The Ravens were an American R&B vocal group, formed in 1946 by Jimmy Ricks and Warren Suttles. They were one of the most successful and most influential vocal quartets of the period, and had several hits on the R&B chart in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Career Jimmy "Ricky" Ricks was born in Adrian, Georgia, later moving to Jacksonville, Florida. During World War II, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a waiter in Harlem and met Warren "Birdland" Suttles, from Fairfield, Alabama. In early 1946, they decided to form a vocal group and recruited Leonard "Zeke" Puzey, who had recently won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater, and Ollie Jones. They found a manager, Ben Bart, and an accompanist, Howard Biggs, and made their first recordings for Bart's small Hub record label. They called themselves the Ravens, and so initiated the trend for vocal groups to name themselves after birds—groups who later followed included the Orioles, the Crows, the Larks, the Robins and the Penguins. Although the group were strongly influenced by the Ink Spots, the Delta Rhythm Boys and the Mills Brothers, they used Ricks' bass voice, rather than a more conventional tenor, as the lead on many of their recordings, and this became their trademark style. Their material was also more varied, including elements of pop, jazz, R&B, and gospel styles. After their initial single, "Honey", Jones left the group and was replaced by Maithe Marshall. The contrast between Ricks' bass voice and Marshall's tenor became integral to their success. In 1947 the Ravens left the Hub label to join National Records, and had immediate hits on what was called at the time the "race records" chart with a version of "Ol' Man River" (from the musical Show Boat) and "Write Me A Letter", which rose to no. 5 on the "race" chart and crossed over to the pop chart. Their run of successes on what came to be known as the R&B chart continued through to early 1950, with the basic line-up of Ricks, Suttles, Puzey, and Marshall essentially remaining together for several years. Their version of "Count Every Star" (1950) was later used in the film Revolutionary Road. The Ravens primarily existed to showcase bass singer Ricks; in this they were successful, such that Ricks' voice became the standard against which every rhythm and blues bass was measured for the