Artist Guide

"Snap, Crackle And Pop"

Sunny Ridell

Composed by Sunny Ridell

November 1, 2023:

Blues Man

A recent letter (see Daddy B. Nice's Mailbag) tying a Sunny Ridell song ("Snap, Crackle & Pop") to a film on blues pioneeer Robert Johnson has rekindled your Daddy B. Nice's oft-repeated rant that Delta blues musicians and by extension all of the black blues and southern soul artists in the Deep South do not get the recognition they deserve in their lifetimes. What? you say. Neither do the musicians in other regions in the country? That doesn't hold water. Time and again music experts point to the Delta as the ultimate source of all the great popular genres of modern American culture. The music should not be ignored---that is the purpose of this website---and yet the double standard still exists. Wendell B. is only the latest example.

When, before his untimely death this year, did you ever hear of Wendell B. mentioned in the mainstream press? But abruptly, upon Wendell's demise, suddenly the attention surfaced, as if it had always been there, only waiting for his passing. As if to say, "Oh, he died? We can acknowledge his genius now, although we wouldn't while he was alive."

It's always been that way. Here are some nuggets on Robert Johnson I highlighted from his Wikipedia page.

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937….

Johnson had little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime….

Law, who by then worked for Columbia Records, assembled a collection of Johnson's recordings titled King of the Delta Blues Singers that was released by Columbia in 1961. It is widely credited with finally bringing Johnson's work to a wider audience.

The album would become influential, especially on the nascent British blues movement; Eric Clapton has called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived."

Sunny Ridell was a direct descendant of Robert Johnson, and like his legendary mentor he never knew fame beyond the Delta. But his name and artistry lives on here at SouthernSoulRnB.

---Daddy B. Nice

Buy Sunny Ridell music at Apple.



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To automatically link to Sunny Ridell's charted radio singles, awards and other citations on the website, go to "Ridell, Sunny" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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Listen to Sunny Ridell singing "Snap, Crackle & Pop" on YouTube.

Daddy B. Nice's Original Critique:

The pride of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, Sunny Ridell has plied his blues musicianship in near-total anonymity since the late sixties. A true iconoclast, Ridell is noted--if not notorious--for such quirks as wearing a cape in performance and for his extraordinary leaping ability. And even in the Deep South, where it is common for musicians to survive without studio and marketing support, Ridell has always given short shrift to recording industry overtures.

Thus, in spite of a storied history touring and performing with some of the biggest names in rhythm and blues in America and Europe through the decades leading up to the millennium, you will not find a catalog or discography substantiating Sunny Ridell's contributions to Southern Soul.

It's a shame--another blot on the recording industry and its attendant media--but as is so often the case with chitlin' circuit artists, it has an upside. That upside is the pure joy and lack of commercial taint in Sunny Ridell's music, and nowhere is that raw purity more evident than on the little-known hit, "Snap, Crackle And Pop" (Snap, Crackle, And Pop, Three Kids Music, 2001).

Like Artie "Blues Boy" White ("I Can't Afford To Be Broke"), Ridell has an unpretentious, rough-hewn vocal style that perfectly captures the essence of easy-going rhythm and blues.

"Like a bowl of cereal
That you put in your mouth,
When you crunch down it,
It's sweet to the last drop."

And like the songs of White and fellow bluesman Tyrone Davis, Ridell's "Snap, Crackle And Pop" constructs a wonderful chorus that disarms the listener with its bass-heavy, gospel-tinged simplicity and atmosphere. After a few listenings, the melody gives unmistakable notice that the song is a bona fide anthem--one of the best raggedy-assed, get-out-your-marching-boots riffs ever.

Many of Ridell's songs--"Big Legged Woman" especially--have a steel-drum sound that lends them a distinctiveness and a south-of-the-border charm. It's present in a subtle way in "Snap, Crackle And Pop," but "Snap" owes more of its allure to the bass-clef vocalist who mans the chorus. "Talk Dirty To Me" features a keyboard-organ and emphasizes Sunny's vocal exchange with a female vocalist (the excellent Jewel Bass).

Don't look for him on MTV or BET anytime soon, however. As WMPR's DJ Handyman, noting Crystal Springs' First Annual Fathers' Day Blues Fest, has said with justifiable pride and wit:

"That's Crystal Spring's own Sunny Ridell. Matter of fact, he headed down to his own hometown. Matter of fact, he just going to stay down there and do it at home, in his own front yard."

It's an apt metaphor for Sunny Ridell's entire career.

--Daddy B. Nice

About Sunny Ridell

Sunny Ridell grew up in Crystal Springs, Mississippi before moving to New Orleans while still a teenager. He backed up early R&B legends such as Fats Domino, Lee Dorsey and Little Richard, and over the ensuing decades performed, toured and recorded with many of the forefathers of today's Southern Soul, including Bobby "Blue" Bland, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. He also played with country music stars such as Charlie Daniels and Willie Nelson.

Ridell's recording of "Come Out Into My World" (Whitecliff Records, New Orleans), was a regional hit, as was "I'm Black And I Know I'm Somebody" (Darva Records, Texas) later banned from the radio in Mississippi and re-titled "Soul 100 Part 1 and Part 2," which became another hit on the chitlin' circuit.

Ridell is still based in Crystal Springs, a town of 5,000 just outside Jackson, Mississippi. Two of his songs, "Come Into My World" and "Keep What I Need," were featured in a 1992 Ace Records sampler, America's Rhythm And Blues Hall Of Fame.

The bulk of Ridell's pre-21st century material is unavailable to present-day buyers, resulting in the ironic (for an artist with over four decades of performing under his belt), debut-like title of his 2001 Ecko CD, Sunny Ridell. The chitlin' circuit novelty hit from that LP, "Hey Osama," marked a rare commercial coming-out for the reclusive bluesman. Snap, Crackle, And Pop (Three Kids Music, 2001) is available through the Internet.

Buy Sunny Ridell music at Apple.

Song's Transcendent Moment

"I can make you snap, crackle and pop,
I can make you snap, crackle and pop,
I can make you snap, crackle and pop,
And keep your body hot."

Tidbits

Like his equally eccentric north-Mississippi colleague, R.L. Burnside, Ridell has achieved--through a fortuitous and unlikely set of circumstances--a sliver of fame outside the chitlin' circuit, in Ridell's case as a "bit" actor in over a dozen films, including "Leadbelly" and "Outlaw Blues". One of his co-stars, Peter Fonda, is said to have suggested the cape that Ridell wears in performance.

If You Liked. . . You'll Love

If you enjoyed the rustic humor of Clarence "Frogman" Henry's "Ain't Got No Home," or the early Rolling Stones hit, "Out Of Time," you'll love Sunny Ridell's "Snap, Crackle And Pop."

Honorary "B" Side

"Talk Dirty To Me"