African Queens Explained

African Queens
Type:	Studio
Artist:	the Ritchie Family
Cover:	African queens album the ritchie family.jpg
Released:	1977
Recorded:	Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre:	Disco
Label:	Marlin
Producer:	Jacques Morali
Prev Title:	Life Is Music
Prev Year:	1977
Next Title:	American Generation
Next Year:	1978

African Queens is the fourth studio album recorded by American female vocal trio the Ritchie Family, released in 1977 on the Marlin label.

History

The album features the track, "Quiet Village", which peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Disco chart along with songs "African Queens" and "Summer Dance". "Quiet Village" also peaked at No. 68 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.

Critical reception

The Bay State Banner wrote that "the music moves swiftly via massive string swoops and spurts of high hat drumming, jetting far away from present reality towards exotic distances only the world of fantasy can reckon."^[1]

Personnel

• Gwendolyn Oliver, Cassandra Ann Wooten and Cheryl Mason Jacks - Vocalists
• Russell Dabney  - drums
• Alfonso Carey  - Fender bass
• Jimmy Lee  - lead guitar
• Rodger Lee  - rhythm guitar
• Nathaniel "Crocket" Wilke  - Fender Rhodes electric piano, clavinet
• Babatunde Olatunji  - Ngoma drums, Shekere, bongos
• Ralph MacDonald  - tambourines, triangle, bell tree, cowbell
• Mario Grillo  - timbales
• Anthony Robinson  - congas
• J.M. Diatta  - ngoma drums
• Charles Payne  - Djembe

Production

• Jacques Morali  - producer, rhythm, percussion and vocal arrangements
• Henri Belolo  - executive producer
• Phil Hurtt  - vocal arrangements
• Horace Ott  - strings and horns arrangements
• Gerald Block  - engineer
• Carla Bandini, Jeff Stewart  - assistant engineers
• John Galluzzi  - photographer

Charts

Chart (1977)	Peak
Australia (Kent Music Report)^[2]	66
U.S. Billboard Top LPs	164
U.S. Billboard Top Soul LPs	57

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
		US R&B	US Dan
1977	"Quiet Village"	68	1
	"African Queens"	-
	"Summer Dance"	-

Notes and References

1. News: Freedberg . Mike . Record Reviews . Bay State Banner . 97 . 25 Aug 1977 . 17.
2. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 253.