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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ruth Brown.....The one and only....this list is for my mom...one of her biggest fans

I listened to a lot of Ruth Brown as a kid....my mom was a huge fan. This list is for her (meaning that maybe she'll have my bro burn it to disc, 'cuz those 78s are sounding kinda scratchy by now....lol)

Ruth Brown 1928-2006

In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as "The Queen Mother of the Blues".

Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for fledgling 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".
Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the eighties, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts, which led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.[1] Her performances in the Broadway musical Black and Blue earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original soundtrack won a Grammy Award.

Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington.[2] In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.

Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. In 1948, however, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington 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. His productions for her, however, retained her "pop" style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.
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 Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for 11 weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.[3]
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). She also became known as "Little Miss Rhythm" and "the girl with the teardrop in her voice". In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with 16 top 10 blues records including 5 number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built".


Here's the list:

Ever Since My Baby's Gone (1953)
Hey Pretty Baby (unissued '40s)
Love Contest (1953)
I'll Get Along Somehow (1949)

Oh, what a dream (1953)
I'll come back someday (1950) w/ The Delta Rhythm Boys
Old Man River (1955)
5-10-15 hours (1952)
Sentimental Journey (1954)
Somebody touched me (1954)
Mambo baby (1954)
R. B. Blues (1953)
I can see everybody's baby (1955)
So long (1949)
Standing on the corner (1951)
Bye Bye Young Men (1955)
I'll Wait for You (1951)

It's Love Baby (1955)
I Gotta Have You (1955) w/ Clyde McPhatter
I Know (1951)
Mama, he treats your daughter mean (1953)
Don't Cry (unissued)
Love Has Joined Us Together (1955) w/ Clyde McPhatter
I Wanna Do More (1955) Ruth Brown & Her Rhythmakers
The Shrine of St Cecilia (unissued)
It's All for You (unissued)
Lucky Lips (1957)
One More Time (1957)
Shine On (1951)
As long as I'm moving (1955)  Ruth Brown & Her Rhythmakers 
Be Anything (1952)
This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' (1958)
Why Me (1958)
Teardrops from My Eyes (1950)
I Can't Hear a Word You Say (1959)
I Don't Know (1959)
Takin' Care of Business (1960)
Don't Deceive Me (1960)
wild wild young men (1953)
Daddy Daddy (1952)
Have A Good Time (1952)

http://www.4shared.com/file/mRlxgYFC/ruth.html

2 comments:

  1. Aw, late-comer to the party, and Ms. Brown has come and gone!
    DAMN!
    I know... probably not a chance, but maybe, maybe, you can help get her back, Barbarella?

    She's one of the greats... along with Etta James and Sassy. No?

    Den NC USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. SHe was one of my mom's favourite singers.....I had to post the list just for her :) (of course, I love her, too)

    ReplyDelete