Roy Brown (blues musician)
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Roy Brown (10 September 1925–25 May 1981) was a blues musician who brought a soul singing style (from gospel music) to the emerging genre of rock and roll.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Brown started as a gospel singer, but after a move to Los Angeles, California some time in the 1940s, and a brief period spent as a professional boxer in the welterweight category, he won a singing contest in 1945 covering a song by Bing Crosby. In 1946 Brown moved to Galveston, Texas, where he sang in a club. His numbers included "Good Rocking Tonight". He returned to New Orleans in 1947.
Brown failed to interest Wynonie Harris in "Good Rocking Tonight", but got an introduction to the president of Deluxe Records, who signed him. The song reached no. 13 on Billboard's R&B charts (but was eclipsed by Harris' cover of it). Brown's version was a jump blues with a swing beat, but Harris's cover version can be considered closer to rock and roll.
Brown and his band were spectacular performers, with the kind of crowd-pleasing stage histrionics for which Little Richard would soon be famous. Unfortunately, tastes changed and Brown could not keep up.
The decline of his fortunes coincided with his successfully winning a lawsuit against King Records for unpaid royalties in 1952, one of the few African-American musicians to do so in the 1950s. This has led some, such as author Nick Tosches (in his book Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, which contains a chapter on Brown) to believe that Brown may have been blacklisted. His popularity was at it's lowest at the end of the 1950s, but he sporadically managed to find work through the 1960s until the 1970s, when compilation LPs of his old work brought about a minor revival of interest. From 1980 until his death he enjoyed considerable popularity. Shortly before his death he was on a major upswing, performing at the Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood, California and headlining the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival during the spring of 1981.
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