The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that performed with James Brown during the early years of his career. On recordings such as "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me", "
The Famous Flames appeared less and less often on record as Brown's music moved beyond his original R&B style and into the realm of funk; he later claimed that "[t]hey were a good stage act, but they couldn't really sing all that good."[1] Their last studio recording with Brown was "Maybe the Last Time", the B-side of his 1964 proto-funk single "Out of Sight". They continued to appear with him on stage until 1968. After briefly leaving him in the late 60s, Byrd continued with Brown in a supporting vocal role into the 70s and beyond.
Contents |
Billing
Prior to their first recording, "Please, Please, Please", The Famous Flames were billed simply as The Flames, and Brown himself was billed as a member of the group. In later concerts and recordings Brown and the group were billed as James Brown and The Famous Flames, or sometimes as James Brown and His Famous Flames.
During the earliest phase of the Flames' career, before they had a recording contract, each member of the group played an instrument; Bobby Byrd played the piano, while Brown himself played drums. However, in later years (aside from the brief exception of guitarist Nafloyd Scott) The Famous Flames consisted specifically of the singers who backed Brown, not the instrumentalists in his band. (During the 50s and 60s the band was billed separately, first as the James Brown Band and later on as the James Brown Orchestra.) Brown and the Flames' record label King Records contributed to the confusion on this point by crediting the vocal group on the printed labels of James Brown singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" that did not actually feature them.
Lineup
The personnel of The Famous Flames varied widely in the group's early years. For example, when "Please, Please, Please" was recorded on February 4, 1956, The Flames was made up of Brown, Byrd, Johnny Terry, Sylvester Keels, and Nash Knox with Nafloyd Scott on guitar, but Terry was the only member of the original lineup (aside from Brown himself) to perform on the group's next hit, "Try Me", in 1958. According to Brown's autobiography, group founder Bobby Byrd (who briefly left the Flames upon the group's initial break-up) returned to the group shortly thereafter. King Records never put the Flames' faces on any of the group's album covers, a practice that prevented the record-buying public from getting to know the members other than Brown himself.
The longest-lasting Famous Flames lineup consisted of Byrd, Bobby Bennett, and "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth. This lineup lasted a full 10 years, from 1958 to 1968, with original member Johnny Terry coming in and out of the group during this period as a substitute and occasional 4th member. When James Brown became one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's first inductees in 1986, The Famous Flames were not inducted. With the deaths of James Brown in 2006 and Bobby Byrd in 2007 (Stallworth died in 2001), Johnny Terry and Bobby Bennett[citation needed] are the last living members of the original Famous Flames.
Citations
- ^ Brown, James, with Bruce Tucker. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), 149.
References
- White, Cliff and Weinger, Harry (1991). Are You Ready for Star Time?. In Star Time [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records.
- MusicWeb Encyclopedia entry on The Famous Flames. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- GodfatherOfSoul.com page on The Famous Flames and The J.B.'s. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- Wolk, Douglas. (2004). Live at the Apollo. New York: Continuum Books.
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
