Maya Rudolph is fronting one of the surprise hit shows of 2022. ‘Loot’ on Apple+ is great stuff … so enough about that. Let’s talk about Minnie Riperton instead.
Minnie is Maya’s mum and she was an incredible talent the world lost sadly way too soon.
Minnie Riperton had that beautiful hit song ‘Lovin’ You’ (no 1 USA, no 2 UK and no 5 in Australia) in 1975. She wrote the song with her husband Richard Rudolph (Maya’s father) and Rudolph produced the song for Minnie with Stevie Wonder.
Richard started work on the song in 1971 and continued on it in 1972 soon after the birth of Maya. Minnie developed the melody, Richard wrote the lyrics and the bridge.
Wonder was asked to produce the record but because he was signed to Motown, is credited on the song as El Toro Negro (Spanish of Black Bull).
Minnie’s liner notes from her compilation ‘Petals’ wrote that the song was written as a distraction for Maya so they could get some “alone time”. Baby Maya was in the studio the day the song was recorded.
Over the years the song has been referenced in ‘The Nutty Professor’ (1996), the Disney film ‘The Wild’ (2006), in Dreamworks’ ‘Megamind’ (2010) and in a 2000’s Visa commercial.
Minnie Riperton passed away on 12 July, 1979 from breast cancer at age 31 but the song has been a staple of adult contemporary radio for nearly 50 years.
Oh yeah, back to Maya. ‘Loot’ is great. Check it out on Apple+.
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