The complete King & Imperial recordings on one disc!!!
When you draw up a short list of the R&B pioneers who exerted a primary influence on the development of rock & roll, respectfully place singer Roy Brown's name near its very top. His seminal 1947 DeLuxe Records waxing of "Good Rockin' Tonight" was immediately ridden to the peak of the R&B charts by shouter Wynonie Harris and subsequently covered by Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more early rock icons (even Pat Boone). In addition, Brown's melismatical pleading, gospel-steeped delivery impacted the vocal styles of B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Little Richard (among a plethora of important singers). Clearly, Roy Brown was an innovator -- and from 1948-1951, an R&B star whose wild output directly presaged rock's rise.
Roy Brown didn't have to wait long to dominate the R&B lists himself. He scored 15 hits from mid-1948 to late 1951 for DeLuxe, ranging from the emotionally wracked crying blues of "Hard Luck Blues" (his biggest seller of all in 1950) to the party-time rockers "Rockin' at Midnight," "Boogie at Midnight," "Miss Fanny Brown," and "Cadillac Baby." Strangely, his sales slumped badly from 1952 on, even though his frantic "Hurry Hurry Baby," "Ain't No Rockin' No More," "Black Diamond," and "Gal From Kokomo" for Cincinnati's King Records rate among his hottest house rockers.
Brown was unable to cash in on the rock & roll idiom he helped to invent, though he briefly rejuvenated his commercial fortunes at Imperial Records in 1957. Working with New Orleans producer Dave Bartholomew, then riding high with Fats Domino, Brown returned to the charts with the original version of "Let the Four Winds Blow" (later a hit for Domino) and cut the sizzling sax-powered rockers "Diddy-Y-Diddy-O," "Saturday Night," and "Ain't Gonna Do It." Not everything was an artistic triumph; Brown's utterly lifeless cover of Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" -- amazingly, a chart entry for Brown -- may well be the worst thing he ever committed to wax (rivaled only by a puerile "School Bell Rock" cut during a momentary return to King in 1959).
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1. Hurry Hurry Baby
2. Old Age Boogie (Parts 1 &2)
3. Laughing But Crying
4. Grandpa Stole My Baby
5. Money Can't Buy Love
6. Letter From Home
7. Midnight Lover Man
8. Mr Hound Dog's In Town
9. Caldonia's Wedding Day
10. Trouble At Midnight
11. Crazy, Crazy Women
12. Everything's All Right
13. Bootleggin Baby
14. No Love At All
15. Up Jumped The Devil 16. Don't Let It Rain
17. Ain't No Rockin No More
18. Queen Of Diamonds
19. Gal From Kokomo
20. Worried Life Blues
21. Fanny Brown Got Married
22. Black Diamond
23. Shake 'Em Up Baby
24. Saturday Night
25. Everybody
26. The Tick Of The Clock
27. I'm Stickin With You
28. Party Doll (#13, 1957)
29. Let The Four Winds Blow (#5, 1957) >> Play CD >>
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