Music / Minnie Riperton

"Will somebody wear me to the fair?" / "Will a lady pin me in her hair?"

Lovin' you is easy cause you're beautiful
Makin' love with you is all I wanna do
Lovin' you is more than just a dream come true
And everything that I do is out of lovin' you

"Lovin' You"

I stumbled on this photograph, it kind of made me laugh
It took me way back, back down memory lane
I see the happiness, I see the pain
Where am I? Back down memory lane

"Memory Lane"

Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American soul singer-songwriter. The youngest of eight children, she was interested in the arts from a young age, starting with dancing and ballet. Once she reached high school, she began singing in the choir and, from there, signed her first professional contract at age 16 and began singing with an all-girl group called The Gems on the Chess label. After breaking from The Gems, Riperton made a complete genre switch, and joined the Psychedelic Rock group Rotary Connection in 1967 and was made the lead singer in 1968. During her time with Rotary Connection, Riperton met songwriter and producer Richard Rudolph. They married in 1969 and had a child. Together, Rudolph and Riperton worked on Riperton's first solo album, 1969's Come to My Garden, which met with only minimal commercial success, but a fair amount of acclaim. Specifically pointed at the track "Les Fleurs". Riperton rejoined Rotary Connection for their last album. And after finishing work with them, Riperton relocated to Gainesville, Florida, where she gave birth to her daughter, future actress and comedian Maya Rudolph. Eventually, she would move to Los Angeles to become a member of Stevie Wonder's backing group, Wonderlove.

After touring with Wonder, she signed with Epic Records and returned to the studio to work on her second solo album, Perfect Angel. Because of her work with Stevie Wonder, he agreed to help produce the album, which contained the international pop-soul hit "Lovin' You", which utilizes her noted whistle register. The year 1974 proved to be big for Riperton, as Perfect Angel would be her breakthrough to mainstream pop audiences. In 1975, she returned to the studio to produce 1975's Adventures in Paradise and, although it didn't mirror the success of Perfect Angel, it was still popular with R&B audiences.

In 1976, while working on her fourth solo album, Stay In Love: A Romantic Fantasy Set to Music, Riperton found that she was suffering from breast cancer. The following year, President Jimmy Carter presented her with the American Cancer Society's Courage Award, and she later became the chairwoman of the organization. In 1978, Riperton signed a new contract with Capitol Records and began work on her last album, titled Minnie. The album contained other notable tracks from her career, such as "Memory Lane" and "Lover and Friend". Her health continued to decline in 1979, and she eventually passed away on July 12, 1979 at age 31. A year after her death, Capitol released a posthumous album, Love Lives Forever, featuring her recorded vocals with various singers such as Peabo Bryson, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. Today, Riperton's influence can be heard in the voices of artists such as Mariah Carey, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu.

Discography

• Come to My Garden (1970)
• Perfect Angel (1974)
• Adventures in Paradise (1975)
• Stay in Love: A Romantic Fantasy Set to Music (1977)
• Minnie (1979)
• Love Lives Forever (posthumous) (1980)

Things I say and trope may not come clear through:

• Cover Version: Of The Doors "Light My Fire" on her album Minnie.
• Double Entendre: "Inside My Love" is this with the Minnie's vocals lending a coy sense of innocence to the lyrics:
  You can see inside me
  Will you come inside me?
  Do you wanna ride inside, my love?
• Face Death with Despair: On its face, "Back Down Memory Lane" is about the subject reminiscing about an old romance, but the lyrics and Minnie's singing make it clear that she's wistfully thinking about all the memories she has with her husband and family and lamenting that she will pass away soon.
• In Harmony with Nature: "Les Fleurs" is this trope in spades:
  For all of these simple things and much more, a flower was born
  It blooms to spread love and joy, faith and hope to people forlorn
  Inside every man lives the seed of a flower
  If he looks within he finds beauty and power
• Incredibly Long Note: She does this quite a bit.
• Intercourse with You: "Inside my Love", which is not to subtle with its double entendres and allusions.
• Silly Love Songs: She had quite a few, but none were more well-known than "Lovin' You".

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