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Mr. Brown scored major country hits as a solo artist, as a duet singer, and as a member of The Browns with sisters Maxine and Bonnie. The Browns’ 1959 crossover smash “The Three Bells” topped Billboard’s country chart for ten consecutive weeks, and it spent four weeks atop Billboard’s all-genre singles chart.>p> “If you listen to The Browns, it’s a very pretty sound,” Mr. Brown said earlier this year, in an interview with Peter Cooper of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “It was sibling harmony, a sound that was very pleasing. I’ve ever heard anybody that could come close to that particular sound. It couldn’t be imitated.”
James Edward Brown was born April 1, 1934, in Sparkman, Arkansas. He spent the first decade of his life on a farm, without electricity or running water. On Saturday nights, the family would tune a battery operated radio to WSM-AM (650) and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. As a teenager, Jim Ed would mimic the vocal styles of Opry stars - his Hank Snow impersonation was particularly effective - and in 1952 Maxine entered him into a talent competition at KLRA radio in Little Rock.
As The Browns, Jim Ed, Maxine, and Bonnie notched Top Twenty country hits with “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow,” “I Take the Chance,” “Just As Long As You Love Me,” “Money,” “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing,” “Would You Care,” and “Beyond the Shadow.” But in 1959 the trio was pondering retirement. Mr. Brown’s service in the U.S. Army and the sisters’ family lives had distracted musical attentions, and Mr. Brown was running his father’s sawmill. The Browns—who by then were signed to RCA Records—told producer Chet Atkins that they were thinking of quitting the music business, but Atkins asked them to come to Nashville and record again.
From 1967 through 1974, Mr. Brown also reached the Top Ten of the country charts with singles “Morning,” “Southern Loving,” “Sometime Sunshine” and “It’s That Time of Night.” In 1976, he began recording duets with Helen Cornelius, logging a No. 1 country hit with “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You.” With Cornelius, Mr. Brown won a CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award and reached country’s Top 10 with “Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye,” “If the World Ran Out of Love Tonight,” “Lying in Love with You,” Fools,” and “Morning Comes Too Early.”
In September 2014, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. While he was undergoing treatments, Plowboy Records released In Style Again, Mr. Brown’s first solo effort in 40 years. Fellow Opry stars Vince Gill and Sharon and Cheryl White joined him on the critically acclaimed album. In March 2015, Mr. Brown and The Browns were elected along with Grady Martin and The Oak Ridge Boys as the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Fame is fleeting, hit records change every week, award show winners and nominees change every year, but being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame will be forever,” Mr. Brown said, in response to receiving country music’s highest honor. The Browns’ official induction will come in October, but CMA CEO Sarah Trahern, Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson, and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young visited Mr. Brown in the hospital on June 4 to present him with a medallion commemorating his Hall of Fame membership.
Mr. Brown died at peace with himself and with his place in country music.