Music
Mitch Ryder
born 1945 · rock and soul singer, songwriter
Hamtramck-born singer whose Detroit Wheels fused rock and roll with Detroit soul on 1960s hits such as "Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly."
- Born
Hamtramck, Michigan
age 81- Birth name
- William Sherille Levise Jr.
- Also known as
- Billy Lee
- Detroit years
- 1945–1973; later years
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Mitch Ryder was born William Levise Jr. in Hamtramck to a musical family and spent his high school years in Warren, where a school-assembly performance won him a singing scholarship. As a teenager he began hanging around the Village, a soul club on Woodward Avenue, where he sang with the interracial vocal group the Fabulairs alongside two Black singers who worked at the club. Inspired by the Beatles, he joined the Rivieras, the club's house band, with guitarist Jim McCarty and drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek. Producer Bob Crewe renamed them Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, and their high-energy medleys hit big: "Jenny Take a Ride!," "Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly" (No. 4, 1966) and "Sock It to Me-Baby!" (No. 6, 1967). Around 1970 he formed the hard-rocking band Detroit, whose 1971 album included a raw cover of Lou Reed's "Rock & Roll." AllMusic has called him the unsung hero of Michigan rock and roll, and he entered the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005.
Highlights
- "Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly" reached No. 4 in 1966
- "Sock It to Me-Baby!" reached No. 6 in 1967
- Fronted the band Detroit, praised for its cover of Lou Reed's "Rock & Roll"
- Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame (2005)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · early 1960s
The Village
Closed
Soul club on Woodward Avenue where he sang as a teenager and joined its house band, the Rivieras, the future Detroit Wheels.