Rocks

Few figures in the history of postwar rhythm and blues played a larger role in the development of rock and roll than Roy Brown, even if he wasn't able to cash in on his innovations. Brown's Good Rocking Tonight was a clarion call to a tremendously exciting future when it broke through in 1948, even though Wynonie Harris' cover stole away much of it's chart thunder. Bear Family's 30-track 'Roy Brown Rocks' pays loving tribute to this R&B pioneer, tracing the mighty blues shouter from his earliest days on the Braun brothers' DeLuxe label, where he scored his biggest hits from 1948 through '51, through his sizzling 1952-55 sides for Syd Nathan's King Records and then his brief 1956-58 career rebirth at Imperial Records, when New Orleans A&R man Dave Bartholomew updated the Louisiana native's sound and got him back on the charts. 1960's Rocking All The Time for Ruben Cherry's Home of The Blues label in Memphis summarizes Roy's entire career; his DeLuxe sides Rockin' At Midnight, Boogie At Midnight, and the incredibly graphic two-part Butcher Pete and the scalding King label jumps Hurry Hurry Baby, Gal From Kokomo, and Ain't No Rocking No More spotlight an incredible singer boasting a sky-high church-trained tenor who rewrote all the rules behind the mic when it came to R&B vocalists, backed by a band he aptly christened The Mighty-Mighty Men. What's more, his 1957 hit rendition of Let The Four Winds Blow stands as definitive. As long as we have Roy Brown's priceless recordings to remember him by, the good rocking need never stop.