Ric-Tic Records was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

set up in the 1960s in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, United States by

Joanne Bratton Johnny Bratton, also known as Honey Boy Bratton, (September 9, 1927 – August 15, 1993) was an American professional boxer and briefly reigned as the NBA welterweight champion in 1951. He fought many of the best fighters of his era in th ...

and Eddie Wingate. Twinned with the Golden World label, Ric-Tic featured many

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...

artists and was seen as an early competitor for fellow Detroit label

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

. Motown's owner,

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record l ...

was unhappy with the success of Ric-Tic and in 1968 paid $1 million for the signature of many of the label's artists. In 2003, it was established that Ric-Tic was named for the deceased son of co-founder Bratton and her then husband, boxer

Johnny Bratton Johnny Bratton, also known as Honey Boy Bratton, (September 9, 1927 – August 15, 1993) was an American professional boxer and briefly reigned as the NBA welterweight champion in 1951. He fought many of the best fighters of his era in the ...

. The boy, named Derek and known to his family as Ricky, Ric, or Ric-Tic, died at the age of 11 in 1962.Motown Encyclopedia: Golden World Records
by Graham Betts

Recording artists

Many early recordings on the Ric-Tic label by artists such as

Freddie Gorman Freddie Gorman (born Frederick Cortez Gorman, April 11, 1939 – June 13, 2006) was an American musician and record producer, most famous as a singer, songwriter for the Motown label in the late 1960s and mid 1970s. He was a native of Detroi ...

Edwin Starr Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. Starr was famous for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the number-one ...

, and J. J. Barnes were re-released in the 1970s by Motown to coincide with the popularity of the Northern soul music scene in the UK. The group

The Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 (cover dated Nov. 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the firs ...

were also signed to the Ric-Tic, and became the label's best-selling act, outselling Edwin Starr in the United States. Much like Starr, they continued to record under Motown when Ric-Tic was absorbed by the record company.

The Detroit Emeralds The Detroit Emeralds are an American R&B/soul vocal group, best known in the early 1970s. They enjoyed a run of successful records in the decade including their 1973 transatlantic hit single, " Feel the Need in Me". Career "The Emeralds" were ...

(having just moved to Detroit and added the word "Detroit" to their group name) recorded briefly for Ric-Tic, achieving their first R&B Chart (#22) success with "Show Time", released in 1967. They then joined

Westbound Records Westbound Records was a Detroit-based record label founded by Armen Boladian in 1968. It had a distribution deal with Janus Records from 1970 to 1975, but then it switched distribution to 20th Century Records during 1975 and 1976, but again switch ...

in 1970.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ric-Tic Records American record labels Pop record labels Record labels established in 1962