Shirley Brown

Shirley Brown - Woman To Woman
Shirley Brown was born in West Memphis, Arkansas, and later her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There, she started to sing in a Baptist church in St Louis, Missouri at the age of 10.

Brown got a great reputation for her powerful solos in church. Then, in her late teens, she focused more on secular music and sang with many of the city's soul singers. Then, finally, she found Oliver Sain, who helped her record some songs like "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love is Built on a Strong Foundation", which only made it locally, not nationally. These songs were noticed by Albert King, who then became her manager.

King negotiated a recording deal with Stax Records in Memphis and gained Brown national attention with the hit "Woman to Woman", taken from the 1974 album of the same name. Soul critic Ron Wynn went on to call "Woman to Woman" a "seminal confessional and confrontational soul masterpiece," and it was actually the last hit for the Stax label and its success delayed its bankruptcy for several months. Brown selected her new record label Arista Records, which was one of the first signings to Clive Davis.

In 1975, Brown's hit "Woman to Woman" was nominated for a Grammy Award, but she didn't win. (The song was later covered by Barbara Mandrell in 1978 and became a top-five country hit for her.) After her very successful debut album, Woman to Woman, she came out with more albums such as Shirley Brown, For the Real Feeling and Intimate Storm. None of these albums was successful and her popularity fell at a surprising rate.