Customer Reviews

Ruth Brown - Miss Rhythm (Greatest Hits and More)

5 star:		(3)
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Ruth Brown was among a handful of performers (among them, Atlantic Records labelmates Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, and LaVern Baker) who saw and led the 15-year shift where blues and jazz formed rhythm and blues, was renamed rock and roll, then was branched off into the beloved soul era that followed.

"Miss Rhythm," an exceptional collection of greatest hits and rare performances, captures the not always subtle changes black music underwent during the turbulent 1950s. Brown's voice was equal parts Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday (hear the ending of "I'll Get Along Somehow") and even Bessie Smith (the pleading roar of "Standing On The Corner," a song about domestic violence and helplessness).

Being among the first stars of the still-new Atlantic label meant songwriting and arrangement help from its bosses, Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, most notably on a swinging "Sentimental Journey" (with the Delta Rhythm Boys) and "Shrine of St. Cecilia" before climaxing with the #1 hits "Wild Wild Young Men" and "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

Disc two finds Brown becoming more a song stylist with less to style. Rock and roll was in full rush, leaving Brown copying the soul and style of hits by LaVern Baker ("Lucky Lips"), the Bobbettes (Bobby Darin's fun-but-silly "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'") and the mambo and talking blues crazes. The final song, Chuck Willis' "Don't Deceive Me," recalls Clyde Otis' arrangements for Brook Benton and may have been her future had she stayed with the label.

Ruth Brown's late-80s renaissance was welcome. Her appearance on a PBS "American Masters" special, her role in "Hairspray," and this set reminded many of the brave steps a new style, label, and artist took during one of music's most turbulent eras. Atlantic and R&B in general had a queen before Aretha, and Ruth Brown's "Miss Rhythm" is highly recommended.

Once fired from Lucky Millinder's band, it was the great Duke Ellington who recommended her to Herb Abramson and his fledgling Atlantic Records in 1949. Good thing, too, because it was Ruth Brown who put Atlantic on the map, make no mistake.

She did that with 24 R&B hit singles from 1949 to 1960, five of which crossed over to the Billboard Pop charts. In this 2-CD set you get all but four, which is kind of disappointing when you see that they include four previously unreleased tracks [Hey Pretty Baby, Don't Cry, The Shrine Of St. Cecilia, and It's All For You].

The missing hits are: Mend Your Ways, the flipside of Wild Wild Young Men, which reached # 7 R&B in July 1953; Bye Bye Young Men [# 13 R&B in January 1955 - but they DO include the uncharted B-side, Ever Since My Baby's Been Gone]; Sweet Baby Of Mine [# 10 R&B in May 1956]; and Jack O'Diamonds [# 23 R&B/# 96 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in July 1959, but again they DO include the uncharted flipside, I Can't Hear A Word You Say]. For that reason, as a completist collector, I had to reluctantly deduct one star in my assessment. I simply do not understand this all-too-repeated practice by CD producers.

What is here, however, more than adequately illustrates why, in 1956, a dee-jay Cash Box poll found her to be "the most programmed female vocalist in the R&B field." An Alan Freed favourite, her other cross-over hits besides Jack O'Diamonds were Lucky Lips [# 6 R&B/# 25 Top 100 in 1957], This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' [# 7 R&B/# 24 Top 100 in 1958], I Don't Know [# 5 R&B/# 64 Hot 100 in late 1959], and Don't Deceive Me [# 10 R&B# 62 Hot 100 in 1960 and her last with Atlantic].

In 1962 Ruth was back on the pop charts with the Philips label when the old Faye Adams hit, Shake A Hand, made it to # 97, and a re-make of Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean) just made the Top 100 at # 99 backed by The Milestone Singers. These remain two of the hardest-to-find Ruth Brown hits.

The accompanying booklet includes a session record showing the musicians who participated in each selection, and when each was recorded, as well as six pages of background information written in 1989 by Chip Deffaa, then the Jazz/blues critic for The New York Post. There are, however, no other photos of Miss Rhythm.

One final note. I notice that my copy of this set has a different picture of Ruth on the cover - a head shot that looks like someone cropped it with a rusty razor blade. Clearly the same CD set judging from the songs listed, the one advertised above has a much more appealing photograph of this great R&B songstress who, unlike some members, was justifiably inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame in 1993, and the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2002.

Highly recommended in spite of the missing Atlantic hits.

I first heard Ruth Brown's Wild Wild Young Men on a local blues show. I bought the CD to get that song. I listened to samples of the rest of the CD and thought it would be nice in my collection. Wow was I pleasantly surprised. I think just about every song on both CD's is a winner. I like Ruth's new stuff, she still can belt it out. The energy and quality of her "young" voice of the fifties really sends me. If you like the post war era and roots of rock and roll then this is I believe a good choice to add to your collection. As for me I love the slight naughtiness in songs of this period. I could name them all but a few good examples on this CD would be... Lucky Lips, This Girl's Gone Rockin', Love Contest, 5-10-15 Hours and of course Wild Wild Young Men. I am certainly not learned like many other reviewers, I just like this one and play it alot. Like they used to say "it's got a great beat and you can certainly dance to it."

Okay, I have spent a fair amount of time tracing the roots of rock and roll back to the early 1950s and the heyday of rhythm and blues. And of course part of that process required a look, a serious look, at the pivotal roles of the likes of black male R&B performers like Big Joe Turner, Ike Turner and Little Milton. Those are some of the key forces that drove the sound. Unlike the early blues, however, where black female singers dominated the charts and the flow of where the music was heading women were not as prominent in the link between R&B and the emergence of rock and rock as a national (and later international) musical genre. But they were there. And the black (and proud) female singer under review here, Ruth Brown, rightly known under the moniker "Miss Rhythm", was right there along with Dinah Washington and Lavern Baker to sing up a storm. Thanks, gals.

The name Ruth Brown has come up a number of times in this space when talking about 1950's blues, R&B and rock. However, those occasions have usually been as a "talking head" commentator in documentaries like Martin Scorsese's multi-part PBS blues series of 2003. And the tale Miss Brown had to tell about the background to her performing career was not pretty concerning the segregated dance halls, second-rate accommodations and other intolerable conditions that black musicians, great and small, male and female had to work under. Despite that, she still had a few crossover hits and got those white teenagers jumping. That doesn't make up for the indignities she suffered, nothing will, but she has to know that in her prime she had that thing- "Miss Rhythm, indeed!"

Some of this material on this 2CD set sounds as fresh today as when it was first recorded. Others, as is the nature of such compilations, are either gimmicky, second-rate or both. Here are some of the fresh sounds that highlight Miss Brown's talent; "So Long", "Be Anything", "5-10-15 Hours", "Daddy Daddy" and "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (Wow, on this last one). From Disc One. From Disc Two; "Why Me', "This Little Girl's Gone Rocking", "Somebody Touch Me" and "Don't Deceive Me".

i was fortunate enough to see ms. brown in concert when she toured with bonnie raitt( and charles brown) and i was so blown away i went out immediately and purchased this cd. great compilation of some of the roots of rock,highly reccommended.

Finally i found a great song from a great artist ! May her sweet sound live on forever !!