Rickey & Jennell

• Genres: Rock

Biography

Rickey & Jennell were the male-female duo of Richard Berry and his friend Jennell Hawkins, who put out one single on Flair in 1954, "Each Step"/"This Time It's Real." Both sides were routine doo wop duets -- "Each Step" a ballad, "This Time It's Real" in the more uptempo R&B vein -- and have been reissued on the Richard Berry compilation Yama Yama! The Modern Recordings 1954-1956. Berry, of course, was just at the start of a career that would find him issuing many R&B and rock & roll records as a solo artist, most famously on the original version of "Louie, Louie" in 1957. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi