Ram Jam

Ram Jam were a New York hard rock band remembered above all for one thunderous record, "Black Betty". The lineup had Bill Bartlett on guitar and lead vocals, Myke Scavone also singing lead, Howie Blauvelt on bass and Pete Charles on drums, with Jimmy Santoro, who'd toured behind the debut, joining on guitar for the follow-up.

They came with history. Bartlett had been lead guitarist in the bubblegum outfit the Lemon Pipers, and Blauvelt had played alongside a young Billy Joel in a string of bands, the Echoes, the Hassles and El Primo among them. The song predates Ram Jam, too: Bartlett's earlier group, Starstruck, took Lead Belly's 59-second "Black Betty", rearranged it and put it out on their own TruckStar label.

With Epic behind it, Ram Jam's version became a stomping, galloping monster, an old Lead Belly tune hot-rodded into a boogie-metal battering ram with a riff that hits like a pile driver. The rest of their catalog never got near it, but rock radio's countdowns have kept that one riff close ever since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.