Artie Ripp

(The company was the parent of Dimension Records and its music publishing division Aldon Music (BMI). Aldon, located at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan, played a significant role in shaping the so-called "Brill Building Pop" sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s.) In 1962, Ripp partnered with music publisher Aaron "Goldie" Goldmark and was named vice president of three of Goldmark's newly established businesses: Goldie Records, Inc., Armada Music, Inc. (ASCAP), and Fredella Music, Inc. (BMI) (which were together known as Goldmark Music, Ltd. in association with Chappell, Ltd.).

Arthur Marcus "Artie" Ripp (born 1940) is an American music industry executive and record producer.

Ripp began his career as a singer, initially informally harmonizing rock and roll songs with friends from high school.

In 1957, Ripp formed an official singing group with neighborhood friends; the group was signed by ABC-Paramount Records as backup singers for ABC solo artists.

The singers sang backup for Paul Anka on his 1957 hit "Diana" and broke up shortly thereafter.

Ripp rejoined with some of his informal singing partners (Mario "Skippy" Scarpa, Stu Silverman, and Joe Tedesco) to form "The Four Temptations".

The quartet wrote its own songs and was signed by ABC-Paramount Records, which released the group's first single in 1958.

The A-side, "Cathy" (named after Scarpa's newly born niece), was written by Scarpa and Ripp; the B-side was "Rock & Roll Baby", written by Scarpa, Ripp, and Silverman.

When the group rejected opportunities offered by the record company to record others' songs, the record company withheld further recording opportunities, and the group disbanded.

Ripp shifted from performing to being behind-the-scenes in the music business.

About his potential as a performer, Ripp states, "I sucked. I was no Elvis Presley and I wasn't a writer."

Additionally, Ripp states, "I started walking around Broadway and I’d see these kids who were making records and not getting paid. They could have a number one record on the charts and end up owing the record company a half a million dollars...I thought, 'This business has some system.'..."

In 1958, Ripp targeted George Goldner to be a potential mentor.

Goldner, based in New York City, was a music industry entrepreneur who owned copyrights, produced records, and owned record companies.

Goldner was, in the words of American blues singer and songwriter Jerome "Doc" Pomus, a "very hip, New York kind of tough guy."

After Ripp spent weeks informally observing Goldner at work, Goldner formally hired Ripp to be a go-fer.

Ripp worked with songwriter and producer Richard Barrett within Goldner's organization, where Ripp got a "street education in the record business equal to none".

Ripp learned how Goldner worked a studio, structured a record contract, and got records played on the radio.

Functioning as manager instead of performer, Ripp put together the New York vocal group "The Temptations", (formed at least a year before the name was used by the different and better-known Motown group).

Ripp's Temptations recorded for Goldner's Goldisc Records; its three singles were released in 1960 and 1961.

The song "Barbara" charted nationally, reaching number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1960.

Ripp quickly rose in the music publishing, recording, and distribution business.

In 1961, after Goldner transferred his Gone and End record labels to music industry executive Morris Levy, Ripp became national promotion director at Nevins/Kirshner Associates, Inc., founded by Al Nevins and Don Kirshner.

During the summer of 1962, Goldmark and Ripp collaborated to generate worldwide distribution arrangements that were described by Billboard as having "angles never before achieved in the business."

In 1963, Ripp produced "Just One Look" for Doris Troy.

The song peaked at number ten on the Billboard pop chart and at number three on the Rhythm and Blues chart.

It was listed as one of the 7,500 most important songs of the Rock-n-Roll era and was covered by The Hollies as their first single.

In 1963, when Goldmark was selected to head Premier Albums' newly established publishing and master-production operations, Ripp followed and was named chief of "A&R" (Artists and Repertoire) for Premier's subsidiary, Award Music, which was the master-production business.

As A&R Chief, Ripp signed singer Carl Dobkins Jr.. Also under contract with Award during Ripp's tenure were Jimmy Jones and The Hollywood Flames, both of whom were on the Vee-Jay record label.

In 1964, Ripp joined Hy Mizrahi and Phil Steinberg in Kama Sutra, initially an independent production company based in New York.

As a production house, the company established a "consistent and impressive track record" in the singles market; Kama Sutra hit "immediately and often."

Ripp's work included an association and collaboration with the songwriting-and-production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had co-founded the Red Bird Records label with Goldner in 1964.

In 1964, Red Bird released "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)", which became a hit for the girl group The Shangri-Las; Ripp is credited within having "discovered" the group and shares a producer credit with Jeff Barry on the song.

(American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, whom Ripp as a future record-label owner would sign to a recording contract about seven years later, recalls playing piano on the single; whether his playing was used on the demo version that had been produced by "Shadow" Morton or on the master version that had been produced by Barry and Ripp is unclear.) Also, when Leiber and Stoller's time-consuming work with The Drifters and The Coasters demanded much of their attention, Ripp was selected to take over production of singles for Jay and the Americans, released on United Artists.

When the band "hit" in 1964 with the Ripp-produced "Come A Little Bit Closer", the band was invited to participate in the first Beatles' tour of the U.S. along with The Righteous Brothers and also played with The Rolling Stones at Carnegie Hall.

Although Kama Sutra signed a major production contract in early 1965 with record label Columbia Records (with whom Ripp as principal of Family Productions would later negotiate regarding control of Billy Joel's contract in the 1970s), its primary and most significant distribution deal, established in mid-1965, was with MGM.

In 1965, after accountant Art Kass (a former employee of MGM Records) joined the management team, Kama Sutra expanded and became a record label, with Ripp as musical director.

It opened a location in California, which was becoming the center of American popular music production.

The label's first single, produced by Ripp, was The Vacels' "You're My Baby (And Don't You Forget It)", which peaked at 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 21, 1965.

The west coast office was ultimately headed by Bob Krasnow; Ripp shifted to operate out of California in 1967.