Ripp began his career as a singer, initially informally harmonizing rock and roll songs with friends from high school.
[2] Ripp rejoined with some of his informal singing partners (Mario "Skippy" Scarpa, Stu Silverman, and Joe Tedesco) to form "The Four Temptations".
Goldner was, in the words of American blues singer and songwriter Jerome "Doc" Pomus, a "very hip, New York kind of tough guy.
In 1961, after Goldner transferred his Gone and End record labels to music industry executive Morris Levy,[9] Ripp became national promotion director at Nevins/Kirshner Associates, Inc., founded by Al Nevins and Don Kirshner.
[11] Aldon, located at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan,[12] played a significant role in shaping the so-called "Brill Building Pop" sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s.)
During the summer of 1962, Goldmark and Ripp collaborated to generate worldwide distribution arrangements that were described by Billboard as having "angles never before achieved in the business.
[19] In 1964, Ripp joined Hy Mizrahi and Phil Steinberg in Kama Sutra, initially an independent production company[7] based in New York.
As a production house, the company established a "consistent and impressive track record" in the singles market;[20] Kama Sutra hit "immediately and often.
"[7] Ripp's work included an association and collaboration with the songwriting-and-production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had co-founded the Red Bird Records label with Goldner in 1964.
[22] (American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, whom Ripp as a future record-label owner would sign to a recording contract about seven years later, recalls playing piano on the single; whether his playing was used on the demo version that had been produced by "Shadow" Morton or on the master version that had been produced by Barry and Ripp is unclear.
)[23] Also, when Leiber and Stoller's time-consuming work with The Drifters and The Coasters demanded much of their attention, Ripp was selected to take over production of singles for Jay and the Americans, released on United Artists.
[28] The label's first single,[7] produced by Ripp,[29] was The Vacels' "You're My Baby (And Don't You Forget It)",[7] which peaked at 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 21, 1965.
[30] Ripp also negotiated a deal[31] with the production team that handled The Lovin' Spoonful; it is said that the band carried the label through its first year.
[32] Ripp co-produced Bobby Bloom's single, "Love, Don't Let Me Down" which was released on Kama Sutra KA 223 in March 1967.
[36] Staff writers and producers included Peter Anders and Vini Poncia (who had created hits for The Ronettes), Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell (associated with Tommy James and the Shondells), Levine and Resnick, Elliot Chiprut, and Bobby Bloom.
[36] In 1968, Viewlex, a Long Island, New York company that made projectors and slides primarily for the school market, acquired Buddah by purchasing all its stock, and the three original partners (Ripp, Mizrahi, and Steinberg) left.
In 1986, Buddah and its back catalogue were sold, and, through a series of acquisitions, Buddah—since renamed "Buddha"—became a reissue label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Joel had previously come to the attention of producer Michael Lang, co-creator of Woodstock and principal of Just Sunshine Records.
[45] Despite the occurrence of a mastering error that altered its pitch,[46] Cold Spring Harbor showed critical promise[46][47] but was a commercial failure; distribution was poor,[48] and promotion was insufficient.
[49] Joel states, "We [including touring bandmates Rhys Clark, Larry Russell, and Alan Hertzberg] didn't make any money, nobody got paid.
[44] Ripp retained publishing rights until Walter Yetnikoff, head of Columbia in the 1970s and 1980s, bought them and gave them to Joel as a birthday gift in 1978.
You always play obnoxious rock 'n' roll when you eat bad fast food.”[55] Fidelity is where the soundtrack of a Hanna-Barbera production in The Cat in the Hat franchise was recorded in 1981.
[56] The studio is also where Ripp and Woodstock-planner Artie Kornfeld re-mixed Survivor's Premonition album in 1981,[56] although the group's founding member Jim Peterik states that he and others did a final mix.
[57] Fidelity is also where Ripp and engineer Larry Elliot[58] substantially overdubbed and re-mixed Joel's Cold Spring Harbor album in 1983; the remix was reissued by Columbia.
I gave it all away..."[74] About the Cold Spring Harbor album, which Ripp produced in 1971, Joel states, "The whole thing was completely overproduced."
[75] In 1980, Ripp was filmed driving his Excalibur kit car[76] in a segment about Billy Joel that was produced for the 20/20 television newsmagazine.
[80] In March 2022, it was announced that Adam Ripp would be working with a film studio to write and direct a biopic about Billy Joel's early career.