The Famous Flames

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The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that performed with James Brown during the early years of his career. On recordings such as "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me", "Think"," I Don't Mind ","Shout and Shimmy", "Bewildered", "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep", and "I'll Go Crazy" the group's smooth backing harmonies contrasted strikingly with Brown's own rough, impassioned delivery, and their synchronized dance steps were a prominent visual feature of his live shows. The Famous Flames performed with Brown on many of his live and studio albums, including his breakthrough Live at the Apollo, and appeared with him in the films The T.A.M.I. Show and Ski Party. They also made appearances on television programs including American Bandstand and Where the Action Is (both hosted by Dick Clark) and two episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Famous Flames appeared less and less often on record as Brown's music moved beyond his original R&B style and into the realm of funk; he later claimed that "[t]hey were a good stage act, but they couldn't really sing all that good."[1] Their last studio recording with Brown was "Maybe the Last Time", the b-side of his 1964 proto-funk single "Out of Sight". They continued to appear with him on stage until 1968. After briefly leaving him in the late 60s, Byrd continued with Brown in a supporting vocal role into the 70s and beyond.

[edit] Billing

Prior to their first recording, "Please, Please, Please", The Famous Flames were billed simply as The Flames, and Brown himself was billed as a member of the group. In later concerts and recordings Brown and the group were billed as James Brown and The Famous Flames, or sometimes as James Brown and His Famous Flames.

During the earliest phase of the Flames' career, before they had a recording contract, each member of the group played an instrument; Bobby Byrd played the piano, while Brown himself played drums. However, in later years (aside from the brief exception of guitarist Nafloyd Scott) The Famous Flames consisted specifically of the singers who backed Brown, not the instrumentalists in his band. (During the 50s and 60s the band was billed separately as the James Brown Band, the James Brown Orchestra, or The Poets depending on the context.) Brown and the Flames' record label King Records contributed to the confusion on this point by crediting the vocal group on the printed labels of James Brown singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" that did not actually feature them.

[edit] Lineup

The personnel of The Famous Flames varied widely in the group's early years. For example, when "Please, Please, Please" was recorded on February 4, 1956, The Flames was made up of Brown, Byrd, Johnny Terry, Sylvester Keels, and Nash Knox with Nafloyd Scott on guitar, but Terry was the only member of the original lineup (aside from Brown himself) to perform on the group's next hit, "Try Me", in 1958. According to Brown's autobiography, group founder Bobby Byrd (who briefly left the Flames upon the group's initial break-up) returned to the group shortly thereafter. King Records never put the Flames' faces on any of the group's album covers, a practice that prevented the record-buying public from getting to know the members other than Brown himself.

The longest-lasting Famous Flames lineup consisted of Byrd, Bobby Bennett, and "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth. This lineup lasted a full 10 years, from 1958 to 1968, with original member Johnny Terry coming in and out of the group during this period as a substitute and occasional 4th member. When James Brown became one of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's first inductees in 1986, The Famous Flames were not inducted. With the death of James Brown on December 25, 2006, and the recent death of Famous Flames founder Bobby Byrd on September 12, 2007, Johnny Terry is the last living member of the original Famous Flames.

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Brown, James, with Bruce Tucker. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), 149.

[edit] References