Black History: Ruth Brown, The Woman Who Built Atlantic Records 1928 - 2006

[the_future_modernes]

Ruth Brown - If I can't sell it, I'll sit on it

Ruth Brown - Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean (1959)

Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do ..... Broadway1989～1991 -Ruth Brown / Linda Hopkins /Sir Roland Hanna

Ruth Brown--Oh What A Dream

Ruth Brown - Good Day For The Blues

Ruth Brown - Tears KeepTumbling Down

Official Website

Known as "The Girl with a Tear in her Voice", "The Original Queen of Rhythm & Blues," "Miss Rhythm & Blues," and the well-known moniker of "Miss Rhythm," the nickname given her by Mr. Rhythm, Frankie Laine, Ruth Brown was also credited as the first star made by Atlantic Records. Her regal hit-making reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field, a track record for which the young label was referred to as "The House That Ruth Built."

Brown's two dozen hit records included the single "So Long," the signature song of Little Miss Cornshucks, and a favorite of Atlantic Records' Executive Herb Abramson's partner, Ahmet Ertegun. As well as "Teardrops From My Eyes" which brought out the more swaggering, aggressive side for which Ruth was rewarded with her first Number One R&B hit. For the duration of the Fifties, Brown dominated the R&B charts with such red-hot sides as "5-10-15 Hours" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

The relationship with Atlantic Records would last until 1961. With the onset of the turbulent '60s, musical styles changed and, like so many R&B Pioneers, Miss Brown was left behind. Ruth was thrust into the role of single parent raising two boys alone, forcing her to take jobs as a maid, driving a school bus, and as a Head Start teacher.

The story might have ended there, but Brown enjoyed a career renaissance in the mid-Seventies. She began recording blues and jazz for a variety of labels. She toured overseas in 1979 and 1980 and upon her return to the United States, she starred in Allen Toussaint's off-Broadway musical Staggerlee and made a spectacular splash in the film Hairspray as Motormouth Maybelle. Beginning in 1985, Ruth hosted the Harlem Hit Parade series on National Public Radio and in 1989 won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the Broadway revue Black And Blue.MORE

Famous Women Blues Singers: Ruth Brown

1. Ruth Brown
Born: January 1, 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia

Ruth Brown’s smooth vocals made the rhythm and blues charts regularly between 1949 and 1955, and helped a then-fledgling Atlantic Records establish itself as a formidable presence in the R&B world. Later in her long and versatile career she became known as a rock and roll and pop singer as well as a stage and film actress, winning a Tony award on Broadway. She has influenced many R&B and soul artists, and her enduring talent is evidenced by her recent solo recordings and guest appearances with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland and B.B. King, as well as a Grammy win in the late 1980s. Brown continues to perform.

Essential listening: “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” “Teardrops From My Eyes,” “Don’t Deceive Me,” “Mambo Baby”

Inducted in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Interview with Charlie Rose

Better Late than Never Interview with Ruth Brown

"It has taken me forty-two years to walk those eight steps" declared Miss Ruth Brown as she concluded her TONY acceptance speech in June of 1989. She was sixty-one years old when she won in the "Best Actress in a Musical"catagory for Black and Blue. The show was a Cotton Club style revue that originally offered her a guaranteed eight-week run in Paris, France in 1984.

That show can be viewed as the beginning of Ruth Brown's second act. It followed years of Miss Brown working as a teacher's assistant, domestic, and school bus driver to make ends meet between paying singing and acting gigs. When only years before, it looked like Ruth Brown's career was going to exist only in re-released catalogs of music, her second shot at her career is more than any performer could wish for.

In the past twenty-two years, Ruth Brown has won a TONY, GRAMMY, been inducted to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, sold out clubs all across North America and Europe, recorded a half-dozen new albums, and starred in a few films (she is the original "Motormouth Maybelle" from Hairspray). She sued Atlantic Records for unpaid royalties and set up the Rythm and Blues Foundation as part of her settlement and wrote an award-winning autobiography. A few years ago she had a devastating stroke, after which she could neither talk or walk. It took over a year of physical and vocal therapy to gain back her strength.

She currently has a standing gig on Thursday nights at the Bootlegger Bistro in Las Vegas. She sings with the house band. At 78 years old, you get the feeling Miss Brown is performing because she wants to perform, performing to keep herself in top shape. For the price of dinner at the Bootlegger Bistro, folks can also get a full-length Ruth Brown concert. There is no additional cover charge for Ruth's show. Her show is one of the best kept secrets in Las Vegas. Tourists probably won't find her show listed, and locals hear about it by word of mouth.MORE

Soul Survivor: R&B great Ruth Brown beats the odds

She's a fighter. In the late '40s and early '50s, a 20-year-old singer named Ruth Brown, known as "Miss Rhythm," skyrocketed to the top of the R&B charts with "Teardrops in My Eyes" and other hits. She earned millions for her bosses at Atlantic Records with the label's first 45 rpm single, leading industry insiders to dub the New York-based offices "the house that Ruth built."

Atlantic Records went on to record Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and other top acts. Brown, denied royalties, slipped into near poverty, working for a while as domestic help. In 1986 she sued the giant label, eventually winning the royalty dispute in a landmark decision that created the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, a charitable organization that provides hospitalization and other benefits to pioneers of the genre.

Yet Brown's biggest fight still lay ahead. Two years ago, she was stricken with a debilitating stroke that left the singer voiceless. Concerts were canceled, and many predicted that the Grammy-winning performer was silenced for good.MORE

Last lick:

Ruth Brown.........This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'