Roy Brown
Roy Brown started out crooning Bing Crosby standards before gospel-steeped urgency took over his voice, and by 1947 he had written and recorded 'Good Rockin' Tonight,' one of the loudest early shots fired in the birth of rock and roll. His melismatic, pleading delivery became a template that Elvis Presley, B.B. King, James Brown, and Little Richard would all draw from in their own ways. He racked up hits through the early 1950s before rock and roll's next generation eclipsed him, and he died in 1981.
Brown idolized blues shouter Wynonie Harris and tried, unsuccessfully, to pitch him 'Good Rockin' Tonight' before recording it himself — Harris's commanding presence was the standard Brown was chasing.
listen forListen to Harris's swaggering delivery on 'Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well,' then Brown's own 'Good Rockin' Tonight' — you can hear Brown reaching for the brash confidence of the singer he idolized.
Brown's earliest performing years leaned on pop crooners rather than blues or gospel singers — he covered Crosby standards before jump blues took over his sound.
listen forPlay Crosby's smooth 'White Christmas' croon, then listen for the warmth still underneath the shout on Brown's 'Hard Luck Blues' — the mid-tempo lament keeps the crooner's control there, just aimed at a rowdier target.
Brown's turn toward rhythm and blues came partly through exposure to big-voiced bandleader-singers like Billy Eckstine, whose jazz-inflected pop showed how a Black vocalist could cross into the pop mainstream.
listen forHear Eckstine's rich, controlled baritone on 'Jelly, Jelly,' then Brown's own more ragged, gospel-charged delivery on 'Cadillac Baby' — the same lineage of big-voiced Black pop and R&B, at different degrees of polish.