Born Ruth Alston Weston on 30th January 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.
Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. In 1948, however, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegün convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues. His productions for her, however, retained her pop style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.
In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long", which became a hit. This was followed by "Teardrops from My Eyes" in 1950; written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for eleven weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm", and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.
She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954), and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960). She also became known as "Little Miss Rhythm" and "the girl with the teardrop in her voice". In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with sixteen top-ten blues records including five number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built".
During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comic acting gigs, including roles in the sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray as local DJ Motormouth Maybelle, as well as Broadway appearances in Amen Corner and Black and Blue, which earned her a Tony Award for her performance and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.
Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as "The Queen Mother of the Blues".
She has become an iconic symbol to many black women for later generations, where she is also a favourite artist and inspiration for later blues artists such as Bonnie Raitt. Brown recorded and sang along with fellow rhythm and blues performer Charles Brown, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and toured with Raitt on Raitt's tour in the late 1990s, "Road Tested". Her 1995 autobiography, Miss Rhythm, won the Gleason Award for music journalism.
Brown died in a Las Vegas-area hospital on 17th November 2006, from complications following a heart attack and stroke she suffered after surgery in October 2006. A memorial concert for her was held on 22nd January 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
Don't Cry
Ruth Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Even if I opened my two eyes like this
I couldn't see your painful tears.
I needed to hold you and love you more but
Like a fool I put you at unease.
I made you hinder and rest on another shoulder.
Although I couldn't say anything cause my heart burned, please be happy.
For the time you live in this world,
Don't cry because with the reason of love again.
I should be the one sorry. Don't forgive me.
Because of my selfishness of thinking that
You'd always accept me, you hurt alot.
I needed to hold you and love you more but
Like a fool I put you at unease.
I made you hinder and rest on another shoulder.
Erase everything. Erase this kind of me.
Although I couldn't say anything cause my heart burned, please be happy.
For the time you live in this world,
Don't cry because with the reason of love again.
I feel still your love when i see you
When i kiss you feel over you
I feel still your love when i touch you
When i hold you as ever baby
I feel still your lip
When i miss you when ihold you
Always in my heart
You should've told me. You should've given me a chance.
I would've done anything if you wanted.
Why do you make love cry?
Ruth Brown's song Don't Cry is a poignant and emotional ballad about love, regret and heartbreak. The singer of the song, who seems to be addressing a former lover, takes full responsibility for the failure of the relationship and asks for forgiveness while expressing sorrow and remorse. The opening lines of the song "Everything is my fault. Don't cry" set the tone for the rest of the song, with the singer acknowledging their mistakes and taking ownership of the pain they have caused.
The second verse of the song reveals that the singer failed to be there for their lover when they needed them the most. "I needed to hold you and love you more but like a fool I put you at unease. I made you hinder and rest on another shoulder." Here, the singer is expressing regret for not providing comfort and support and allowing their lover to turn to someone else for solace.
Throughout the song, the singer repeatedly asks their former lover not to cry and to be happy. The lines "Erase everything. Erase this kind of me. Although I couldn't say anything cause my heart burned, please be happy. For the time you live in this world, Don't cry because with the reason of love again" convey a deep sense of sorrow and desperation as the singer tries to come to terms with the end of the relationship.
In the final verse, the singer expresses still feeling their love when they see, kiss or touch their former lover, but it is not reciprocated. The singer expresses regret about not being given a chance to make things right, saying "You should've told me. You should've given me a chance. I would've done anything if you wanted. Why do you make love cry?"
Overall, Ruth Brown's Don't Cry is a touching and heart-wrenching song that captures the complex emotions surrounding the end of a relationship, including regret, sadness, and the desire for forgiveness.
Line by Line Meaning
Everything is my fault. Don't cry
Despite it all, I accept responsibility, so there's no need for you to cry.
Even if I opened my two eyes like this
I couldn't see your painful tears.
I was blinded by my own selfishness and couldn't comprehend the hurt I caused you.
I needed to hold you and love you more but
Like a fool I put you at unease.
I made you hinder and rest on another shoulder.
I shouldn't have neglected our love and pushed you away, leaving you to seek comfort elsewhere.
Erase everything. Erase this kind of me.
Although I couldn't say anything cause my heart burned, please be happy.
For the time you live in this world,
Don't cry because with the reason of love again.
I know I can't undo my mistakes, but please forget the person I was and find joy in the future love that you will find.
I should be the one sorry. Don't forgive me.
Because of my selfishness of thinking that
You'd always accept me, you hurt alot.
I can't even fathom how much I hurt you with my self-centered thoughts that you'd always stay by my side.
I feel still your love when i see you
When i kiss you feel over you
I feel still your love when i touch you
When i hold you as ever baby
I feel still your lip
When i miss you when ihold you
Always in my heart
Even though everything has changed, I still cherish the love we shared and keep it close to my heart.
You should've told me. You should've given me a chance.
I would've done anything if you wanted.
Why do you make love cry?
I wish you had communicated your feelings instead of leaving me to make assumptions, because I would've done anything to make things right. Why did our love have to end in tears?
Writer(s): Patton, Jones, Brown, Murray, Combs, Wade, Knight, Evans, Knighton, Barnett, Winans
Contributed by Austin I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.