Bobby Byrd
Encyclopedia
Bobby Byrd born Robert Howard Byrd (August 15, 1934 – September 12, 2007) was an American
funk
/soul
/R&B
/gospel
musician
, songwriter
and record producer
. He was born in Toccoa, Georgia
, and is a 1998 winner of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's
prestigious Pioneer Award. He is also noted as the man who founded the famed Rhythm & Blues singing group The Famous Flames
.
who was serving time there on armed robbery charges. Byrd befriended him and arranged for Byrd's family to oversee Brown's parole.
It began a personal and professional association that lasted until 1973 and although Byrd had twenty years plus as a solo performer it is his association with Brown for which he is chiefly remembered. Brown was a remarkable tour de force of vitality and personality and within a short time he had not only joined the Avons but he was directing affairs changing their name to The Flames
. Byrd recognised early that Brown was unique and that it would be impossible to control him: "I didn't need him in competition, I needed him with me, that's why I worked so hard to get him over to my group.".
The group, with the addition of Johnny Terry and Baroy Scott on bass, moved to Macon, Georgia and signed with the King subsidiary label, Federal. Their first record "Please, Please, Please
" appeared in February 1956 as by James Brown and the Flames, a fact that did not please some members of the band and after just three sessions the original Flames had split. At the final session Byrd and Brown wrote the rhythm & blues dancer "Can't Be the Same," which was the first of many collaborations with Brown for which Byrd failed to gain credit.
The Flames without Brown changed their name to Byrd's Drops of Joy but found the going tough so that when Brown approached them to reform the Flames they agreed. The power within the group was now with James Brown. At this point, The Famous Flames
ceased being a vocal/instrumental group, and became a straight vocal group, as there was no need for additional instrumentalists, since Brown, in the interim, had already began to employ his own road band, the old J.C. Davis outfit, which became the first incarnation of the new James Brown Band (now a separate entity from The Flames,who were now all vocalists save for Byrd, who sang and occasionally also doubled on keyboards). Original Flames members Bobby Byrd and Johnny Terry returned, and new Flames members Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth were added. Original Flames guitarist Nafloyd Scott also returned, and was added to the band.This was in 1958.
many solo
funk tracks, most famously "I Know You Got Soul
" (1971), which have been sampled
by musicians including Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim
, Ice Cube
, LL Cool J
and A Tribe Called Quest
. He was the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames
, the vocal group with which James Brown first became famous. Byrd is actually the man who discovered James Brown.
Byrd and Brown met in a Georgia youth detention facility, where Brown was an inmate. Byrd's local baseball
team played the prison team of which Brown was a member. It was Bobby Byrd's family that sponsored his release and took him in afterwards
Byrd was leader and founder of a vocal group called The Avons when Brown joined in the mid 1950s. The Avons later became The Flames, then The Famous Flames
, before they were repackaged with Brown as the frontman. James Brown and the Famous Flames, with Byrd as a member, recorded many hit single
s, including "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me
", "Think", "Bewildered
", "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep
", "I Don't Mind
","Shout and Shimmy
" ,"This Old Heart","I'll Never Never Let You Go.", " I'll Go Crazy", and many more.
Brown and The Flames were also known for their powerful on stage performances across the United States
in venues such as the Apollo Theatre
in New York
, (where they recorded the million-selling Live At The Apollo album) the Regal in Chicago
, and The Royal Theatre in Baltimore
(where they recorded the 1964 Top 10 live album
, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal
) and on film
in the 1964 concert
film, The T.A.M.I. Show, where they upstaged The Rolling Stones
. Byrd also appeared with Brown and the group in the Frankie Avalon
film Ski Party
(1965), Dick Clark's American Bandstand
, and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show
. Byrd was the only member of The Flames to remain with Brown when the group disbanded in 1968.
In 1993 Byrd released a solo album On the Move on the German
record Label
, Soulciety Records.
In October 2004 Bobby Byrd's songs "I Know You Got Soul" and "Hot Pants" were featured on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
soundtrack
, playing on fictional radio station
Master Sounds 98.3. In September 2005 his song "Try It Again" appeared on the soundtrack of Indigo Prophecy.
He was married, for many years until his death, to soul singer Vicki Anderson
, another James Brown collaborator. His stepdaughter is Carleen Anderson
.
On September 12, 2007, surrounded by his family, Byrd died of cancer
, aged 73 in Loganville, Georgia
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
/soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
/R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
/gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. He was born in Toccoa, Georgia
Toccoa, Georgia
Toccoa is a city in Stephens County, Georgia, United States located approximately from Athens and approximately northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,323 at the 2000 census...
, and is a 1998 winner of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's
Rhythm and Blues Foundation
The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music....
prestigious Pioneer Award. He is also noted as the man who founded the famed Rhythm & Blues singing group The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that recorded and performed with James Brown during the early years of his career...
.
Early Gospel years
Bobby Byrd was raised in the relative security of a church-going family in Toccoa, Georgia. His family were respected members of their congregation and active in supporting their community. He was active in his local church's gospel choir, The Zioneers and then made a local name for himself in the Gospel Starlighters. It was a time when church elders disapproved of secular singing, so Byrd and the other members of the Gospel Starlighters would leave the state to perform secular material as The Avons. Byrd provided vocals, piano, and organ, and he led a group including: Sylvester Keels, Fred Pulliam, Doyle Onglesby, Nashpendle "Nash" Knox, and Nafloyd Scott on guitar.With James Brown and The Famous Flames
In 1952 Bobby Byrd was playing baseball against the inmates of the Alto Reformatory prison team and met James BrownJames Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
who was serving time there on armed robbery charges. Byrd befriended him and arranged for Byrd's family to oversee Brown's parole.
It began a personal and professional association that lasted until 1973 and although Byrd had twenty years plus as a solo performer it is his association with Brown for which he is chiefly remembered. Brown was a remarkable tour de force of vitality and personality and within a short time he had not only joined the Avons but he was directing affairs changing their name to The Flames
The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that recorded and performed with James Brown during the early years of his career...
. Byrd recognised early that Brown was unique and that it would be impossible to control him: "I didn't need him in competition, I needed him with me, that's why I worked so hard to get him over to my group.".
The group, with the addition of Johnny Terry and Baroy Scott on bass, moved to Macon, Georgia and signed with the King subsidiary label, Federal. Their first record "Please, Please, Please
Please, Please, Please
"Please, Please, Please" is an R&B song written by James Brown and Johnny Terry and recorded by Brown and The Flames. Released in 1956 as a single on the Cincinnati, Ohio-based label Federal Records, it was Brown's first professional recording and his first hit, eventually selling over a million...
" appeared in February 1956 as by James Brown and the Flames, a fact that did not please some members of the band and after just three sessions the original Flames had split. At the final session Byrd and Brown wrote the rhythm & blues dancer "Can't Be the Same," which was the first of many collaborations with Brown for which Byrd failed to gain credit.
The Flames without Brown changed their name to Byrd's Drops of Joy but found the going tough so that when Brown approached them to reform the Flames they agreed. The power within the group was now with James Brown. At this point, The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that recorded and performed with James Brown during the early years of his career...
ceased being a vocal/instrumental group, and became a straight vocal group, as there was no need for additional instrumentalists, since Brown, in the interim, had already began to employ his own road band, the old J.C. Davis outfit, which became the first incarnation of the new James Brown Band (now a separate entity from The Flames,who were now all vocalists save for Byrd, who sang and occasionally also doubled on keyboards). Original Flames members Bobby Byrd and Johnny Terry returned, and new Flames members Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth were added. Original Flames guitarist Nafloyd Scott also returned, and was added to the band.This was in 1958.
Career
Byrd also recordedSound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
many solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
funk tracks, most famously "I Know You Got Soul
I Know You Got Soul (Bobby Byrd song)
"I Know You Got Soul" is a song recorded by Bobby Byrd with James Brown's band The J.B.'s. The recording was produced by Brown and released as a single in 1971. It reached #30 on the Billboard R&B chart. It was prominently sampled on the 1987 song of the same name by Eric B...
" (1971), which have been sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
by musicians including Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...
, Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, LL Cool J
LL Cool J
James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...
and A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...
. He was the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that recorded and performed with James Brown during the early years of his career...
, the vocal group with which James Brown first became famous. Byrd is actually the man who discovered James Brown.
Byrd and Brown met in a Georgia youth detention facility, where Brown was an inmate. Byrd's local baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team played the prison team of which Brown was a member. It was Bobby Byrd's family that sponsored his release and took him in afterwards
Byrd was leader and founder of a vocal group called The Avons when Brown joined in the mid 1950s. The Avons later became The Flames, then The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames was an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd that recorded and performed with James Brown during the early years of his career...
, before they were repackaged with Brown as the frontman. James Brown and the Famous Flames, with Byrd as a member, recorded many hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
s, including "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me
Try Me (song)
"Try Me" is a song written and performed by James Brown. He recorded it with his singing group The Famous Flames in 1958. A plaintive ballad, it was the group's second R&B hit , and early in 1959 it became their first song to reach #1 on the R&B chart and was also the first time the group hit the...
", "Think", "Bewildered
Bewildered
"Bewildered" is a popular song written in 1936 by Teddy Powell and Leonard Whitcup. It was a 1938 hit for Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, and was also recorded by Mildred Bailey in the same year. The song was revived in the late forties when two different versions, by the Red Miller Trio and Amos...
", "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep
Oh Baby, Don't You Weep
"Oh Baby Don't You Weep" is a song recorded in 1964 by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Based upon the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep", it was released as a two-part single on King Records K5842 and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States....
", "I Don't Mind
I Don't Mind (James Brown song)
"I Don't Mind" is a 1961 R&B song recorded by James Brown & The Famous Flames. Originally recorded in the studio and released as a single, it was a Top 5 national Billboard R&B hit, peaking at #4, and reached #47 on the Billboard Hot 100...
","Shout and Shimmy
Shout and Shimmy
"Shout and Shimmy" is an R&B song written by James Brown, and recorded by him and The Famous Flames. It rose to #16 on the R&B chart and #61 on the Billboard Hot 100....
" ,"This Old Heart","I'll Never Never Let You Go.", " I'll Go Crazy", and many more.
Brown and The Flames were also known for their powerful on stage performances across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in venues such as the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, (where they recorded the million-selling Live At The Apollo album) the Regal in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and The Royal Theatre in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
(where they recorded the 1964 Top 10 live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal
Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal
Pure Dynamite! Live At The Royal is a 1964 live album by James Brown and The Famous Flames originally issued on King Records. It was the live follow-up to Brown's million-selling 1963 Live at the Apollo LP, and like that album, reached the Top 10 of the Billboard album charts, peaking at #10...
) and on film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in the 1964 concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
film, The T.A.M.I. Show, where they upstaged The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. Byrd also appeared with Brown and the group in the Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
film Ski Party
Ski Party
Ski Party is a B-movie, directed by Alan Rafkin, and released in 1965 by American International Pictures. Ski Party is part of the 1960s Beach Party film genre, with a change of setting from the beach to the slopes - although the final scene places everyone back at the beach...
(1965), Dick Clark's American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
. Byrd was the only member of The Flames to remain with Brown when the group disbanded in 1968.
In 1993 Byrd released a solo album On the Move on the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
record Label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Soulciety Records.
In October 2004 Bobby Byrd's songs "I Know You Got Soul" and "Hot Pants" were featured on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
soundtrack
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack
The soundtrack of the computer and video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is set in 1992 in the fictional U.S. West Coast state of San Andreas, required that the game's radio stations reflect the music tastes of the time and area, in addition to covering current events in the state of San...
, playing on fictional radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
Master Sounds 98.3. In September 2005 his song "Try It Again" appeared on the soundtrack of Indigo Prophecy.
He was married, for many years until his death, to soul singer Vicki Anderson
Vicki Anderson
Vicki Anderson is a soul singer best known for her performances with the James Brown Revue. She recorded a number of singles under both her birth and stage names...
, another James Brown collaborator. His stepdaughter is Carleen Anderson
Carleen Anderson
Carleen Anderson is an American soul singer, who has had success in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of the singer Vicki Anderson and stepdaughter of Bobby Byrd, and is most well known as the lead singer in the Young Disciples as well as for her own solo career.-Early career:Anderson was...
.
On September 12, 2007, surrounded by his family, Byrd died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, aged 73 in Loganville, Georgia
Loganville, Georgia
Loganville is a city located mostly in Walton County with a small portion of the city located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. The population was 10,963 at the 2009 census.-Geography:...
.