Ritt Momney
is the stage name of Utah-based singer/songwriter
Jack Rutter
. His re-imagining of
Corinne Bailey Rae
‘s 2006 hit ”
Put Your Records On
” has become an unlikely success — and he thinks it’s because the song’s positive message is “the opposite of everything that’s happening in the world.”
“I have gotten like some DM’s from people saying, ‘”Put Your Records On” really helped me…this has been a really depressing year and I listen to it all the time and it helps me feel better,'” Jack tells ABC Audio.
“And not that I can be, like, taking the credit for that — because it’s what Corrine did that’s helping them through that — but yeah, it is a really cool feeling,” he adds. “It makes me feel like less of a business person, and more an artist, when I get messages like that.”
So why that song? It’s one his mom played all the time when he was little, and then he happened to hear it again during quarantine.
“I was just, like, ‘Oh man, I used to listen to this all the time! This is a really good song!'” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, this would be a fun song to cover. Considering the times, this seems like the exact kind of light that is the opposite of everything that’s happening in the world.'”
After taking off on TikTok in September, the song’s now a radio hit, too, and Jack got to chat via Zoom with Corinne Bailey Rae, who’s given his version her blessing.
“I was surprised by how she was exactly what you would expect her to be like,” he says. “She was just so sunshiny and she was just so nice — like, ridiculously nice, almost. It was super-awesome being able to talk to her.”
By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
