Shirley Brown

Infobox musical artist

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Name = Shirley Brown
Img_size = 200
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Shirley Brown
Alias =
Born = Birth date and age|1947|1|6|mf=y
Died =
Origin = West Memphis, Arkansas
Instrument = Vocals
Genre = R&B
Occupation = Singer
Years_active = 1974 - Present
Label = Stax Records
Associated_acts =
URL =

Shirley Brown is a soul singer, born January 6, 1947 in West Memphis, Arkansas who is best known for her single "Woman to Woman" which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975.

Rise to fame and big break

Shirley Brown was born in West Memphis, Arkansas, and later her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There, she started to sing in a Baptist church in St Louis, Missouri at the age of 10. Brown got a great reputation for her powerful solos in church. Then, in her late teens, she focused more on secular music and sang with many of the city's soul singers. Then, finally, she found Oliver Sain, who helped her record some songs like "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love is Built on a Strong Foundation", which only made it locally, not nationally. These songs were noticed by Albert King, who then became her manager.

King negotiated a recording deal with Stax Records in Memphis and gained Brown national attention with the hit "Woman to Woman", taken from the 1974 album of the same name. Soul critic Ron Wynn went on to call "Woman to Woman" a "seminal confessional and confrontational soul masterpiece,"citequote and it was actually the last hit for the Stax label and its success delayed its bankruptcy for several months. Brown selected her new record label Arista Records, which was one of the first signings to Clive Davis.

In 1975, Brown's hit "Woman to Woman" was nominated for a Grammy Award, but she didn't win. After her very successful debut album, "Woman To Woman", she came out with more albums such as "Shirley Brown", "For the Real Feeling" and "Intimate Storm". None of these albums was successful and her popularity fell at a surprising rate.

Comeback

In 1989, four years after her last album, "Intimate Storm", Brown came out with a comeback album, "Fire & Ice", which reached #66 on the U.S. R&B charts, in this album she had one of her hit single songs, "Ain't Nothin' Like The Lovin' We Got", which peaked at #46 on the U.S. R&B charts. It wasn't as big as her first album, but it was more successful than her more recent recordings.

Then, she came out with her other big hit albums such as "Timeless" and "Diva of Soul". "Timeless" made #63 on the U.S. R&B charts, and "Diva of Soul" made #67 on the U.S. R&B charts. It also had a single that made it on to #80 on the U.S. R&B charts. Since then, she has come out with albums such as "The Soul of a Woman" and "Three Way Love Affair".

Discography

Albums

ingles

Grammy Award history

*Grammy Award
**1975, Best Song of The Year: "Woman to Woman" (Nominated)

External links

* http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:m9m8b5n4tsqs~T0
* http://blues.about.com/od/bluesartistsad/p/blprosbrown.htm
* http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Shirley%20Brown.html
* http://blues.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=blues&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.malaco.com%2FCatalog%2FBlues-R-B%2FShirley-Brown%2Flist.php
* [http://www.soulexpress.net/shirleybrown.htm The Shirley Brown 3-part story at Soul Express]