Talk:Minnie Riperton

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Outsinging her...[edit]

Although Australian singer Adam Lopez has an impressive vocal range for a male, how do we really know whether he really can outsing Minnie Riperton???

I mean is she here to defend herself? All we have is her recorded material and apparently at the time that she was recording there was not such a competition going on about who could sing the highest notes.

Also the supposed vocal profile of Minnie has been done with a rather narrow evidence of her most popular hits. I recently purchased around 6 Minnie Riperton cds from Amazon and after hearing them I could say that there are songs where Minnie goes higher than those stated on the article, not to mention some really nifty vocal acrobatics and tricks that actually add to the music and sound good. I recommend that people research all of her recorded material, not just the most popular hits that are easy to come across. It amazing that someone with such voice did not achieve more mainstream presence and it is a pity that she died that young.


As mentioned before, Adam Lopez technique is impressive but perhaps its use is and will be severely limited to talk shows and similar performances. I went to his site and heard his "popera" version of Nessum Dorma, first to note he did not integrate any of his supposedly stratospheric register into the actual song, he only did some vocalizations at the end and in trying to hear those vocalizations I had to strain myself and concentrate in order to hear them (volume 100%) and then when I actually heard them they were so very faint that most people would have missed them (actually I tried to get my brother to hear them, it took some time for him to spot the high notes, that faint they were). The other instance where I have heard Adam Lopez was in a recording of a Australian radio show, in this particular instance he sounded louder (the reasons for that are not clear to me) but he sounded so annoying like some plastic sneaker streaking along a vinyl floor. The musical significance of that and what may come out of it, still eludes me, but what I do know is that such acts and related "performances" cannot be held in par with Minnie's musical legacy or Mariah Carey's recording career and that comes from someone that has for a long time liked male singers crossing over to what is widely perceived as female territory in terms of vocal register. I may also note that I have never, ever, have had to strain to hear whistle register type singing from Minnie Riperton or Mariah Carey.

In conclusion we will never know for sure whether Adam Lopez can reach higher notes than Minnie (since she's no longer with us and from what is seen Mariah is not interested in falling in such contest) but in what we are sure is that he has not and will probably never outsing her.

rebel.crusader 4:10, 28 July 2005

You Minnie fans are so easily theraten! Of course Adam Lopez do not have a big career as Minnie Riperton or Mariah Carey, for goodness sake, he's just about to release his début album, and for that matter, Mariah has much more commercial success than Minnie anyway.

We are only talking vocal range only, nothing else, the objective here is who can reach the highest note with human voice, in particular with whistle register, and that person is Adam Lopez, for the record. As for the comments about the Adam's highest notes being faint, OH PLEASE, it's not like Mariah's G7 is that much audible anyway!! Adam's notes are one octave above that and off the piano, how loud do you want the B8 to be??

As for Minnie not able to defend herself today because she's not no longer with us, gee, I just love this argument, what you are really saying is that she never fully unleashed her vocality or potential, now is that something you really want to say about this wonderful vocalist? I believe she has sung her highest notes, if not, close to highest

Go and ask any singers, they will tell you that they were able to sing higher in their younger days than later years, cos as one get order, the voice mature and get deeper slowly. Mariah would be a good example here, when was the last time you heard her doing a G7 live or on CD? It's been 14 years! get the point?! Another fact is most coloratura sopranos will played Queen of The Night in the early part of their career, then ventured out to other roles.

The thing is, Minnie's HIGHEST ever note might note be captured on records, no one knows really, but I would not think it will too far off from the highest recorded one. For example, Mado Robin's highest note on record was a C7 in head voice! And apparently she has vocalise up to a D7 sharp during warm ups.

Back to Minnie, I really doubted she can do a C8, if yes, please tell me which song and which part. I have read published statement claiming Minnie's 5.5 octave, but that really up for debate, and she does n;t even go as high or low as Mariah, and Mariah just barely claimed her 5 octave.

So, the fact is Adam Lopez's whistle register can go further than Minnie & Mariah, accept it and let it go!!

I'm not doubting the ability of Minnie to sing her high notes, however I would like to know about the songs with her lower notes. Her voice in my opinion is very light and girlish and it's hard to imagine that she has a very low register that would give her five or even five and a half octaves. Besides that when someone hits high ote they don't increase in volume, they actually maintain the same dynamic, the voice just loses the same color, for instance on a saxophone playing a high note can maintain the same volume as a low note. Higher notes at the same volume as other notes would probably sound queiter anyway because they don't have the power to be very loud with out adding shrillness.

'Singing' & 'hitting a pitch' are completely different[edit]

I have listened to Adam Lopez singing in his whistle register and I have to be fair; they are quite strong. However, as the above person says (by the way, whoever said that should sign his name so we can know who said it), its about who can reach the highest note. By all rumours, it Lopez.

However we should remember that vocal range and vocal talent are two completely different things. Adam may hit C8 or above, but can he sing these notes? To hit something and sing it are two different things. What can he do with a C8 or above? Can he incorporate it in his music (and let it fit)? . Can he control it like

Can he actually phrase words in the eighth octave or can he enunciate whole phrases in the whistle register.

Possession of a five octave range[edit]

Several websites list her as having a five octave vocal range (all I had to do was a quick Yahoo! search), the biggest being MSN Music (http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16074698). Now six is a stretch obviously (but maybe), do the math. I admit, she is my FAVORITE artist (mildly biased :-D ), but if we count starting at C3 (the bottom of the alto range), five octaves takes us to the top of the piano (a C8, or over ALL of the seventh octave). . This makes a five octave claim very plausible. At this point, there is no reason to make her any bigger than she is; she was an R&B artist and thus primarily a niche artist (not full blown pop act like say Mariah Carey), so while yes, the promotional material is THAT, it doesn't inherently make it infactual since not much is to be gained from any embellishments (at this point, you either love her music or you don't).

  • I heard that she has hit notes that are higher than those produced by a piano. This was mentioned by a professional vocal coach whose name I've forgotten. Also, shes hit am A2 at the end on My All.

Some sites to consider:

http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16074698 http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/riperton_minnie/artist.jhtml http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/minnie.htm

Also this one, http://jayepurplewolf.com/RIPERTON/minnieriperton1.html

The first three are well known sites, not geocities and the like.

Antares33712 23:54, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Antifamilymang"

Why is everyone using confusing terminology to describe Minnie's vocal range? To me A2 is the chord of A with an added B above the root, F7 is Eb above F, F#7 is the same as F7#, and to the average reader it's all gibberish. Either state octaves above middle C, which I believe everyone thinks of as the middle note on the piano (Even if it's not...), or middle A which I believe was once thought to be the middle of the audible scale (Not even close, even if there was such a thing as the audible scale...). Deke42 (talk) 14:51, 17 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think there is an underlying misunderstanding here. Let's take "Middle C" (C4 International nomenclature or c' Helmholtz System). She could sing a pitch "c" at five different octave heights. But that is a range of four octaves. Graham 2003:EE:F24:B77F:842D:23C0:8033:5515 (talk) 09:40, 13 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is this now still POV?[edit]

Having possessed a rare five octave vocal range, she displayed abilities to imitate instrumentation and even birds. Antares33712 13:46, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see any POV in there. And given the extraordinary emotions this whole topic has elicited, I'll happily resign my objection to having it in the first paragraph. It's clear that some well-informed people feel this is very important, and that's good enough for me.
Incidentally, I really feel quite awkward about the huge debate above. I want to make it clear that I have nothing against Ms. Ripperton and I certainly don't question her extraordinary vocal talents. I don't think any reasonable person can, even if they aren't personally fans of her music. I'm only passingly familiar with it, so my sole concern is with taking the information that better informed people provide and making it appropriate for Wikipedia. Thus I was perfectly fine with the 5 octave thing after being given some citations, and I'm perfectly fine with the imitating instruments thing, since it's quite undeniable. But I can't be fine with the "unequalled vocally" thing. This isn't because I dislike Ms. Ripperton - again, I'm only passingly familiar with her work so I honestly don't even have an opinion about her - but because it's both an extraordinary claim and simply cannot be proved. In the end there are no objective and universal standards by which to measure vocal quality and subjectively, well, de gustibus non disputandum. Given that, an encyclopedia, which should be about just the facts, cannot include the statement. And if there are other articles that say similar things about other singers or artists or whatever, I'll be happy to go clean them up to, even if I only succeed in angering more fans. :) --George 05:39, 13 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you write Riperton with two p's?:-)Rebel.crusader 07:40, 13 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Honestly? I was drunk at the time. I'm astonished that I only made that spelling error. --George 18:25, 13 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, you must not have been very, especially since you do it throughout the discussion page. 67.110.214.131 08:09, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You underestimate how often I'm drunk. See, e.g., my subscription to Modern Drunkard --George 21:39, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lovin' You and Maya[edit]

The article currently claims that Lovin' You is "a ballad to her then-two-year-old daughter Maya". How can that be true? The lyrics are clearly about sexual love with an adult man: e.g. "Making love with you ...", "And everytime that we OOOH, ... I'm more in love with you", "Stay with me while we grow old".   TheSeven 19:33, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have bought her Petal compilation and in the liner notes it was said that Maya was the inspiration behind the composition of Lovin' you (I am gonna check later to confirm). You need also to remember that even though a song is written in one light it is done in another in order to capitalise, for eg. 'You light up my life that song which was also covered by Whitney Houston was originally done as an inspirational song, but in the end turned out to be what it is interpreted as now. Kudeh 30 October 2006 11:48

Well as promised I checked and discovered that the melody to Lovin' You was created as a distraction for Maya when she was a baby so that Both Minnie and Richard could hang out. Kudeh 16:09, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Chicago's Lincoln Center"?[edit]

The link goes to Lincoln Center in New York City. I don't know if Minnie Riperton studied there at some point, or at a similarly-named place in Chicago, or neither. JMeggett (talk) 14:30, 2 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Her sister Sandra Riperton said in an interview for the TV_One_(American_TV_channel) series Unsung_(TV_series) that it was the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago, which I believe has no relation to the Lincoln Center in New York. --HeyFK (talk) 21:57, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

photo used for Minnie Riperton[edit]

The photo used for Minnie Ripteron is not Minnie Riperton. It looks like Maxine Nightingale —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.50.130 (talk) 08:04, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Actually it is Minnie Riperton. I disputed it also, but if you follow links on picture, there is another picture taken at the same time that is obviously Riperton. But I wish it could reverted to the old picture that used to be on here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.185.59.200 (talk) 20:36, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Vocal ability and descriptions removed[edit]

As always there's seems to be a problem with acknowledging Ms. Riperton's vocal talents. Reading the latest version of the article there's only a mention of her five and a half vocal range, if I'm not mistaken no even the term whistle register was mentioned. Seriously I think this makes the article incomplete and does not offer people the precise and accurate information an encyclopedia should provide. Her vocal talents set her aside and although her success in mainstream popular music was limited, those special vocal talents served as inspiration to other singers and was central in her singing style. I've read articles of other singers here in Wikipedia which contain much more information than what's presented here in this particular section. Certainly lack of verifiable information has not been the issue if you take a minute and read the discussion page. I suggest to whomever has edited the article in this manner to restore the Voice section as soon as possible, otherwise we risk compromising the integrity of the article. I've taken no action myself in editing and restoring the section, but I'll be monitoring the progress of this article periodically and may edit it if I feel it necessary to present a competent piece of work. This is an old and tired topic regarding this article. Ms. Riperton had extreme vocal talents that should be merited and mentioned, any action to diminish or eliminate completely such information seriously damages the credibility of the article and of Wikipedia. Rebel.crusader (talk) 11:24, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cause of death as originally reported[edit]

When the media first reported Minnie's death here in Sydney, Australia, they said she died of throat cancer. Probably a symptom of a late metastasis. Just my 2c worth. johnr_roberts 10:50, 30 September 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.106.140.20 (talk)

Warner Music Group.[edit]

Warner Music Group [[1]] Search: Thomas J Mitchell Loving You (1971)--Pop r&b 70s (talk) 08:27, 11 February 2011 (UTC)Pop r&b 70s (talk) 08:50, 11 February 2011 (UTC) Warner Music Group [[2]] Search: Loving You Thomas J Mitchell. --Pop r&b 70s (talk) 08:27, 11 February 2011 (UTC)Pop r&b 70s (talk) 08:50, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

how do you say her name?[edit]

How to pronounce Riperton? No one seems to know? Some say rip, some say ripe, some say reap. There's a Wikipedia thing where you can put audio of someone pronouncing a word next to the word in question. I'll do it if anyone knows what I should say. 82.152.253.96 (talk) 22:57, 24 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No reference in the articles to the difference in spelling of her surname on the two album covers. The "double-p" spelling would suggest the pronunciation is "ripper-ton" ? 91.125.192.25 (talk) 10:17, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

African-American[edit]

Minnie was not an American singer, she was an African-American singer. That's a BIG difference! 93.219.164.187 (talk) 08:17, 26 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Surely "African-American" is a subset of "American" - so she was both. 91.125.192.25 (talk) 10:21, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Knowing Minnie[edit]

I was 21. I lived in an apt with my husband and baby David. Minnie babysat. Please email me. Shuminsky@gmail.com 72.35.50.162 (talk) 00:19, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Your personal experiences are of no value to this encyclopedia article. Please see No original research. Cullen328 (talk) 00:29, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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