James Brown Biography
Over a 39 year period, James Brown amassed an
amazing total of 98 entries on Billboard's top 40 R&B singles Charts, a
record unsurpassed by any other artist. Seventeen on them reached number one, a
feat topped only by Stevie Wonder and Louis Jordan, and equaled only by Aretha
Franklin.
Brown's rise from juvenile delinquent to Soul Brother Number One is among the
great modern day American success stories. The only child of a poor backwoods
family, he was sent to Augusta, Georgia at age five to live at an aunt's
brothel. He earned his keep by running errands for soldiers at nearby Camp
Gordon, entertaining them with his buckdancing and enticing them into his aunt's
establishment. Singing gospel music and playing piano, drums, and guitar served
as an emotional outlet for the young Brown.
In 1952, Brown settled in Georgia and joined the Gospel Starlighters, a quartet
led by Bobby Byrd. Theirs was a raw southern gospel style inspired by Julius
Cheeks and the Sensational Nightingales and Reverend Reuben Willingham and the
Swanee Quintet. Eventually, however, the Starlighters evolved into a rhythm and
blues outfit. They were originally known as the Avons, them as the Flames.
In November 1955, while based in Macon, Georgia, the Flames cut a demonstration
record at radio station WIBB of an original tune titled "Please, Please,
Please". While passing through Atlanta, record producer Ralph Bass heard
the demo and was so impressed with Brown's impassioned lead and the group's hard
harmonies that he immediately drove to Macon and signed them to King Records, a
Cincinnati company for which two of the Flames' favorite groups, the Midnighters
and the 5 Royales, were recording. A session was held in Ohio the following
week. Released on King's Federal label two months later, in March of 1956,
"Please, Please, Please" reached Number Five on the Billboard's
R&B chart.
Brown's boyhood dream of escaping poverty was not immediately realized, however.
Although he and the Flames continued to make records for Federal, it would be
nearly three years before they again hit the national charts. "Try
Me", produced by Andy Gibson, hit big during the winter of 1958-59, giving
the group its first Number One R&B record and enabling Brown to hire a
steady backup band. Through grueling rehearsals and barnstorming onenighters,
Brown developed the band into the hottest R&B unit in the land. His
musicians' precision timing was geared to accent every blood curling scream,
every flying split, every knee drop, every one-legged skate, and every shimmy of
Brown's stunning array of acrobatics, which be now had become the visual
trademark of the group's stage act.
While he continued scoring hit singles during the early 1960's, now issued on
the King Label, Brown came up with the idea that if the hysteria he was
generating in person could be captured on an album, people who hadn't seen him
yet could at least hear and feel the excitement of him screaming and hollering
until his back got soaking wet. King Records was convinced that such an album
wouldn't sell, so Brown put up his own money to record a performance at the
Apollo Theater in October 1962. Released nearly a year later, Live At The Apollo
went to Number Two on Billboard's album chart, an unprecedented feat for a live
R&B album. Radio stations played it with a frequency formerly reserved for
singles, and attendance at Brown's concerts mushroomed.
Brown scored his first Top 10 pop single in 1965 with "Papa's Got A Brand
New Bag", and the hits kept coming for the next decade, one after another
at an unheard-of rate. He gradually phased out the Flames, and the gospel and
blues structure of his early records gave way to open-ended vamps that
emphasized his rhythmically riveting sandpaper vocals and the complex funk
syncopations of his band. His innovations during this period had a profound
influence on popular music styles around the world, including funk, rock,
Afro-pop, disco and eventually rap.
James Brown's status as "The Godfather Of Soul" remains undiminished.
Indeed, he has picked up a new generation of fans who have become familiar with
his funk grooves through their frequent use as samples on rap records. A charter
member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Brown added to his collections of
accolades when he received a special lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1992
James Brown's Hit Songs
"Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" ('65 #1
R&B, #8 Pop)
"I Got You (I Feel Good)" ('65 #1 R&B, #3 Pop)
"It's A Man's World" ('66 #1 R&B, #8 Pop)
"Cold Sweat (Part One)" ('67 #1 R&B, #7 Pop)
"I Got The Feelin'" (68 #1 R&B, #6 Pop)
"Say It Loud - I'm Black & Proud (Part One)" ('68 #1 R&B, #10
Pop)
"Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me)"
('69 #1 R&B, #11 Pop)
"Super Bad (Part 1 & Part 2)" ('70 #1 R&B, #13 Pop)
"Get On The Good Foot (Part 1) ('72 #1 R&B, #18 Pop)
James Brown has an additional 89 Top 40 R&B songs...
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