| features in: Album Chart of 1959 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1950s |
Brown had secured an early prison release on June 14, 1952 after serving three years of his sentence for armed robbery. The authorities agreed to release him on the condition that he would “get a job”. After stints as a boxer and baseball pitcher in semi-professional baseball (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy positively toward music. After a few years of gospel that “didn’t pay no rent”, Federal Records president Ralph Bass signed the Famous Flames to his label in February 1956 and had them record “Please Please Me” in Cincinnati’s King Studios. Released the following month, the song became the Famous Flames’ first R&B hit, selling over a million copies. Strangely, and somewhat unjustly, a string of chart misses followed, then, in late 1958, Brown self-financed the demo of his ballad, “Try Me”. Released that October, it returned the Famous Flames to the charts and reached No. 1 on the R&B chart in February 1959, becoming the first of 17 chart-topping hits on that chart to be credited to Brown over the next 15 years. This debut album rounds up 10 of the 16 sides released on Federal between 1956 and 1958, and it’s an exercise in cool all the way. A must have…
The Jukebox Rebel
18–Apr–2012
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [02:46]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Please, Please, Please [1956 version] (James Brown, Johnny Terry) Rock n Roll Ballad |
| A2 | [02:13]  James Brown - Chonnie-On-Chon (James Brown, Bobby Byrd) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| A3 | [02:14]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Hold My Baby’s Hand (James Brown, Trevor Smith) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| A4 | [02:35]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - I Feel That Old Feeling Coming On (Nashpendle Knox) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| A5 | [02:36]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Just Won’t Do Right (James Brown) Rock n Roll Ballad |
| A6 | [02:37]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Baby Cries Over The Ocean (James Brown) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| A7 | [02:48]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - I Don’t Know (James Brown) Soul Ballad |
| A8 | [02:24]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Tell Me What I Did Wrong (James Brown) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B1 | [02:33]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Try Me [1958 version] (James Brown) Rock n Roll Ballad |
| B2 | [02:28] James Brown and The Famous Flames - That Dood It (Rudy Toombs) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B3 | [02:54]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Begging, Begging (Julius Dixon, Rudy Toombs) Rock n Roll Ballad |
| B4 | [02:44] James Brown and The Famous Flames - I Walked Alone (B. Bergman, A. Kastner, J. Parulolo) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B5 | [02:15] James Brown and The Famous Flames - No, No, No, No (James Brown) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B6 | [02:51]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - That’s When I Lost My Heart (James Brown) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B7 | [02:28]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Let’s Make It (James Brown) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B8 | [02:15]  James Brown and The Famous Flames - Love Or A Game (James Brown) Rock n Roll Ballad |
