Faye Adams (born Fanny Tuell, May 22, 1923) is an American singer who recorded and performed

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and gospel from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. She had several chart hits in the early 1950s, before retiring from the music business.

Biography

Early years

Adams was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

singer and a key figure in the

Church of God in Christ The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly Bl ...

(COGIC). At the age of five she joined her sisters to sing spirituals, regularly performing on Newark radio shows.

Musical career

Under her married name, Faye Scruggs, she became a regular performer in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s in the late 1940s and early 1950s. While performing in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, she was discovered by the singer

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the " Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atl ...

, who won her an audition with the bandleader Joe Morris of

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. Having changed Scruggs's name to Faye Adams, Morris recruited her as a singer in 1952, and signed her to

Herald Records Herald Records was an American record label of the 1950s and 1960s. Herald was founded in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1952 by Fred Mendelsohn. He teamed up with Al Silver and Silver's brother-in-law, who continued Herald Records after Mendelsohn left ...

. Her first release was Morris's song "

Shake a Hand "Shake a Hand" is a 1953 song written by the trumpeter and bandleader Joe Morris and originally recorded by Faye Adams, whose version stayed number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' R&B chart for nine weeks. Background The song, which has a strong ...

", which topped the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

for ten weeks in 1953 and reached number 22 on the US pop chart. It sold one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. According to the Acoustic Music organization, the "first clear evidence of soul music shows up with

The "5" Royales The "5" Royales was an American rhythm and blues (R&B) vocal group from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, that combined gospel, jump blues and doo-wop, marking an early and influential step in the evolution of rock and roll. Most of ...

, an ex-gospel group that turned to R&B and in Faye Adams, whose "Shake A Hand" becomes an R&B standard". In 1954, Adams had two more R&B chart toppers with " I'll Be True" (later covered by

Bill Haley William John Clifton Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-sel ...

in 1954 and by a young

Jackie DeShannon Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers, August 21, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and radio broadcaster with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songwr ...

in 1957) and " It Hurts Me to My Heart". During this period, she left the Morris band and was billed as "Atomic Adams". She appeared in the 1955 film ''Rhythm & Blues Revue''. In 1957 she moved to

Imperial Records Imperial Records is an American record company and label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd. The label was reactivated in 2006 by EMI, which owned the label and back catalogue at the time. Imperial is owned by Universal Music Group. Early years to 19 ...

, but her commercial success diminished. By the late 1950s she was seen as an older recording artist whose time had come and gone, although she continued to record for various small labels until the early 1960s.

Alan Freed Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...

called Adams the "little gal with the big voice" and she toured the Rhythm and Blues Show Tours , which also featured

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

, The Counts and

The Spaniels The Spaniels were an American R&B and doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite". They have been called the first successful Midwestern R&B group. Some historians of vocal groups consider Pookie Hudson to be the first ...

Later life

By 1963 she had retired from the

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

. She remarried in 1968 and, as Fannie Jones, returned to her gospel roots and family life in New Jersey. In the 1970s, she was credited as co-writer, with her husband Clarence E. Jones, of several gospel and secular songs, and released a single, "Sinner Man", on

Savoy Records Savoy Records is an American record company and label established by Herman Lubinsky in 1942 in Newark, New Jersey. Savoy specialized in jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel music. In September 2017, Savoy was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music. ...

. In February 1998, she received an award from the

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. The idea for the foundation came in 1987 during discussions about royalties with en ...

, and at the time was reported to be living in England. According to music historian and writer

Marv Goldberg Marv Goldberg (born 1944) is an American writer and historian of music in the field of rhythm & blues. Biography Goldberg grew up in the Bronx, New York and was a graduate of Stuyvesant High School (1960), City College of New York (Biology; 1964 ...

, it is possible that she may have died on November 2, 2016, but this is unconfirmed. Marv Goldberg, "Faye Adams", 2018
Retrieved March 9, 2021

Discography

Singles

Award

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Faye 1923 births Possibly living people 20th-century African-American women singers 21st-century American women singers American expatriates in England American gospel singers American rhythm and blues singers East Coast blues musicians Herald Records artists Imperial Records artists Musicians from Newark, New Jersey