Tony Russell “Charles” Brown was one of the most influential blues singers and pianists of the 1940s and 1950s, known for his warm, understated vocals and sophisticated piano work that helped shape the West Coast blues sound. Born in Texas City, Texas, Brown showed an early love of music and studied piano as a child. He graduated from Central High School in Galveston in 1939 and from Prairie View A&M College in 1942 with a degree in chemistry. Before turning fully to music, he taught chemistry at George Washington Carver High School in Baytown, worked as a mustard gas handler at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas, and later became an apprentice electrician at a Richmond, California shipyard before settling in Los Angeles in 1943.

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Brown’s major breakthrough came with the Three Blazers, whose 1945 recording of “Drifting Blues” — featuring Brown’s smooth piano lines and intimate vocal delivery — spent six months on the Billboard R&B chart. Over the next few years, the group scored additional hits such as “New Orleans Blues,” “Merry Christmas Baby” (both 1947), and “More Than You Know” (1948). Brown’s refined approach influenced a rising generation of artists including Floyd Dixon, Cecil Gant, Ivory Joe Hunter, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Ace, and Ray Charles. In 1948, he left the Three Blazers, signed with Aladdin Records, and quickly found success with “Get Yourself Another Fool.” His 1949 hit “Trouble Blues” spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart, followed by additional successes like “In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down,” “Homesick Blues,” and “My Baby’s Gone.” He returned to the top of the R&B chart in 1951 with “Black Night,” which stayed at No. 1 for 14 weeks.

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As rock and roll began to dominate the 1950s, Brown’s mellow, polished style fell out of commercial favor, and his final early-period hit was “Hard Times” (1952). Though he continued to record — including a 1956 session at Cosimo Matassa’s studio in New Orleans — he largely faded from the national spotlight. However, his music remained deeply admired, and artists such as John Lee Hooker and Lowell Fulson kept his songs alive through frequent covers. Brown returned to the charts in 1960 with “Please Come Home for Christmas,” released on King Records. The song became a holiday classic, selling more than a million copies by 1968 and earning a gold disc. He recorded two albums for Mainstream Records during the 1960s, though mainstream success continued to elude him.

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A major revival of his career began in the 1980s after a series of acclaimed performances at the New York City nightclub Tramps. He resumed touring and recording, earning multiple Grammy nominations and reaching a level of recognition not seen since his early heyday. Brown toured widely during this period, including as the opening act for Bonnie Raitt, who championed his rediscovery and helped introduce his music to a new generation of listeners.

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Charles Brown’s contributions were formally honored in his later years. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996, received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. He earned three Grammy nominations for Best Traditional Blues Album — for All My Life (1991), Someone to Love (1992), and Charles Brown’s Cool Christmas Blues (1995) — and between 1987 and 2005 received seventeen Blues Music Award nominations, winning Blues Instrumentalist: Piano/Keyboard in 1991 and Male Blues Vocalist in 1993 and 1995.