Nappy Brown
Napoleon Brown Goodson "Nappy" Culp (* 12. October 1929 in Charlotte , North Carolina ; † 20th September 2008 in Charlotte , North Carolina ') was a popular mainly in the 1950s blues - singer . Brown was known for rolling the consonants in a special way. Allegedly , when Herman Lubinsky , the director of Savoy Records , first heard it, believed Brown was singing in Yiddish .
Life
Brown grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he began singing gospel early on . He later became the lead singer of Heavenly Lights, a religious band that eventually moved to Newark, New Jersey , to sign with the local record label Savoy Records. In 1954, Brown split from Heavenly Lights to embark on a blues and R&B oriented solo career.
Immediately after the release of his not very successful debut single Is It True , in the same year, 1955, his breakthrough came with Don't Be Angry (Savoy 1155), which reached number 2 on the R&B best seller charts. In the same year he had another top ten hit with Pitter Patter (Savoy 1162). A number of other singles appeared by the late 1950s, including Open Up That Door , Little by Little and The Right Time . He had his third and last R&B top ten hit in 1958 with the title It Don't Hurt No More (Savoy 1551), which reached number 8 on the R&B charts and number 89 in the pop charts. One last, rather Brown had a modest hit parade that made it to number 22 in 1959 with the title I Cried Like A Baby (Savoy 1575). It was a reissue of a recording from 1956 in which he was accompanied by the Kelly Owens Orchestra. Many of Brown's songs featured distinctive saxophone solos by the likes of Sam "The Man" Taylor , Budd Johnson and Al Sears . But the end of the decade also marked the end of Brown's music career.
In the mid-1980s, Brown made a comeback when he released the blues album Tore Up in 1984 with the Heartfixers as a backing band . He released albums regularly until the 1990s.
Brown died on September 20, 2008 in his hometown of Charlotte.
Discography (albums)
- Don't Be Angry (1954 on Savoy Jazz)
- That Man (1954 on Swift)
- Nappy Brown Sings (1955 on Savoy)
- The Right Time (1958 on Savoy)
- I Done Got Over (1983 in Stockholm)
- Tore Up (1984 on Alligator)
- Something Gonna Jump out the Bushes (1987 on Black Top Records )
- Just for Me (1988 on JSP)
- Deep Sea Diver (1989 on Meltone; live)
- Apples & Lemons (1990 on Ichiban)
- Aw! Shucks (1991 on Ichiban)
- I'm a Wild Man (1995 on New Moon)
- Who's Been Foolin 'You (1997 on New Moon)
Remarks
- ↑ On both recordings he was accompanied by the Howard Biggs Orchestra.
- ↑ In the US pop charts the single reached number 57. Compare Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1994, p. 74
- ↑ With the Teacho Wiltshire Orchestra.
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel: Top 40 R&B And Hip-Hop Hits. 1942-2004. New York: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 70
- ↑ Gantdaily News ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
Web links
- Works by and about Nappy Brown in the catalog of the German National Library
- Nappy Brown on MySpace
- Nappy Brown - a forgotten original by JC Marion
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Brown, Nappy |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown Goodson Culp, Napoleon (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American blues singer |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 12, 1929 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Charlotte , North Carolina , USA |
DATE OF DEATH | September 20, 2008 |
Place of death | Charlotte , North Carolina , USA |