Ruth Brown

The House that Ruth Built

by Erika Cox

Ruth Brown helped Atlantic Records become the success it was throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s with her string of hits. One of the first women in Rock and Roll, Ruth was a major influence for both female and male artists. Although, like many of her fellow 50’s artists, after the hits dried up in the 60’s she was all but forgotten and had to find menial work at times to make ends meet.

Eventually, Ruth’s popularity made a comeback with numerous appearances and honors. She also gained a substantial and important victory over Atlantic Records after winning back the rights of her music and the royalties due her. After nine years in court fighting for royalties to her music and respect from Atlantic Records, Atlantic helped formed the nonprofit Rhythm and Blues foundation as part of the settlement.

The foundation helps other music artists collect the rights to their music. Unfortunately, back in the 1950’s many artists either handed over the rights to their music and name unknowingly or out of desperation to become famous. Record companies, producers, and the like, often took advantage and misled young naïve, inexperienced artists with confusing terms mentioned in their contracts.

Many times the artists were so eager and happy that a record company noticed them and that they actually got a recording contract they never sought any legal advice (perhaps knew nothing about legal advice) nor did they read the contracts thoroughly. Other times the recording companies would deliberately leave important details out of the contracts. It’s really a shame but the music industry is a very shady industry, especially in the past, and many artists were left in precarious situations.

Record producers and managers would have all the royalty rights to the artist’s music, and sometimes their name, and the artists would be left essentially living on an allowance, unaware of how much money they actually have or made from record sales and concerts. So, Ruth Brown was very instrumental and her victory a major accomplishment in this area in developing a foundation to help other artists in similar situations.

Ruth Brown was born Ruth Weston on January 30, 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her father directed the local choir but Ruth had ambitions to sing in nightclubs. Ruth eventually ran away from home to pursue her music career and after a number of setbacks a local disc jockey saw her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records.

Unfortunately, she had another setback when she was injured in a serious car accident and could not make the audition at Atlantic. However, Atlantic didn’t forget about her they paid a visit to see Ruth perform in a nightclub months later and liked what they saw and heard. She signed with Atlantic in 1948 and changed her sound to more of an urban blues sound; prior to this her sound was more jazz sing.

Her first hit came in 1949 called, “So Long”, after that the hits just kept coming. She was on the Rhythm and Blues charts for 149 weeks with numerous Top Ten and number one songs. Like so many artists in the 50’s, including the heavyweight Rock and Rollers, Ruth faded from the public view during the 1960’s and became a housewife and a mother. Nevertheless, she made a comeback in the 1970’s and beyond.

In the 1970’s, she won a Tony award for her performance in the Broadway show “Black and Blue” and appeared in a couple of television sitcoms and the movie “Hairspray”. She also won a Grammy award. In 1993, she was inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame as the “Queen Mother of the Blues” and the same year was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Ruth Brown is definitely a pioneer in the music industry, influencing artists from a variety of music genres. Bonnie Raitt has mentioned her as an inspiration to her and Little Richard, a pioneer himself, credited her as influencing his vocal style. Ruth Brown was a major contribution to Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues.

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Ruth Brown