<back - RUTH 'Miss Rhythm' BROWN - Ruth Brown was born Ruth Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia on January 12, 1928. Ruth began to sing at the local AME church where her father was the choir director. Her influences were Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. In 1945 she ran away with singer/trumpeter Jimmy Brown and were wed soon after. Stranded in Washington D.C. after leaving the Lucky Millinder Band abruptly, she took a job at the Crystal Caverns nightspot.

There, she was discovered by Duke Ellington and Willie Conover. Conover called his friends Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson in New York, and Ruth Brown audition at Atlantic Records. Ruth Brown gave the fledgling record company its second-ever hit with the soulful torch Blues 'So Long'. Throughout the 1950s, Ruth Brown churned out dozens of R&B hits, including her million-selling Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean, 5-10-15 Hours, Mambo Baby and Teardrops From My Eyes. Brown's two dozen hit records helped Atlantic Records secure its footing in the record industry, a track record for which the label was referred to as 'the House That Ruth Built'. Ruth states, "For me, any day that people are kind enough to give me their attention after having done this for so many years, it's a good day for the Blues. It's a different kind of day for the Blues. But fortunately, the young people don't have to deal with it from the point of view that I did. In 1948 when I signed with Atlantic Records they really didn't know what category to put me in because I was singing torch songs, Country, everything. But the year of 1953 brought about a tune called Teardrops From My Eyes and then I did '5-10-15 Hours'. It was a change in the rhythm patterns and it stayed high on the charts about 17 or 18 weeks, which was indeed a record at that time. The world is just starting to take a hold to the Blues and what it was about when the people who were responsible for creating it were making it. It's a little different nowadays. In the years when the real Blues artists were singing it, it came from a very personal place. Now, the Blues has been accepted as a very cultural part of society". Ruth Brown's story as an entertainer could have ended with her "retirement" in the early 60s, but by the mid-70s her career was back on track. She performed in the Broadway musical 'Black and Blue', appeared in tv sitcoms, and played a deejay in the John Waters film 'Hairspray'. Ruth Brown remains, along with giants like Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Amos Milburn and Wynonie Harris as one of the undisputed architects of Rhythm & Blues. Her impressive credits include several million-selling hits, induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame (1993), a Grammy, 2 WC Handy Awards, a Tony Award (Black and Blue-1989), the Ralph Gleason Award for Music Journalism (f1996 autobiography Miss Rhythm) and Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. 2002 Ruth Brown was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame.  MP3- It's Over | If I Can't Sell it |