Ruth Brown & Lavern Baker

Ruth Brown & Lavern Baker - Broadcast Sept 2008

Last time I was in we spent most of our time in the 1950s covering the work of honky tonk pianist and early rock’n roll star Moon Mullican. Today, we will stay in the 1950’s but cover two female artists for whom the term R&B was invented and who helped the grow the Atlantic label in the 1950s

These are Ruth Brown – born in early 1928, and Lavern Baker, born a nearly two years later, in late 1929 and who both had a string of hits through the 1950s with that label

RUTH BROWN

They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth Brown built" during the 1950s. Ruth Brown's hit making reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field.

The daughter of a docker Ruth Weston was born in Jan 1928 and as a child sang in a local church choir, but preferred more popular music.

She ran away from her Portsmouth VA home in 1945 to hit the road with trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. After a few early career hiccups, she was introduced to Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, bosses of the new Atlantic label.

Unfortunately, Brown's debut session was delayed by a nine-month hospital stay caused by a serious auto accident en route to New York. When she finally made it to her first date in May 1949, she cut this track which became her first hit.

1. So Long – May 1949 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 1– 2.40

Brown's seductive vocal delivery shone on her Atlantic hits "Teardrops in My Eyes" (an R&B chart-topper for 11 weeks in 1950),

2. Teardrops in my Eyes – 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 2– 2.53

This track was still selling strongly six months after its release, when Atlantic began releasing 45s in early 1951, at it became the first disc released at that new speed

Other hits followed - "I'll Wait for You" and "I Know" in 1951, "5-10-15 Hours" a year later (another number one rocker), the standard "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"

Here are two of those:

3. I’ll Wait For You – Dec 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 3 – 2.38

4. 5-10-5 Hours – 1952 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 6 - 3.15

Along the way, she picked up the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and it is impossible to understate her popularity during the early and mid 50s. She was a star on the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo in 1955, exhibiting great comic timing while trading sly one-liners with MC Willie Bryant (ironically, ex-husband Jimmy Brown was a member of the show's house band). Two more tracks from 1953

5. Wild Wild Young Men – Oct 1953 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 9 – 2.32

6. Hello Little Boy - 1953 – Classics – Tk 22 – 2.42

Her last number 1 came in 1954.

7. Mambo Baby – 1954 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 12– 2.43

Personally, her unhappy and career-damaging relations with men also hurt. She was outspoken on all these subjects. "I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn't pick a good man," she regretted after three failed marriages.

A hard driving track from 1955 that charted well. This track shows off Ruth’sd trademark vocal trademark ......

8. As Long as I’m Movin – 1955 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 14– 2.44

It was around this time that Atlantic signed Clyde McPhatter and his group The Drifters. Duet she recorded with McPhatter

9. I Gotta Have You – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 14– 2.17

Track written by Bobby Darrin which was her last major hit for Atlantic

10. This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin – 1958 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 20– 1.49

Live version of the hit from 1953

11. "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean – 1959 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 22 - 3.01 (fade out after 2.00)

After two-dozen R&B chart appearances for Atlantic that ended in 1960 Brown faded from view.

After raising her two sons and working as a domestic cleaner and school bus driver, she returned to show business in 1975 with the help of comedian Redd Foxx, who found her acting work on his hit show, Sanford and Son, and elsewhere. She also worked in movies and on Broadway, getting a Tony Award in 1989.

Brown had few business skills, and her Atlantic career was hampered both by the poor fees black artists received and by dubious and dishonest deals from other record labels.

Labels not only scrimped on black artists' fees, but also charged them unaccounted "production costs", which were held against payments for their reissued material. Brown "owed" Atlantic $30,000 until her career revived and she then hired a lawyer. Supported by the Rev Jesse Jackson, they persuaded Atlantic and its owner Warner Communications to change the system.

In 1988, as part of its 40th-anniversary celebration, Atlantic announced it had wiped out past "debts" and made lump-sum payments of retroactive royalties for 35 acts. Atlantic also fronted up with $2 million to launch the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, where Brown remained a trustee, fighting the fight with as much determination as when she'd begun

In 1993 Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 1995 saw the release of her autobiography, Miss Rhythm. Brown suffered a heart attack and stroke following surgery in October 2006 and never fully recovered, and died on November 17, 2006.

LAVERN BAKER

We will continue with LaVern Baker. Lavern was one of the sexiest divas gracing the mid-'50s rock & roll circuit, with a vocal delivery tailor-made for a string of catchy novelty songs with titles like "Tweedlee Dee," "Bop-Ting-a-Ling," and "Tra La La" for Atlantic Records during rock's first wave of prominence.

Born Delores Williams, she took her inspiration from Memphis Minnie who was a relative, and began singing at a Chicago south side at age 17, decked out in raggedy attire and billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper". She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for OKeh as part of the Todd Rhodes Orchestra before settling on the first name of LaVern in 1952. The association with Rhodes got her a trip to Europe in 1952/3 before deciding to go solo.

LaVern signed with Atlantic on her return in 1953, and her first outing with the label was this track.

12. Soul On Fire – 1953 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 5 – 3.05

Another track recorded in 1953, released on her first album in 1956

13. Lots of Love – 1953 – Lavern – Tk 1 – 2.21

Compared with Ruth Brown’s output, Baker’s hits over the next few years were more lightweight rock’n roll

The Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" was a smash in 1955 on both the R&B and pop charts.

14. Tweedle Dee – 1954 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 28 – 3.05

Her "Bop-Ting-A-Ling," and the rocking "Jim Dandy" all charted over the next couple of years.

15. Bop Ting a Ling – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 19 – 3.03

This song "Jim Dandy" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked in Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

16. Jim Dandy – 1956 – Lavern – Tk 13 – 2.08

Baker's statuesque figure and personality made her a natural for TV and movies. She co-starred on the historic R&B revue segment on Ed Sullivan's TV program in November of 1955 and did memorable numbers in Alan Freed's rock movies Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll.

Her Atlantic records remained popular throughout the decade: she hit big in 1958 with the ballad "I Cried a Tear,"

17. I Cried a Tear – 1958 – See See Rider – Tk 13 – 2.36

In 1958 LaVern released a tribute album of Besssie Smith songs

18. Gimme a Pigfoot – 1958 - Precious/Bessie – Tk 13 – 3.05

The following year she released a gospel album called Precious Memories

19. Everytime I Feel the Spirit – 1959 – Precious/Bessie – Tk 10 – 2.17

LaVern left Atlantic in 1964 and in the late 1960s went to Vietnam to entertain the troops. She became seriously ill after the trip and was hospitalized, eventually settling far out of the limelight in the Philippines. She remained there for 22 years, running an NCO club on Subic Bay naval base for the U.S. government.

Finally, in 1988, Baker returned to the USA to star in Atlantic's 40th anniversary celebrations that we mentioned earlier. That led to a soundtrack appearance in the film Dick Tracy, a starring role in the Broadway musical Black & Blue (replacing her ex-Atlantic labelmate Ruth Brown), a nice comeback disc for DRG (Woke Up This Mornin'), and a memorable appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival..

In 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. .

LaVern Baker died from coronary complications in 1997, and was interred in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, New York. Unfortunately she lies in an unmarked grave. A fundraiser was scheduled by local historians to give LaVern a headstone in April 2008.