Ripley Ingram (January 21, 1930 – March 23, 1995) – Stop (What Your Doing To Me) (1973)
The tenor singer for the pioneering doo-wop group the Five Keys sang on this rare soul gem, recorded in an attempt to update their sound for the 70s.
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Ripley Ingram was a singer with the doo-wop group the Five Keys, the first Black R&B artists to appear on both American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Born in Newport News, Virginia, high tenor singer Ingram and his brother Raphael co-founded the group when they were teenagers in the late 1940s alongside their friends, brothers Rudy and Bernie West. They were originally called the Sentimental Four and sang gospel, but later switched to secular songs.
In 1951, Raphael Ingram joined the Army and was replaced by Maryland Pierce. When Dickie Smith also joined, they changed their name to the Five Keys. The same year, the group won first place in a talent night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and were signed to a contract that night by Aladdin Records.
One of the songs they recorded during their first recording session for the label was a gospel-flavored doo-wop ballad, “The Glory of Love.” It was an immediate hit, going to #1 R&B for four weeks, selling over a million copies, and helping influence the entire doo-wop genre of the coming decade.
After releasing nearly a dozen singles on Aladdin during the early fifties, they switched labels to Capitol Records in 1954, and had another gold record with the novelty hit “Ling Ting Tong. It got them invited to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955, the first Black R&B artists to ever appear on that highly influential program. They also became the first Black act featured on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
That same year on April 25, 1955, the Five Keys recorded the ahead-of-its-time gospel message song “Peace And Love.” They were backed by a band led by pianist Howard Biggs, who would go on famously arrange the classic #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit record “Get a Job” for the Silhouettes.
Released in 1956, “Peace And Love” was one of the earliest appearances on a nationally released record of a phrase that became a rallying cry for the hippie counterculture a decade later. Its socially conscious lyrics remain all too relevant today:
“Brother against brother…the world is mad with one another. Why can’t we all be friends? When will all the trouble end? We must do right, we all must pray, then ask the Lord to show us the way. We talk about his walk, when the world is dying from broken hearts. When will we all have peace and love? What’s to become of the world?”
In the early seventies, the group attempted to update their sound and recorded two new songs for the obscure, possibly self-released Landmark Record Corp. label, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Billed to the Five Keys featuring Rudy West, the A-side was the beautiful albeit misspelled love song “Stop (What Your Doing To Me).” On the flip was the slow jam “Goddess of Love.” Both sides were co-written by West and T. Pep Jones, and arranged and produced by the prolific composer and arranger Leroy Kirkland.
Rest in Power, Ripley Ingram.
Further info:
“Ripley Ingram, Part of Famous Five Keys,” obituary, Daily Press (Newport News, VA), March 26, 1995.
#soul #doowop #FiveKeys #RipleyIngram