The Ravens

The Ravens
Genres	R&B, doo-wop
Years active	1946-1958
Labels	Hub, National, King, Columbia, OKeh, Mercury, Jubilee
Past members	Jimmy "Ricky" Ricks Warren "Birdland" Suttles Leonard "Zeke" Puzey Ollie Jones Maithe Marshall Joe Medlin Richie Cannon Louis Heyward Joe Van Loan Louis Frazier Jimmie Steward Tommy Evans Willie Ray Willis Sanders Bob Kornegay David "Boots" Bowers Paul Van Loan James Van Loan Aaron "Tex" Cornelius Grant Kitchings

The Ravens were an American R&B vocal group, formed in 1946 by Jimmy Ricks and Warren Suttles. They were one of the most successful and most influential vocal quartets of the period, and had several hits on the R&B chart in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Jimmy "Ricky" Ricks was born in Adrian, Georgia, later moving to Jacksonville, Florida. During World War II, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a waiter in Harlem and met Warren "Birdland" Suttles, from Fairfield, Alabama. In early 1946, they decided to form a vocal group and recruited Leonard "Zeke" Puzey, who had recently won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater, and Henry Oliver "Ollie" Jones. They found a manager, Ben Bart, and an accompanist, Howard Biggs, and made their first recordings for Bart's small Hub record label. They called themselves the Ravens, and so initiated the trend for vocal groups to name themselves after birds - groups who later followed included The Orioles, The Crows, The Larks, The Robins and The Penguins. Although the group were strongly influenced by The Ink Spots, The Delta Rhythm Boys and The Mills Brothers, they used Ricks' bass voice, rather than a more conventional tenor, as the lead on many of their recordings, and this became their trademark style. Their material was also more varied, including elements of pop, jazz, R&B, and gospel styles.

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