Ruth Brown at Le Jazz Au Bar in New York City, 2005
Photo by Frank Beacham
Ruth Brown, the Queen of R&B, was born 93 years ago today.
Brown was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long," "Teardrops from My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean.“
For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "The house that Ruth built" (alluding to the popular nickname for Old Yankee Stadium).
Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts, which led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
Her performances in the Broadway musical, Black and Blue, earned Brown a Tony Award.
Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, which was then legally segregated. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs.
She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington.
In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra.
Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington, D.C. nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager.
Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act with Duke Ellington and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson.
Brown was unable to audition as planned because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. She signed with Atlantic Records on her hospital bed.
In 1948, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington, D.C., from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegün convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues.
In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long," which ended up becoming a hit. This was followed by "Teardrops from My Eyes" in 1950. Written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Brown.
Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September, 1950, and released in October, it was #1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. The hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and within a few months Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.
She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954) and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960), some of which were credited to Ruth Brown and the Rhythm Makers.
In all, between 1949 and 1955, she stayed on the R&B chart for a total 149 weeks, with sixteen Top 10 records including five #1s.
Brown played many dances that were deeply segregated in the Southern States, where she toured extensively and was extremely popular.
Brown herself claimed that a writer had once summed up her popularity by saying: "In the South, Ruth Brown is better known than Coca Cola."
Her first pop hit came with "Lucky Lips," a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded in 1957. The single reached #6 on the R&B chart, and #25 on the U.S. pop chart. The 1958 follow up was "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'," written by Bobby Darin and Mann Curtis. It reached #7 on the R&B chart and #24 on the pop chart.
She was to have further hits with "I Don't Know" in 1959 and "Don't Deceive Me" in 1960, although these were more successful on the R&B chart than on the pop chart.
During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother. She returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comedic acting gigs.
These included a role in the sitcom, Hello, Larry, and the John Waters film, Hairspray, as well as Broadway appearances in Amen Corner and Black and Blue. The latter earned her a Tony Award as "Best Female Star of a Musical," and a Grammy Award as Best Female Jazz Artist for her album, Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.
Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Brown was still touring until the final days of her life. She died in a Las Vegas-area hospital on November 17, 2006, from complications following a heart attack and stroke she suffered after surgery in the previous month. She was 78.
Here, Brown performs “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean”
Ruth Brown performed at the Charlie’s Place nightclub in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the 1950s. She clearly remembered Charlie Fitzgerald as one of the “good guys” who ran a club on the Chitlin’ Circuit.
“I remember Charlie Fitzgerald because he paid me what I was owed,” Brown told me in an interview...laughing as she recalled those days. “He stands out because so few club owners did. He was one of the good guys.”
Charlie’s Place was the home to Brown and many of the pioneering black R&B artists of the 20th century. White kids danced with blacks there in a time of segregation, creating a new dance and music.
The Ku Klux Klan attacked the club and beat Charlie Fitzgerald in retribution for his inviting the white kids inside. The Klan opened 500 rounds of gunfire in 1950, trying to kill black music.
Over the years, whites coopted the story and blacks knew little about the collaboration with their ancestors to create the dance, the Shag, and Carolina Beach Music, the state’s regional music.
Here, Ruth Brown performs at Le Jazz Au Bar in New York City in 2005. I interviewed her after the performance.
Above photo by Frank Beacham
