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.
Why Don't You Do Right
Ruth Brown Lyrics
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You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
You're sittin' down wonderin' what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will put you out
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
If you had prepared twenty years ago
You wouldn't be wanderin' now from door to door
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in
Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Like some other men do
In Ruth Brown's song Why Don't You Do Right, the woman singer is expressing her dissatisfaction and disappointment in her man's behavior. She begins by addressing his past success and financial stability, but how that has all gone to waste as he's allowed other women to take advantage of him. She urges him to start being responsible and earn some money, like other men do. She's not going to settle for his excuses and wants him to step up and provide for her as he should.
The woman's frustration and disappointment continue to build as she lays out the consequences of his poor choices. He's sitting around with no money, risking being put out, and she's not having it. She questions why he's not doing what other men do, and tells him to leave and go get some money. If he had only prepared for his future earlier, he wouldn't be struggling now, and she wouldn't be in this position. She blames him for leading her on and now only offering her a drink of gin.
Line by Line Meaning
You had plenty money, Nineteen-Twenty-Two
Back in the year 1922, you were financially well-off
You let other women make a fool of you
You allowed other women to manipulate and deceive you
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Why can't you act right, like most of the other men?
Get out of here and get me some money too
You better leave and also bring me some money
You're sittin' down wonderin' what it's all about
You're sitting there clueless, not knowing what's going on
You ain't got no money, they will put you out
If you don't have any money, you'll be kicked out
If you had prepared twenty years ago
If you had planned ahead twenty years earlier
You wouldn't be wanderin' now from door to door
You wouldn't be aimlessly going from place to place
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in
I believed and fell for your lies, and let you in my life
Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin
All you can give me now is a glass of gin
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Why can't you act right, like most of the other men?
Get out of here and get me some money too
You better leave and also bring me some money
Why don't you do right like some other men do?
Why can't you act right, like most of the other men?
Like some other men do
Like most of the other men behave
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Joe McCoy
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind