Charles Brown: Blues/R&B Hit Maker
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 57 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Charles Brown, a blues singer and pianist recorded iconic hits like Merry Christmas Baby, Black Night, Hard Times, and Please Come Home For Christmas. Throughout the 1940s to 1960s, Brown’s signature soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced famous blues performances like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke.
Tony Russell “Charles” Brown was born in Texas City, Texas, on September 13, 1922, to John Moses Brown and Mattie Evelyn Simpson Brown. When Brown was six months old, his mother died. In 1928, his father was killed by a train. Brown was raised by his maternal grandparents, Conquest and Swanee Simpson.
Brown’s grandmother, a church choir director, encouraged him to learn classical music on the piano. Brown played in the band at Central High School in Galveston. Brown, who had an affinity for science, also played at numerous local clubs with saxophonist Costello James, his high school science teacher. In 1942, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Prairie View A&M College (now Prairie View A&M University). Shortly after, he became a chemistry teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Boytown, Texas.
In the early 1940s, he moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. As a junior chemist at the Pine Bluff Army Arsenal, Brown manufactured mustard gas. He played piano for a local church during his stay. In 1943, frustrated by the racism he experienced in Pine Bluff, he moved to California. He found work as an apprentice electrician at a shipyard in Richmond, California, during World War II. Brown soon settled in Los Angeles as he continued to pursue a career in music. Within months of moving to Los Angeles, Brown joined blues group Johnny Moore & The Three Blazers.
In 1945, Johnny Moore and the Three Blazers signed with Exclusive Records. That year, they recorded Drifting Blues,which stayed on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart for six months. In 1947, Johnny Moore and the Three Blazers recorded two hits, New Orleans Blues and the original version of Merry Christmas Baby. In 1948, they recorded More Than You Know. That same year, Brown left the Three Blazers, formed his own trio, and signed with Aladdin Records. Success soon followed with hits like Get Yourself Another Fool. In the summer of 1949, Trouble Blues spent 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart.
Brown followed up with a slew of hit songs, including In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down, Homesick Blues, and My Baby's Gone. In 1950, Brown had his second R&B chart-topping hit, Black Night. In 1952, he released his final hit song Hard Times.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Brown continued to record with limited success. Brown’s soft-toned, slow-paced nightclub piano and vocal style had faded in popularity. During this time, Brown worked as a music teacher and janitor to make ends meet.
Fortunately, in 1978, the Eagles recorded his song Please Come Home For Christmas, which reached Number 18 on the national charts. In the 1980s, he made a series of appearances at the New York City nightclub Tramps, which led to a recording contract with Blue Side Records. In 1986, he recorded the hit album One More for the Road in just three days.
In 1988, he was featured in the documentary film That Rhythm . . . Those Blues. In 1989, Brown experienced a resurgence of success as he toured extensively with Grammy award-winning blues singer Bonnie Raitt, as the opening act on her national tour.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he recorded a number of albums, including One More for the Road (1986), All My Life (1990), Someone to Love (1992), These Blues(1994), Just a Lucky So and So (1994), Honeydripper (1996), and So Goes Love(1998). In 1989, the Rhythm & Blues Foundation awarded Brown its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1997, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Award.
During his lifetime, Brown was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album three times: in 1991 for All My Life, 1992 for Someone To Love, and 1995 for Charles Brown's Cool Christmas Blues.
Between 1987 and 2005, he was nominated for seventeen Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards) in multiple categories. In 1991, he won awards in the Blues Instrumentalist: Piano/Keyboard category. In 1993 and 1995, he also won a Blues Music Award in the Male Blues Vocalist category.
Brown died from congestive heart failure on January 21, 1999, in Oakland, California. Two months later, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
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