Unconfirmed reports that Ritchie Adams, lead singer of the Doo Wop group The Fireflies, has died at 78 after a long illness. Following is a discography biography…

Ritchie Adams was a member of the Fireflies, a Philadelphia doo-wop group. The group was produced by Gerry Granahan. Their first single release in 1958 was on Roulette Records - 'The Crawl' (4098, credited to the Fireflys). Their second single, the 1959
Ribbon Records release 'You Were Mine' (6901), was their biggest hit, reaching No.21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Follow-up singles , all in 1960, included 'I Can't Say Goodbye' (6904, US No.90) and 'My Girl' (6906).

Ritchie's ‘Back To School’ also comes from the Ribbon label (6913), His previous solo release was 'Lonely One' on Ribbon 6910. The short-lived Ribbon label folded after only 14 releases.

In 1961, the Fireflies turned up again on Canadian-American with 'Marianne' (117), and Ritchie appeared on Beltone with 'No Mistaken' It' (1001) and 'Two Initials (In A Heart)' (1011).

As a song-writer Ritchie wrote (with Malou Rene) the hit ‘Tossin’ And Turnin’' for Bobby Lewis in 1960.

In 1962, he was on Imperial for three releases – 'Something Inside Of Me Died' (5806), ‘Pakistan’ (5838), 'It's Worth It' (5856). Ritchie had five releases on the Congress label during 1964/65 – ‘I Understand’ (217), ‘Are You Changing’ (
226), ‘Slippin’ Away’ (232), 'Every Window In The City' (248) and 'Road To Nowhere' (256). In 1966, MGM issued a re-recording of 'You Were Mine' by Ritchie Adams (K13629).

Between 1968 and 1970 he wrote songs for the Archies with Robert Levine and Mark Barkan.

With Mark he also wrote ‘The Tra La La La Song’ for the Banana Splits in 1969. In 1970 he filled in as lead singer for the Archies, while regular lead Ron Dante promoted his latest single.

In 1970 he wrote six songs for the film, Toomorrow, and the following year appeared as an actor in 'The Hunting Party'. In 1986, he contributed songs for the films 'Jake Speed' and 'Weekend Warriors'.
In 1976, he wrote the song ‘After The Loving’, which became a Top 10 hit for Engelbert Humperdinck.

Ray Arthur

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