Ram Jam was a New York-based 1970s rock band, best remembered for their chart topping 1977 hit “Black Betty.” Ram Jam was composed of Bill Bartlett (guitar), Pete Charles (drums), Myke Scavone (lead singer), and Howie Arthur Blauvett (bass). Bill Bartlett was formerly lead guitarist for bubblegum group The Lemon Pipers, while Blauvett played with
Billy Joel in two bands, The Hassles and El Primo. After his stint with The Lemon Pipers, Bartlett formed a band called Starstruck, and while he was with them took Leadbelly's 59 second long "
Black Betty", composed music f
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or it, then arranged it and recorded and released it on the group's own TruckStar record label. "Black Betty" became a regional hit, then was picked up by record producers in New York who formed a group around Bartlett called Ram Jam. They re-released the song and it became a hit nationally. The song caused quite a commotion with the NAACP and Congress of Racial Equality, which called for a boycott on the grounds that its lyrics were derogatory to black women. Nevertheless, the tune reached number 18 on the singles chart in 1977 in the U.S. and top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, while the Ram Jam album reached the U.S. Top 40.
A follow-up album, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram, did not make much of a splash commercially, despite the addition of the Long Island, New York lead guitarist Jimmy Santoro. The Portrait album was re-issued on Rock Candy Records (from England in 2006, and is now considered by some to be a cult classic on par with
Aerosmith, Starz, and
Ted Nugent). This second album is listed in the Top 100 lists in the music history book "The Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal Volume 1: The Seventies.” Meanwhile, Ted Demme used the song “Black Betty” in the soundtrack to his 2001 film, Blow, and it is often played between innings at Yankee Stadium. For fans of the group, this is proof positive that the magic never died.
