Shirley Brown

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Shirley Brown
Image:Shirleybrown.jpg
Shirley Brown at an honoring of her record company, Stax Records
Background information
Birth name Shirley Brown
Born January 6, 1947
Origin West Memphis, Arkansas
Genre(s) R&B
Occupation(s) Singer
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1974 - Present
Label(s) Stax Records

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.

Contents

[edit] Rise to fame & 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,' 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.

[edit] 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. The Timeless made #63 on the U.S. R&B charts, and Diva of Soul made #67 on the U.S. R&B 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.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Selected Albums

Year Album U.S. R&B U.S. Pop
1975 Woman To Woman 11 98
1989 Fire & Ice 66 -
1991 Timeless 63 -
1995 Diva of Soul 67 -

[edit] Singles

Year Single U.S. R&B U.S. Pop Album
1974 Woman to Woman #1 22 Woman to Woman
1975 It Ain't No Fun 32 94 Woman to Woman
1979 After a Night Like This 73 - For The Real Feeling
1989 Ain't Nothin' Like The Lovin' We Got 46 - Fire & Ice
1995 You Ain't Woman Enough(To Take My Man) 80 - Diva of Soul

[edit] Grammy Award History

[edit] External Link

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