Ronnie McNeir -

Ronnie McNeir is an American soul singer, songwriter, keyboardist, arranger, and producer who released five albums between 1972 and 1985, scoring R&B hits with “Wendy Is Gone,” “Saggitarian Affair,” “I’m Your Lover,” and “Come Be with Me.” McNeir worked with Smokey Robinson, Teena Marie, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, and Rance Allen. From 1999, he sang second tenor in the touring Four Tops lineup.

Background

Lewis Ronald McNeir was born on December 14, 1949, in Camden, Alabama, to Lewis and Delores McNeir. His father left the U.S. Army and took a General Motors job in Detroit when McNeir was six months old, and the family settled in Pontiac, Michigan. Delores McNeir was a classically trained pianist who played at home and for her church choir. McNeir sang in church as a child and began piano lessons at age ten, but he quit formal instruction after six months and taught himself from records and radio broadcasts. At Pontiac Central High School, McNeir played basketball and studied music theory at age seventeen. Fisk University recruited him for a basketball scholarship, but McNeir abandoned competitive play after a 1968 car accident and concentrated on music.

McNeir entered the WCHB talent show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre in 1965 and placed second with a $250 prize. He subsequently signed with local record companies and recorded the self-written “Sitting in My Class,” which Doc Kyle’s De-To Records issued in 1967 with “Isn’t She a Pretty Girl.” By 1970, McNeir recorded with the Pontiac-based DeVilles for Rina, including “One More Time We Face Each Other.”

Los Angeles gospel musicians Joe Westmoreland and René Moore first encountered McNeir when their group performed at his mother’s Pontiac church in 1969. Westmoreland returned the following year and invited McNeir to Los Angeles to help with his church choir in exchange for lodging. McNeir accepted the offer and moved to Los Angeles in 1971, where he played keyboards for the choir. Kim Weston met McNeir through the church and introduced him to her husband, former Motown A&R executive Mickey Stevenson, who signed McNeir to RCA. McNeir recorded more than twenty tracks with Stevenson’s production company for his first album.

Discography: