Tommy Brown (singer)

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Tommy Brown (b. May 27, 1931, Atlanta, Georgia) is an American R&B singer who achieved most success in the early 1950s, particularly on records with The Griffin Brothers.

Brown formed a small band with himself as the drummer in the 1940s, and worked in clubs around Atlanta. In 1949 he recorded "Atlanta Boogie" on the Regent label, a subsidiary of Savoy Records. The track contained early references to rock and roll :

Well, the whole town's rockin' just about the break of day

Well, when the bar starts jumpin' you can hear the cats all say

Well, let's rock'n'roll, well, let's rock'n'roll

Yes, let's rock'n'roll till the break of day...^[1]

In 1951 he moved on to Dot where he was teamed with the Griffin Brothers, an R&B orchestra led by Jimmy Griffin (trombone) and Ernest "Buddy" Griffin (piano) from Norfolk, Virginia. They had toured widely with Amos Milburn, Paul Williams and others, and recorded as the backing band for Margie Day on two R&B top ten hits "Street Walkin' Daddy" and "Little Red Rooster". In June 1951 Brown was featured singer on the R&B top ten hit "Tra-La-La", credited to the Griffin Brothers Orchestra, and later in the year the combination reached # 1 on the R&B charts with "Weepin' and Cryin'", credited to The Griffin Brothers Orchestra featuring Tommy Brown. The Griffin Brothers disbanded in 1954. Buddy Griffin later recorded with Gloria Swann, as Buddy and Gloria, who had an R&B hit with "I Wanna Hug Ya, Kiss Ya, Squeeze Ya", while Jimmy Griffin joined Atlantic Records for an unsuccessful solo career. Both then disappeared into obscurity.

In the early 1950s, Brown was called up for military service, and when he returned he moved to United Records in Chicago. He played for a while in Bill Doggett's band, and claimed to help write Doggett's hit "Honky Tonk". Over the next decade he recorded R&B for a number of smaller labels, before starting to perform and record as a comedian in the 1960s and 1970s. After a later career as a social care worker, he returned to performance in 2001, subsequently appearing in clubs and at blues festivals around the world.