Hey Folks:

Another question that's come up has to do with where certain RIC and RON sessions were held. As you may know, Joe Ruffino had his own studio on Barrone Street where Mac Rebennack (as A&R man and head producer) had his own office that was constructed by Eddie Bo...

I, personally, had always assumed that all Ruffino's RIC and RON 45s were cut there. Interestingly, however, John Broven just recently found The Cosimo Code etched into the wax of this 45, released in December of 1960:

96-151 - RIC 975 - Martha Nelson - I Don't Talk Too Much
96-152 - RIC 975 - Martha Nelson - Bless You Darling

Which would certainly seem to indicate that it was cut at Cosimo's. That left us wondering if any of Johnny Adams' great sides were cut with Cosimo on Governor Nicholls.

Jeff Hannusch had this to say: "Mac would know more than I, but I think the early stuff was done at Cosimo's - his handwriting was on the tape boxes - some of the later stuff was done on Baronne St..."

So there you have it. We've left these two 'chart hits' off the site, pending a more definite confirmation:

Ric 986 - A Losing Battle - #27 R&B - 6/30/62 - 5 weeks
SSS International 809 - I Won’t Cry - #41 R&B - 8/29/70 - 5 weeks

Can anyone provide any further insights?

Thanks!

-red

One other Ric 45 which has the code in the dead wax is the last Ric release:

96-813 - Ric 994 - Tommy Ridgley - I've Heard That Story Before
96-814 - Ric 994 - Tommy Ridgley - Honest I Do

(These numbers are also missing in the list.)
Would that mean it was also recorded at Cosimo's?

I would say it most definitely means that... do we have an exact date of Joe Rufiino's demise? I wonder if these later sides were cut after he passed...

Thanks, Pete!

Now up on 1963 - linked scans on 45cat - linked YouTube audio for A Side - numbers removed from among the Missing.

I'd forgotten what an AWESOME song this is. Tommy Ridgley was one of the Greats!

Thanks!

Thanks Red, great indeed! His brother Sammy also had a great version of this, on Kingsrow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cciLgCe9Vcs

Hey Red

SSS International 809 is not a reissue of Ric 961, they are completely different versions of the same song recorded more than a decade apart. I'm sure this is just s slip of the keyboard...

Best,

TONY

Tony -

You know, I've always thought it sounded different! In this particular instance, it was a slip of a certain expatriate Brit's keyboard, not mine....

I'll fix that straightaway!

-red

Finally got a chance to listen to this, Peter... you're right. Just excellent! Was Kingsrow a New Orleans label? - it's hard to read there, but it looks like it says 'Produced by Big "Q" Prod." - so I imagine it was. Do you know of any other releases on there, possibly with codes?

Thanks again!

It's indeed a New Orleans Big Q production (without a code though). As far as I know this is the only release on the label.

Yes indeed, there appears to be enough evidence to suggest that the majority of the Ric and Ron singles were cut at Cosimo's:

http://cosimocode.com/ricandron.html



YES!