Press Release
Source: Hello Wendy PR
During the 1950s, the record industry called New York-based Atlantic Records “The House That Ruth Built.” That’s how important the many hits of R&B singer Ruth Brown were to the label’s early success. But Ruth cooled off commercially during the ‘60s, and there was a long stretch during the ‘70s where she threatened to fall off the radar altogether.
As it turned out, Miss Rhythm, as she was nicknamed during her heyday, was still making great records, even if precious few of her fans even knew about them. Sunset Blvd.’s new Secret Love compilation gathers them on the two-CD, Secret Love, making it clear that these compelling recordings didn’t deserve their obscurity. The first disc contains the entirety of Brown’s 1976 album Sugar Babe, and it was likely the funkiest set she ever cut. Produced by the legendary Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams, its tight, surging backing tracks, punctuated by punchy horns and soaring strings, were laid down in Muscle Shoals, rendering “Brown Sugar” (not the Rolling Stones warhorse; Williams wrote everything on the set), “You’re Gonna See A Lot More Of Me Leaving,” and “Stop Knocking” thoroughly contemporary and soulful.
The second disc, combining material from two subsequent Brown albums done at Hollywood’s Gold Star Studios, is an entirely different aural delight. 1978’s You Don’t Know Me showcased Brown in an after-hours trio setting led by pianist Lou Levy as she caressed the Great American Songbook standards “Willow Weep For Me,” “Smile,” and “Skylark” (one exception, “Miss Brown’s Blues,” is a jumping remake of “Hello Little Boy,” her wild 1953 proto-rock and roller for Atlantic). The following year’s Touch Me in the Morningsubtly expanded her combo, producer Herb Jeffries escorting Ruth into more contemporary directions: “Touch Me In The Morning,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.”
Taken together, these three “lost” albums present a new and illuminative side of Ruth’s artistry, showing she was eminently capable of venturing in unabashedly contemporary directions even after close to three decades of recording. The Portsmouth, Virginia native made her recording debut for Atlantic in 1949, entering the studio in crutches after a long hospital stay that was the result of a serious auto accident. She hit her first time out with the smoky torch ballad “So Long,” but her biggest sellers of all were up-tempo jumps: “Teardrops From My Eyes” (1950), “5 – 10 – 15 Hours” (1952), “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” (1953). Only Dinah Washington rivaled Brown’s regal status among female singers on the R&B hit parade.
“When people spoke about Atlantic, they kind of automatically spoke about Ruth Brown,” she said. The rise of rock and roll changed that to some degree, though Ruth continued to score hits for Atlantic for the rest of the decade. The ‘60s were another story—some fine recordings, but no hits. The gigs dried up too, forcing Brown to take menial jobs to get by. “A lot of people are amazed when I talk about the things that I did to survive,” said the late Brown. “But that’s my privilege to tell it, if nobody knew it when it was going on.”
Fortunately, things eventually turned around for Ruth Brown as she became a star all over again during the ‘80s and beyond. But the glorious recordings comprising Secret Love fell through the cracks before that took place. It’s time to embrace these hidden gems at long last!
