"Shirley Brown" has been added to your list of bookmarked artists
close
Shirley Brown
Biography
Born January 6, 1947, in West Memphis, the Browns moved to St. Louis, MO, when Shirley was very young. Cutting her teeth in church, at the age of ten, she earned a reputation in gospel circles throughout the city for delivering powerful solos. In her late teens, she concentrated on secular music and sung with many of the city's soul singers. Her first recordings, produced by Oliver Sain, did nothing nationally but made some noise locally. "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love Is Built On a Strong Foundation" found their way to Memphis R&B stations, giving Brown the impetus, with the help of manager Albert King, to tryout and secured a deal with Stax Records. Brown had the last hit for Stax before the label folded. On November 14, 1974, "Woman to Woman" topped the R&B chart for two weeks.

Luck and timing caused her finest moment in music to occur, writers James Banks, Eddie Marion, and Henderson Thigpen wanted newly signed Inez Foxx ("Mockingbird") to cut the trend-setting love triangle. But, Foxx turned it down, suggesting the long rap on the beginning made it more suitable for Issac Hayes. After "Woman," she released two more singles on Stax's Truth label: "It Ain't No Fun" and "It's Worth a Whippin'," but Stax was on its last leg, and the doors to the theater at 926 East McLemore closed forever in 1975.