Roger Ridley (April 30, 1948 – November 16, 2005) – Morning, Noon, I Cry (1966)

The street musician who inspired the nonprofit Playing for Change wrote this ultra-rare deep soul masterpiece, released as Roger and the Ridley Sisters.

View most updated version of this post on Substack

Search our full archives

Roger Ridley was an unsung singer/songwriter who moved to New York City to pursue his dreams of a music career, and released one very rare album in 1979. He spent much of his later life as a street musician, and one of his performances inspired the creation of the nonprofit Playing for Change.

Born in rural Charles Junction in Lumpkin County, Georgia, Milton Lee Ridley, Jr. got his love of music from his family. As he recalled years later, “All my life I have been surrounded by music: my mother, my sisters and brothers are all singers and my father played the guitar, a little.” He first sang publicly in a 6th grade talent show just so he could attend rehearsals and get out of English classes. He didn’t intend to take the microphone, but his cousin pushed him to the front of the stage and he sang Jackie Wilson’s “The Greatest Hurt” to much applause. He soon decided “my goals were to share my music and songs with the world.”

In 1966, while his family was still living in Georgia, Ridley’s three sisters (Julia Van Matre, Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Mary Cunningham) wrote and recorded the single “I Believe” that was released on the short-lived DEL-PAT label. Its B-side was “Morning, Noon, I Cry,” which he wrote and joined them on, billed as Roger and the Ridley Sisters.

The only time an original copy ever sold on Discogs, it went for $437.50 in 2021. This video of the song includes footage of Ridley busking on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA, which he regularly did during the last few years of his life.

He co-wrote a song in 1975 for a singer named Jimmy Mack, aka Jimmy McMillan, who decades later would gain notoriety as a perennial candidate for office and founder of the NYC-based Rent Is Too Damn High Party. The modern soul slice of relationship advice “A Woman Is Hard To Understand” was credited to Ridley and songwriters K. Webley and P. McMillan, and released on McMillian’s own label Hamster Records. It was immediately bootlegged for resale in the UK, since Mack was already known for his 1967 single “My World Is On Fire,” a massive Northern soul hit.

Ridley recorded what would turn out to be his only ever full-length album in early 1979, titled Raindrops. It was released later that year on Zakia Records, the New York City-based label owned by Robert Hill, which in the eighties would focus on hip hop and put out the first records by Eric B & Rakim.

Raindrops remains obscure enough to barely be available on YouTube, with only abbreviated clips of some songs currently uploaded. It included covers like “Give It Up” and “Let’s Stay Together” but also originals including the funky “Disco Rock” and the beautiful slow jam “What Am I.”

He first performed as a street musician as a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Art and Design program Music Under New York, when he sang on the subway for commuters. He discovered that he loved performing in public, and kept doing it. In 1997 he moved to Las Vegas and appeared for a year in a street musician show called Madhattan, produced by Kenneth Feld. He remained in Vegas, but stopped performing for a time until a friend introduced him to the street musician-friendly 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Soon he was driving to California on the weekends to perform there.

In 2002, Ridley was playing a cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” on the Promenade when Mark Johnson walked by. The passion of Ridley’s performance inspired Johnson to co-found the nonprofit organization Playing for Change, whose mission is to connect the world through music.

Ridley passed away in Los Angeles three years later, gone far too soon at age 57.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to the unsung legend Roger Ridley.

Further info:

“Roger Ridley 11/2005,” by Johan Ramakers, Rock And Roll Paradise, September 18, 2015.

“At the end of the day…Remembering Roger Ridley,” by Dr. Rex, Hrexach, September 17, 2014.

“Remembering Roger Ridley,” short documentary, Playing for Change.

#soul #funk #R&B #PlayingForChange #RogerRidley