This
Roy Brown import offers something of a rough-guide compliment to Rhino Records' own hits-heavy career retrospective of the jump blues shouter.
Laughing but Crying's somewhat obscure Deluxe, King, and Imperial sides may suffer a bit from poor sound quality -- especially the early Deluxe sides -- but the imperfections are soon forgotten because of the sheer quality of the music and
Brown's gospel-soaked delivery. In fact,
Brown's innovative use of gospel phrasing in an R&B context has distinguished him as the original soul singer and in turn made him a major influence on future soul luminaries like
James Brown and
Jackie Wilson. The Swedish R&B label Route 66 shores up the claim with this overview of
Brown's career through 1959, which includes prime, early jump blues cuts like "Roy Brown Blues" and an incredibly salacious slice of double entendre entitled "Butcher Pete, Pt. 1." In addition, there are medium-tempo blues like "Special Lesson No. 1" and "Laughing but Crying," which showcase
Brown's signature technique of shouting and stretching words and phrases in mid-sentence for dynamic effect. To round out the varied program, there's the early rock & roll number "Hurry Hurry Baby" and a
Bing Crosby-style ballad entitled "A Fool in Love."
Roy Brown made a variety of powerful records, many of which are included on
Laughing but Crying and Rhino's
Good Rocking Tonight: The Best of Roy Brown; together, these two fine reissues provide a pretty complete picture of the great R&B singer.