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.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Ruth Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That lived within the heart of me
All too soon my secret love,
Became impatient to be free
So I told a friendly star,
The way that dreamers often do
Just how wonderful you are,
Now, I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last my hearts an open door,
And my secret love's
No secret anymore.
Ruth Brown's "Love Love Love" is a love song that expresses the theme of releasing one's fears and expressing love openly. The song describes a secret love that once existed within the heart of the singer, which eventually became too overwhelming to keep to oneself. This secret love is compared to a bird that cannot be caged or contained, as the singer's feelings towards the person they love cannot be held in any longer.
The singer then confides in a "friendly star," sharing just how much they love this person and what makes them so wonderful. This act of sharing is common for dreamers who often talk to imaginative objects as a way of finding a listening ear to express their thoughts and emotions. The enthusiasm and passion in the singer's voice is evident as they shout the news of their love from the highest hills and even share it with the golden daffodils. This expression of open love is freeing for the singer, as they declare their heart an open door and their secret love is no longer a secret.
The song's lyrics allude to the common theme of love and the freeing effect of simply being able to express it openly. Ruth Brown does an incredible job in capturing the vulnerability and passion that comes with revealing one's secret love. The lyrics are also very poetic and elegant, with each line painting a vivid picture in the listener's mind.
Line by Line Meaning
Once I had a secret love,
There was a time when I kept my love for you a secret
That lived within the heart of me
My love for you was deeply rooted in my heart
All too soon my secret love,
However, it didn't take much time for my love to become impatient
Became impatient to be free
It wanted to be expressed and be out in the open
So I told a friendly star,
I confided in a friendly star, as dreamers often do
The way that dreamers often do
Daydreamers like me often share their deepest desires with the stars above
Just how wonderful you are,
I told the star how amazing you are
And why I'm so in love with you
I explained why I have fallen deeply in love with you
Now, I shout it from the highest hills
Now, I proclaim my love for you to the world
Even told the golden daffodils
I even shared my love with the beautiful flowers around me
At last my hearts an open door,
Finally, my heart is no longer closed off
And my secret love's
And the love that I once kept hidden
No secret anymore.
Has now been brought out into the open
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Paul Francis Webster, Sammy Fain
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind