifted to operate out of California in 1967. The label's first single, produced by Ripp, was The Vacels' "You're My Baby (And Don't You Forget It)", which peaked at 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 21, 1965. Ripp also negotiated a deal with the production team that handled The Lovin' Spoonful; it is said that the band carried the label through its first year.
In 1966, Ripp and his two co-principals negotiated a deal with Ashley Famous Agency (AFA) for AFA to act as the exclusive booker for the majority of Kama Sutra's artists and all its writers and producers.
Ripp co-produced Bobby Bloom's single, "Love, Don't Let Me Down" which was released on Kama Sutra KA 223 in March 1967.45Cat - Record Details, Artist: Bobby Bloom, Catalogue: KA 223, Bobby Bloom Love, Don't Let Me Down It made both the Record World Coming Up,Record World, April 22, 1967 - Page 20 record world's SINGLES COMING UP, 8 and the Cash Box Looking Ahead chart.Cash Box, April 22, 1967 - Page 14 Cash Box LOOKING AHEAD, 30
Buddah Records
In 1967, Kama Sutra leadership, sensing that the MGM distribution deal was limiting the company's output, created the Buddah Records label as a subsidiary with distribution handled by Kama Sutra. Neil Bogart, who later co-founded Casablanca Records, was hired as vice president and general manager. Staff writers and producers included Peter Anders and Vini Poncia (who had created hits for The Ronettes), Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell (associated with Tommy James and the Shondells), Levine and Resnick, Elliot Chiprut, and Bobby Bloom. Bogart steered the label in the direction of Bubblegum pop, and the label had hits with Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. At its first anniversary in 1968, Buddah was ranked seventh in the U.S. in sales of singles; the company's estimated first-year sales were $5.8 million.
In 1968, Viewlex, a Long Island, New York company that made projectors and slides primarily for the school market, acquired Buddah by purchasing all its stock, and the three original partners (Ripp, Mizrahi, and Steinberg) left. When Bubblegum's appeal faded, so did Buddah's fortunes; parent company Viewlex went bankrupt in 1976. Buddah changed ownership and continued to release new music until 1983. In 1986, Buddah and its back catalogue were sold, and, through a series of acquisitions, Buddah—since renamed "Buddha"—became a reissue label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Together, the Kama Sutra and Buddah labels released almost 100 Billboard Top 40 singles and almost fifty hits on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart. This productivity amounted to about one chart hit for every five releases; major record labels of the day realized about one chart hit for every twenty to thirty releases.
Family Productions After obtaining financial backing and a promise of logistical backing from Ampex and Famous Music Corp., which was the music publishing division of Paramount Pictures which was itself a subsidiary of Gulf + Western, Ripp founded Family Productions, Inc.--originally called "A. Ripp Family Productions--in 1970. The agreement included a "built-in promotion fund" and a commitment from Paramount to promote the output from the production house. The company's logo was an image of the Capitoline Wolf.
Association with Billy Joel
In 1971, Family Productions signed 22-year-old Billy Joel to a long-term recording-and-publishing contract as a solo artist. Joel had previously come to the attention of producer Michael Lang, co-creator of Woodstock and principal of Just Sunshine Records. Lang had given Joel a monetary advance, but then passed Joel along to Ripp—while still retaining rights to profit from Joel's output—because he wanted to focus his attentions on a different artist instead. Ripp produced Joel's first solo album Cold Spring Harbor, and Paramount distributed it. Jon Troy, an early Joel manager, was promotions director at Family Productions.