"The Queen of Rhythm & Blues," the magnificent Ruth Brown, died on Friday, November 17th at the age of 78 after suffering a stroke and a heart attack. The little woman with the big voice is best remembered for '50s-era hits like "Teardrops From My Eyes," "5-10-15 Hours," "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," "Oh What a Dream" and "Mambo Baby," all recorded between 1949 and 1961 for the fledgling Atlantic Records label. More than any other artist, Brown helped put Atlantic on the music biz map.
Born in Portsmouth Virginia, Ruth Weston left home at the age of seventeen to pursue a dream of performing that was inspired by singers like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. She married trumpeteer Jimmy Brown and toured for a while with Lucky Millinder's orchestra before being unfairly fired. A series of various singing gigs would follow, eventually bringing Brown to the attention of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who signed her to the young label. Brown subsequently scored an even two-dozen charting singles, helping create the label's reputation for R&B excellence and making Atlantic, in many people's eyes, "The House That Ruth Built."
In the '60s, however, Brown's career fortunes faltered as her seductive brand of R&B went out of style in favor of rock & roll, Stax soul and Motown pop. Brown spent the decade raising her two sons, working various hard jobs to pay the rent. She successfully reinvented herself during the '70s, however, turning her vocal talents towards blues and jazz, and using her natural charisma and comedic timing to forge a career in acting. A starring role next to McLean Stevenson in the sitcom Hello, Larry led to a notable appearance as "Motormouth Maybelle" in John Water's 1985 film Hairspray, and from the silver screen Brown went to Broadway, where she won a Tony Award for her role in the 1989 play Black And Blue.
Throughout it all, Brown continued to sing and perform music, recording a dozen albums during the '80s and '90s. A well-known radio personality, Brown was also the host of National Public Radio's "Harlem Hit Parade" program. Brown spent nearly a decade fighting Atlantic Records for her fair share of royalties from her hits of the '50s, a battle that directly led to the formation of The Rhythm & Blues Foundation, an independent non-profit organization created to preserve Rhythm & Blues history and to provide financial, medical and educational assistance to R&B and Motown artists of the '40s through the '70s.
Ruth Brown won a Grammy(tm) Award in 1989 for her album Blues On Broadway, and was the recipient of two W.C. Handy Awards. Brown later received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Blues Foundation in 1999 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993. With her many accomplishments, hit records and work to assist classic R&B artists, Brown's name will always be synonymous with Rhythm & Blues.
