Cassandra Wooten

Cassandra Wooten was a member of two recording groups in the 1960s, The Yum Yums and Honey And The Bees. During the 1970s, she was also in the original line-up of The Ritchie Family and later part of Cas Mijac. She is also a member of the re-formed Ritchie Family that had a Top 40 hit with "Ice" in 2016. ------------------------------ History ------------------------------ Wooten was born in North Carolina but raised in Philadelpha. She was exposed to music hearing her grandfather and uncle playing guitar and people singing at home. In Junior high she was part of the girls chorus and Glee Club. Wooten and Gwen Oliver had been friends since grade school. They would practice singing and eventually were asked by neighborhood friends to join their group. This would in time lead to them being in The Yum Yums with Jean Davis etc.. They went on to audition for producer Jerry Ross and recorded the single, Looky, Looky / Gonna Be A Big Thing, released on ABC-Paramount In 1965. The B side which was written by Ross would find popularity years later on the northern soul scene. In a December, 2020 interview with Ady Crampton of Shinyl.co.uk, Wooten mentions another Yum Yums member called Shebbie (check spelling), who was in her words "Kinda new to the group and she wasn't as committed". So Shebbie was let go around the time they got together with Nadine Felder. An article on the Philadelphia Neighborhoods website dated February 29, 2012 says that when Felder was added, they were for a brief period of time, called Sugar and Spice and then they became Honey And The Bees. And they were named by Jimmy Bishop following an audition for him. Some sources indicate that Phil Hurtt was the one that named them Honey and The Bees. The Honey and The Bees name was actually a re-use of a name that was used by an unrelated line up consisting of Fannie Cobb, Lulu Martin and Rita Graves. (see Honey And The Bees (3)) who had recorded for the Academy label.. What connects these two otherwise unrelated groups is the use of the name and the people working in the background, Phil Hurtt etc... With Honey and The Bees, the line up would comprise of Nadine Felder White, Cassandra Ann Wooten, Jean Davis and Gwendolyn Oliver. They began with releases on the ARCTIC label in 1966 and later on the Josie label. One release on the label, "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" became a hit for them in 1971. They had a couple of releases on the Bell label and then broke up in 1972. At a stage after their venture with Honey and The Bees, Wooten and Nadine Felder were asked to come to New York to do some background vocals on a song that Jacques Morali and Patrick Adams were co-producing. Morali said to them that if he ever were to put a girl group together then he would call them, And two years later he did get in contact but by that time Felder had lost interest in doing secular music. Wooten had been involved in a drama group at Philadelphia School Of Performing Arts. Cheryl Mason Jacks was involved in the group as well. Together with Gwen Oliver they decided to do some background vocal work. They ended up doing an audition to become the physical group for The Ritchie Family who had just had a hit with "Brazil". The female singers (The Sweethearts) on the record were session singers as were the musicians. So Wooten, Mason-Jacks and Olive became the physical part of The Ritchie Family as well as the singers on the following recording. They recorded three albums and had chart hits including the classic "The Best Disco in Town". They also worked with Phil Hurtt. They performed at different venues around the world including Poland and Australia. Some performances were backed by the group Gypsy Lane. In 1978, they were dismissed without warning and replaced by a different line up. At the time she pretended she wasn't bothered about it. After The Ritchie Family, Wooten and Mason-Jacks would go on to form Cas Mijac with Michelle Simpson. Phil Hurtt was friends with Peggy Cherry who worked for Columbia Records and through this association, they got work with John Lennon & Yoko Ono and contributed background vocals to their Double Fantasy album, released in 1980. There was a possibility of them going on tour with John Lennon as well but that was cut short with his murder. Around this time or not long after, she found out that she was going to be a mother. So for years after that she concentrated on family life and her further education and obtain her master's degree. Apart from some sporadic background work, she had basically left music.In spite of efforts by Cheryl Mason-Jacks' (now Mason-Dorman) to encourage her to start again, she wasn't keen to do it again. Along the way she was contacted by Hans de Vries (see Hans de Vries (6)) In the 2000s, after some quiet years, original members Wooten and Mason-Jacks set about reforming the group. Original member Gwen Oliver wasn't available to be part of the venture so another member was needed. In a 2019 interview with An interview with Lenny Fontana on his "True House Stories Show", Cheryl Mason-Jacks (now known as Cheryl Mason-Dorman) said that in the early stages of reformation, Michelle Simpson had been part of the venture and had worked with them for a while. After a stop and a re-start, they settled with Renee Guillory-Wearing. In 2016, they recorded "Ice" which was released on Martha Wash's Purple Rose Records. In June, 2016, she was a guest on Episode # 61 of the Arizona based "Otto D. Show", hosted by Otto D'Agnolo where she talked about her career and the new release. After "Ice" became a hit and made the Billboard Top 40 dance chart. They gained more popularity and played at various venues in the US and in Europe. In 2021, the release of a new single "Whatcha Got" was announced. After some changes, the release date was set for June 18.