Ruth Brown, the real name Ruth Alston Weston, was a popular American singer and actress who dominated the rhythm-and-blues charts in the 1950s. She was born on January 12, 1928, in Portsmouth, Virginia, and passed away on November 17, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Her breakthrough contributed to Atlantic Records becoming the leading rhythm-and-blues label of the time (“The House That Ruth Built”).
Brown, the oldest of seven children, was warned by her father, a church choir director, to stay away from “the devil’s music,” but by her late teens, she was singing in clubs in Virginia’s Tidewater region and had started to perform with touring bands.
Brown’s debut song, “So Long,” was released in 1949 after she spent nine months in the hospital recovering from an automobile accident.
With a streak of number-one singles like “Teardrops from My Eyes” (1950), “5-10-15 Hours” (1952), and her signature song, “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” she became the most well-known female rhythm and blues musician of the 1950s (1953).
After years of having her tracks covered by white musicians, she attained crossover pop success with “Lucky Lips” (1957) and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin'” (1958).
What was Ruth Brown’s biggest hit?
Ruth Brown’s greatest hits are arranged accordingly:
- Lucky LipsRuth Brown.
- Daddy DaddyRuth Brown.
- I Gotta Have YouRuth Brown.
- Teardrops From My EyesRuth Brown.
- This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’Ruth Brown.
- 5- 10- 15 HoursRuth Brown.
- Mama He Treats Your Daughter MeanRuth Brown.
- Wild Wild Young MenRuth Brown.
