James Brown Top Songs and Awards

James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was a vocalist and musician from the United States. He is known as “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business,” “Godfather of Soul,” “Mr. Dynamite,” and “Soul Brother No. 1” in addition to being the fundamental founder of funk music and a major character of twentieth-century music.

During his more than 50-year career, he influenced the creation of various music genres. Brown was one of the original ten honorees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986, in New York.

James Brown was born in a small wooden hut on May 3, 1933, near Barnwell, South Carolina, to 16-year-old Susie (Behling; 1917-2004) and 21-year-old Joseph Gardner Brown (1912-1993). Brown’s name was meant to be Joseph James Brown, but on his birth certificate, his first and middle names were reversed. Brown asserted in his book that he was of Chinese and Native American descent, that his father was of mixed African-American and Native American blood, and that his mother was of mixed African-American and Asian descent.

The Brown family lived in Elko, South Carolina, which was a poor town at the time. When James was four or five, the family relocated to Augusta, Georgia. His family initially resided in one of his aunts’ brothels. They eventually moved into a house with another aunt. Brown’s mother finally left the family and relocated to New York following a rocky and abusive marriage.

He began singing in talent events as a child, first winning at Augusta’s Lenox Theatre in 1944 after performing the ballad “So Long.” Brown performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon as their convoys passed over a canal bridge near his aunt’s house during the outset of World War II.

It was here that he first heard Howlin’ Wolf, the famed blues guitarist, play guitar. During this time, he learned to play the piano, guitar, and harmonica. After hearing “Caldonia” by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, he was inspired to become an entertainer. Brown briefly worked as a boxer throughout his adolescence.

What are some of James Brown top songs?

Below are some of Brown’s top songs:

It’s Man’s Man’s World, I Got You (I Feel Good), I Got a Feeling, No No No, Lost Someone, Get Up Offa That Thing, I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing, Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, Pt. 1, Get on Good Foot, Part 1, The Payback, Bring It Up, Good Good Lovin’, This Old Heart, I Know It’s True, Begging Begging, Stone to the Bone