Ready for the World
Encyclopedia
Ready for the World is an American R&B
band from Flint
, Michigan
who scored several moderate pop
, soul
, and dance hits
in the mid to late 1980s. They were founded by Melvin Riley and Gordon Strozier.
/keyboardist
/occasional rhythm guitar
ist Melvin Riley with Gordon Strozier (lead guitar
), Gregory Potts (keyboards
), Willie Triplett (percussion/keyboards
), John Eaton (bass guitar
), and Gerald Valentine (drums
). They had performed throughout Flint at high school talent shows and were discovered by WJLB
Detroit Radio personality The Electrifying Mojo in 1982. They gained regional fame with their first release "Tonight" in 1983. "Tonight" was an underground hit in Flint and Detroit which helped garner them national prominence shortly after their signing under the MCA label. Ready for the World recorded their album Ready for the World during 1984 in Flint, Michigan under the production of Bernard Terry and recording engineer Charles Brown, Jr.
,". This song in the US went to number one on the R&B, Pop Charts
, and the Hot Dance Club Play
charts
that year, becoming the first ever single to hold the number one spot on all three of these charts simultaneously. The song "Digital Display" followed and hit number 21. In 1986, the band released their second album Long Time Coming, which returned them to the Top 10 on the pop charts
when the slow jam "Love You Down
"(Written by Vincent Hunt) climbed to number nine. (source: Book of Billboard Top 40 Singles)
The band would go on to release a couple more albums into the 90s, but they weren't as successful as the first pair. This caused the band to break up in 1991.
solo
album
s, one in 1994 and one in 2000. A Ready for the World reunion album followed in 2004, featuring mostly urban ballad
s.
"Oh Sheila" is according to legend written about Sheila E, although according to the Book of Billboard Number 1 singles, Riley claims that the song wasn't about anybody in particular, as he just "made her up." (source: Book of Billboard Number 1 Singles) Also many people mistook Prince for being responsible for the song, when in fact it was a Ready For The World original, and this mistake was made because of the song's influence of the Minneapolis sound.
A cover of "Oh Sheila" by Angel City (entitled "Love Me Right") was released in 2003.
The cast of the TV Show Psych
also did a cover of the song "Oh Sheila" as one of their "Psych-outs"
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
band from Flint
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
who scored several moderate pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, and dance hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
in the mid to late 1980s. They were founded by Melvin Riley and Gordon Strozier.
History
The group originally consisted of lead vocalistLead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
/keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
/occasional rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
ist Melvin Riley with Gordon Strozier (lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
), Gregory Potts (keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
), Willie Triplett (percussion/keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
), John Eaton (bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), and Gerald Valentine (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). They had performed throughout Flint at high school talent shows and were discovered by WJLB
WJLB
WJLB, is a Clear Channel-owned Urban Contemporary radio station in Detroit that broadcasts on 97.9 megahertz frequency. The station is known on-air as FM98 WJLB. This is the station that began the career of Urban radio legend and video jock, Donnie Simpson...
Detroit Radio personality The Electrifying Mojo in 1982. They gained regional fame with their first release "Tonight" in 1983. "Tonight" was an underground hit in Flint and Detroit which helped garner them national prominence shortly after their signing under the MCA label. Ready for the World recorded their album Ready for the World during 1984 in Flint, Michigan under the production of Bernard Terry and recording engineer Charles Brown, Jr.
Success
In 1985, the band signs to the Steven Machat-Rick Smith management company AMI, the agreement with MCA are redrawn and promotion and marketing dollars is committed to break the group. This Machat and Smith do as the two men steer the group to number one on the US pop charts as well as top five in all the Western European countries and Australia as well, with their best-known hit "Oh SheilaOh Sheila
"Oh Sheila" is a 1985 single by Ready for the World. The song went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the Hot Black Singles and the Hot Dance Club Play charts. It was the first of two chart toppers for the band on the Billboard R&B chart, preceding their 1986 number-one R&B hit, "Love You Down"...
,". This song in the US went to number one on the R&B, Pop Charts
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and the Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
that year, becoming the first ever single to hold the number one spot on all three of these charts simultaneously. The song "Digital Display" followed and hit number 21. In 1986, the band released their second album Long Time Coming, which returned them to the Top 10 on the pop charts
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
when the slow jam "Love You Down
Love You Down
"Love You Down" is the title of an R&B song written by Melvin Riley Jr. Riley's former band, Ready for the World, originally recorded the song in 1986 and released it as the lead single from their second album, Long Time Coming produced by Gary Spaniola...
"(Written by Vincent Hunt) climbed to number nine. (source: Book of Billboard Top 40 Singles)
The band would go on to release a couple more albums into the 90s, but they weren't as successful as the first pair. This caused the band to break up in 1991.
Post-break-up
After the breakup, lead singer Riley went on to recordSound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, one in 1994 and one in 2000. A Ready for the World reunion album followed in 2004, featuring mostly urban ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s.
"Oh Sheila" is according to legend written about Sheila E, although according to the Book of Billboard Number 1 singles, Riley claims that the song wasn't about anybody in particular, as he just "made her up." (source: Book of Billboard Number 1 Singles) Also many people mistook Prince for being responsible for the song, when in fact it was a Ready For The World original, and this mistake was made because of the song's influence of the Minneapolis sound.
A cover of "Oh Sheila" by Angel City (entitled "Love Me Right") was released in 2003.
The cast of the TV Show Psych
Psych
Psych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network. It stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts...
also did a cover of the song "Oh Sheila" as one of their "Psych-outs"
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | US Certifications |
Record Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
|||||
| 1985 | Ready for the World | 17 | 3 | Platinum | MCA MCA Records MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003... |
|
| 1986 | Long Time Coming | 32 | 5 | Gold | ||
| 1988 | Ruff 'N Ready | 65 | 17 | — | ||
| 1991 | Straight Down to Business | — | 43 | — | ||
| 2004 | She Said She Wants Some | — | — | — | Thump Thump Records Thump Records is a record label specialized in freestyle music, Latin music and hip hop music. They are probably best known for their rap and R&B Old School compilations, as well as their Low Rider compilations.-Artists on Thump Records:* Adolfo... |
|
| 2011 | Love, Money & Music | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart or was not certified | ||||||
Compilation albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Record Label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
|||||
| 1993 | Oh Sheila! Ready for the World's Greatest Hits | — | — | MCA MCA Records MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003... |
||
| 2002 | The Millennium Collection: The Best of Ready for the World | — | — | |||
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
US A/C Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
US Dance Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||
| 1984 | "Tonight" | 103 | 6 | — | — | — | |
| "Deep Inside Your Love" | — | 6 | — | — | — | ||
| 1985 | "Oh Sheila Oh Sheila "Oh Sheila" is a 1985 single by Ready for the World. The song went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the Hot Black Singles and the Hot Dance Club Play charts. It was the first of two chart toppers for the band on the Billboard R&B chart, preceding their 1986 number-one R&B hit, "Love You Down"... " |
1 | 1 | — | 1 | 50 | |
| "Digital Display" | 21 | 4 | — | 3 | — | ||
| 1986 | "Slide Over" | — | 57 | — | — | — | |
| "Ceramic Girl" | — | 82 | — | — | — | ||
| "Love You Down Love You Down "Love You Down" is the title of an R&B song written by Melvin Riley Jr. Riley's former band, Ready for the World, originally recorded the song in 1986 and released it as the lead single from their second album, Long Time Coming produced by Gary Spaniola... " |
9 | 1 | 24 | — | 60 | ||
| 1987 | "Mary Goes 'Round" | — | 23 | — | — | — | |
| "Long Time Coming" | — | 54 | — | — | — | ||
| 1988 | "My Girly" | — | 6 | — | 49 | — | |
| "Gently" | — | 30 | — | — | — | ||
| 1991 | "Straight Down to Business" | — | 15 | — | — | — | |
| "Can He Do It (Like This, Can He Do It Like That)" | — | 9 | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes the single failed to chart | |||||||