RIC CARTEY

Ric Cartey (nacido el 18 de enero de 1937 en Atlanta , Georgia , como Whaley Thomas Cartey , † 5 de agosto de 2009 en Palm Harbor , Florida ) fue un músico y compositor de rockabilly estadounidense. Fue, entre otros, el compositor del éxito Young Love .

Ric Cartey nació en Atlanta en 1937. En la década de 1950, comenzó su carrera como músico con Jiva Tones , con quien también realizó sus primeras grabaciones para el sello de Bill Lowery, Stars Records . Con Oooh-Eee / Young Love apareció a finales de 1956 el primer sencillo de Cartey y aunque Lowery confiaba en el lado A, fue escrito por Cartey y su novia Carole Joyner B-side, que causó revuelo. Ken Nelson, de Capitol Records, lanzó la canción Sonny James , que reorganizó Young Love y la convirtió en el éxito número uno del país. Fue seguido por versiones de tapa de Tab Hunter , The Crew Cuts , Lesley Gore , Connie Smith y Nat Stuckey , Donny Osmond y Ray Stevens en las siguientes décadas, los abordó varias veces en las listas de éxitos.

El propio Cartey fue comprado fuera del contrato Stars por Steve Sholes y firmado con RCA Victor . RCA volvió a emitir la versión de Cartey nuevamente para sacar provecho del éxito. Pero al igual que con los posteriores lanzamientos de Rockabilly de Cartey, no tuvo éxito en las listas. El segundo single de Cartey con Heart Throb / I Wancha to Know fue lanzado en 1957, sin éxito. El lado A fue originalmente escrito y grabado por Tommy Spurlin , un músico de rockabilly de Miami , mientras que el tercer single de Cartey, Born to Love One Woman , originalmente vino de Bob Johnston . Cuando el éxito aún no llegó a fines de 1957, RCA Cartey se retiró.

De vuelta en Atlanta en 1958, Cartey se unió al nuevo sello de Bill Lowery, NRC Records , grabando Scratching On My Screen con Jerry Reed y Joe South en guitarras. Scratching On My Screen estaba basado libremente en el viejo Country Blues Diggin 'My Potatoes y es ampliamente considerado como el mejor trabajo de Cartey. La canción se hizo eco y golpeó bajo el típico esquema de rockabilly. Siguieron registros para ABC-Paramount y El-Rico Records, pero Cartey no pudo establecerse como cantante. En los años siguientes trabajó junto con Lowery y finalmente se hizo cargo de su agencia de artistas . Hasta principios de la década de 1990, Carty vivía en Atlanta, pero luego se mudó a Florida.

Ric Cartey murió en agosto de 2009 a la edad de 72 años en Palm Harbor, Florida.

Born Whaley Thomas Cartey, 18 January 1937, Atlanta, Georgia

Died 5 August 2009, Palm Harbor, Florida

The recently deceased Ric Cartey made some good rockabilly recordings, but first and foremost he will be remembered as the co-writer of "Young Love". Few songs have charted in so many different versions. Alongside the chart-topping renditions of Sonny James and Tab Hunter, there were hit versions by The Crew Cuts (# 17, 1957), Lesley Gore (# 50, 1966), Connie Smith & Nat Stuckey (# 20 country, 1969), Donny Osmond (# 25, 1973) and Ray Stevens (# 93, 1976).

Ric Cartey was a protégé of the Atlanta-based music publisher and record producer Bill Lowery, who launched the Stars label in 1956 with Cartey (and his group the Jiv-A-Tones) as his principal artist. Ric's debut single, "Ooh-Ee", was reviewed in the C&W section of Billboard (November 24, 1956) and scored a 90, a rating rarely given. "A unique listening experience", wrote the reviewer. Hidden on the backside of this rockabilly number was a ballad in a completely different style, "Young Love", which Cartey had written together with his girl friend, Carole Joyner. Bill Lowery tried to find a national distributor for "Ooh-Ee"and approached Ken Nelson at Capitol. Nelson politely declined, but he sensed something special about the B-side and offered to play "Young Love" to Sonny James when he came to Nashville. James wasn't sure about the song, but Nelson told him to prepare a new arrangement. Sonny retooled the ballad, removing extraneous chord changes and adding stylistic touches that compensated for lines that weren't long enough to fit the melody. He invested a lot of time reworking "Young Love", even if was only intended as a B-side to "You're the Reason I'm In Love". Sonny always considered "Young Love" as country as anything (it was # 1 for nine weeks on the country charts), but it grabbed the pop market as well. Sonny's version spent one week at # 1 ("Most played by jockeys" section only), before it was supplanted by a note-for-note copy by actor Tab Hunter on the Dot label, which spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in February-March of 1957. Steve Sholes at RCA bought Cartey's contract and reissued "Young Love" in a belated (but vain) attempt to capture a piece of the action. Next released (RCA 6828) was "Heart Throb", also bought from (and produced by) Lowery, who in turn had bought the publishing rights for the song from its writer, Tommy Spurlin from Miami, whose original version of "Heart Throb" (recorded in 1956) remained unissued until 1979. Jerry Reed, who had also written "Ooh-Ee", polished the lyrics of "Heart Throb", in return for a co-writing credit. This didn't sell either for Cartey, nor did his next two singles for RCA, "Born To Love One Woman" and "Mellow Down Easy, both produced by Chet Atkins in Nashville. Rockabilly was already going out of fashion in 1957. By the end of the year, Cartey was back in Atlanta, recording for a new Lowery label, NRC. "Scratchin' On My Screen" was perhaps his finest record, with great guitar work by Jerry Reed and Joe South. The song, written by Cartey, was loosely based on the old country blues "Diggin' My Potatoes". Around this time, Cartey's band, the Jiv-A-Tones, had modest success with "Flirty Gerty", first recorded for Lowery's Fox label in early 1958 and then picked up by Felsted. The lead vocalist on this track is Dean Stevens.

Cartey had further releases on ABC-Paramount and El-Rico, but his career as a singer never took off. He continued his association with Bill Lowery, eventually assuming ownership of Lowery's talent agency. Until the early 1990s, Cartey remained in Atlanta, then moved to Florida, maintaining a leisurely lifestyle made possible by wisely investing his earnings from "Young Love". He died of natural causes on August 5, 2009, aged 72.