Hey Ricky
album by Melissa Manchester

Hey Ricky is the title of the tenth album release by Melissa Manchester. It was issued on Arista Records in April 1982.
During the interim between the release of Hey Ricky and that of the precedent For the Working Girl in September 1980 Manchester had attempted to extricate herself from her recording contract, filing suit in May 1981 for contractual release from Arista. However it was announced that October that the singer and label had reached terms and the track "Race to the End" - a vocal version of the Chariots of Fire theme - was recorded for single release. The producer was Arif Mardin who had previously collaborated with Manchester in 1979 on "Theme from Ice Castles".
Mardin proceeded to collaborate with Manchester on the tracks which would comprise the album Hey Ricky released in April 1982. The lead single "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," originally recorded by Charlie Dore ("Pilot of the Airwaves"), radically reinvented Manchester as a synthpop dance artist and was heavily promoted by the singer who displayed a new image complementing the track. "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" accrued gradual interest entering the Top 40 of the "Billboard" Hot 100 in July 1982 proceeding to the Top Ten that August with a career best peak for Manchester at #5. The single's popularity was reflected in that of its parent album which Billboard ranked with a #19 peak.
The other cuts on Hey Ricky included the 1981 "Race to the End" single, a duet with David Gates: "Wish We Were Heroes"; "Your Place or Mine" from the soundtrack of the feature film A Little Sex, and a new version of "Come in From the Rain" introduced by Manchester on her 1976 Better Days and Happy Endings album: the last-named song had been co-written with Manchester's most constant lyricist of the 1970s Carole Bayer-Sager who was also represented on Hey Ricky with a new (and final) songwriting collaboration with Manchester entitled ""Looking for the Perfect Ahh" (co-written by Robbie Buchanan).
The public source identifies “Hey Ricky” as album by Melissa Manchester. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ricky, album and Melissa.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hey Ricky”, the useful work is to connect “album by Melissa Manchester” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5749408. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1980, 1981 and 1979.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Hey Ricky”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Hey Ricky primary sources, Hey Ricky archive and Ricky research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hey Ricky”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Hey Ricky” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.