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.
I Still Love You
Ruth Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
yeah, yeah
ain't it strange how i call out your name
i met silence again can't remember when
i last smiled with it doing bad is good
but i'm letting go i'm giving in
cause i still love you (please come back to me)
i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou (please come back to me)
i still love you
(he's everything i need) i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou, oooh
i need to breathe i need you to succeed
i met silence again cause it's love where in i can hate to say
i'm immune to pain if you break these chains
help me live again if i've knows it was you
i once said it was you
but you gave up too soon
you made it to you,
i will risk my heart if you risk yours at hand
boy i'm letting go i'm giving in
cause i still love you (please come back to me)
i still love you (he's everything i need)
i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou (please come back to me)
i still love you
(he's everything i need) i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou, oooh
no i never want to say goodbye
we should've give ourselves another try
should've only been on thing us against the wind
now i only have myself to blame
i promise i think on rain
wish our feelings never changed
but i'm letting go, i'm giving in
cause i still love you (please come back to me)
i still love you (he's everything i need)
i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou (please come back to me)
i still love you
(he's everything i need) i still love you
(you make my life complete)
i still loooove yooou, oooh
In Ruth Brown's song "I Still Love You," the lyrics express longing and heartbreak caused by a lost love. The first two lines set the tone with the singer pining for her former lover. The repeated refrain of "I still love you" drives the point home. The phrase is used to implore her lover to return to her and to remind both herself and her lover that the love they once shared was true and enduring. The lyrics also reveal regret and the belief that things could have been different if only they had tried harder.
The lines "doing bad is good, but I'm letting go, I'm giving in" demonstrate the internal conflict the singer is feeling. She knows that the relationship was not perfect, but she still loves the person and yearns for that connection again. The idea of "bad is good" reflects the complicated nature of their relationship - it was difficult, but ultimately it brought them both happiness. The repetition of "please come back to me" shows that the singer is willing to humble herself for a chance to be with the one she loves.
Overall, the song is a poignant and emotional plea for a lost love to return. It is a beautiful reminder of the power of love and the pain of heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
oooh, oooh, yeah, yeah
The singer is expressing her emotions through sounds that represent her feelings.
ain't it strange how i call out your name
The singer is feeling strange because she still has feelings for her past lover and she misses him.
i met silence again can't remember when
The singer is feeling lonely and empty again, and she can't remember the last time that she felt complete.
i last smiled with it doing bad is good
The singer is insinuating that she might have felt happy or complete when she was doing bad things.
but i'm letting go i'm giving in
Despite her feelings, the singer decides to let go and give up on her past lover.
cause i still love you (please come back to me)
The singer is still in love with her past lover and wants him to come back to her.
i still love you (he's everything i need)
The singer believes that her past lover is everything she needs in her life.
i still love you (you make my life complete)
The singer feels like her past lover is the only one who can make her life complete.
i need to breathe i need you to succeed
The singer needs her past lover to survive and be successful in life.
i met silence again cause it's love where in i can hate to say
The singer feels lonely and empty again because she loves her past lover and hates to admit it.
i'm immune to pain if you break these chains
The singer is saying that if her past lover returns and releases her from the chains of loneliness, she will no longer feel pain.
help me live again if i've knows it was you i once said it was you but you gave up too soon
The singer is asking her past lover to help her feel alive again, because she believes he was the one, but he gave up on her too quickly.
you made it to you, i will risk my heart if you risk yours at hand
The singer is saying that her past lover made it to her heart, and she is willing to risk it again, but only if he does the same.
boy i'm letting go i'm giving in
The singer is expressing again that she is letting go and giving up on her past lover.
no i never want to say goodbye
The singer doesn't want to say goodbye and let go of her past lover completely.
we should've give ourselves another try
The singer believes that she and her past lover should give their relationship another try.
should've only been on thing us against the wind
The singer wishes they only had to face one challenge: themselves against the world.
now i only have myself to blame
The singer is blaming herself for the current state of her relationship with her past lover.
i promise i think on rain
The singer is making a promise that she will keep thinking about her past lover even if it hurts her.
wish our feelings never changed
The singer wishes that her and her past lover's feelings never changed and that they could still be together.
Writer(s): William South, Diana Brown
Contributed by Alaina M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@xerut
muito bommm... adorei