Day 92: Anita Ward – Ring My Bell
I’ve had the song “Ring My Bell” playing in my head today, and that’s probably as good a reason as any to go for a bit of Anita Ward today. That is unfortunately the only Anita Ward song that I’ve heard, or that I at the very least remember hearing, so it’s time to plug that hole in my disco knowledge.
Album cover courtesy of Juana Records
Anita Ward is a singer and musician from Memphis, who was a substitute teacher before she shot to fame. She signed a record contract with Juana Records, and the label head brought her a song that was originally meant for an 11-year-old girl signed to the label. Ward didn’t like the song, but agreed to record it. However, while the song originally had innocent lyrics about teenagers calling each other, they made the lyrics more “adult appropriate” (euphemistically horny) and she was off to the races, as “Ring My Bell” became a massive hit.
Unfortunately “Ring My Bell” ended up being Anita Ward’s only big hit. She recorded three albums in total, but none of them managed to reach the heights of her big hit, which is still considered an iconic disco classic. She’s very cool about it, though, saying that she understands how hard it is to recreate something like that, and she’s not too proud to have a regular job.
I tried to find her debut album “Songs of Love”, but it’s not on Apple Music. The version there has the same cover but the name “Ring My Bell”, with a slightly modified track list and a release date of 2005. I wish I could have heard the original one, because the thought that I have listening to this is that there are worse albums. Many-a debut has been crappier than this, but has led to a long and lucrative music career, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Anita Ward.
It maybe sounds like Ward didn’t have the right team around her, as she gave a recent interview where she said she urges young artists to research the business side of making music, and said that she’s only recently started receiving royalties for “Ring My Bell”.
The album isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, but it’s not bad. It’s a bit generic maybe, but definitely not terrible. “Ring My Bell” is the best song on it, but the rest are still nice to listen to. Probably not something I’ll listen to again, but I didn’t hate it. It’s a 6/10.