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.
Mambo Baby
Ruth Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All my baby wants to do is the mambo
Morning, noon and night time too
It’s the mambo
He goes mambo rhythms, effects all the time
He goes mambo rhythms, effects all the time
He’s neglecting our romance
For the mambo
He’s neglecting our romance
For the mambo
He just loves that crazy dance
Called the mambo
Mambo baby, mambo baby
Oh, mambo baby I love you so
But me or that mambo has got to go
The only thing he’s thinking of
Is the mambo
When we should be making love
It’s the mambo
But me or that mambo has got to go
The song "Mambo Baby" by Ruth Brown is a playful and upbeat tune that talks about a man's obsession with the mambo dance. The lyrics emphasize how the man would rather dance the mambo than spend time with his romantic partner, neglecting their relationship for the sake of the dance. The repetition of the line "all my baby wants to do is the mambo" echoes the man's single-minded focus and dedication to the dance. The mambo beat is so addictive that the man cannot keep himself from tapping his feet, swaying his hips and moving his body at every opportunity.
The playful tone of the song cleverly contrasts with the underlying message, which is a warning to the man to choose between the dance and his relationship. The lyrics show the woman's frustration and her ultimatum that the man has to choose between her or the mambo. She loves him but cannot tolerate his neglectful behaviour. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the lyrics, which contain a serious message, and the buoyant beat, which makes it danceable and entertaining.
Line by Line Meaning
All my baby wants to do is the mambo
My partner is obsessively focused on dancing the mambo all the time.
Morning, noon and night time too
It's a 24/7 obsession.
He goes mambo rhythms, effects all the time
He's always trying out different mambo moves and techniques to perfect his dance.
’Cause that mambo rhythm feels so fine
He can't resist the allure of the mambo beat that feels so good.
He’s neglecting our romance
Our romantic relationship is suffering due to his mambo obsession.
For the mambo
He is sacrificing time and effort to dance the mambo instead of nurturing our relationship.
He just loves that crazy dance
He is deeply in love with the wild and exciting mambo style.
Called the mambo
He can't get enough of the mambo, and it's starting to drive a wedge between us.
Mambo baby, mambo baby
He has turned into a mambo fanatic.
Oh, mambo baby I love you so
Despite his obsession with the mambo, I still love him.
But me or that mambo has got to go
Our relationship can't survive if he continues to prioritize the mambo over me.
The only thing he’s thinking of
His mind is consumed with the mambo.
Is the mambo
He is fully committed to perfecting the mambo and nothing else.
When we should be making love
Instead of being intimate and affectionate, he's too busy dancing the mambo.
It’s the mambo
The mambo has taken over our relationship and needs to be addressed.
But me or that mambo has got to go
His mambo obsession is endangering our relationship and must be addressed.
Lyrics © IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Written by: MCCOY SINGLETON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind