"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" is a song written by Johnny Wallace and Herbert J. Lance and recorded by Ruth Brown in 1952. It was Brown's third number-one record on the US '' Billboard'' R&B chart and her first

pop chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

hit. Brown re-recorded the song in 1962, when it made number 99 on the US pop chart.

Song Background

According to Atlantic Records producer Herb Abramson, Lance wrote the song with his friend Wallace (the brother of the boxer

Coley Wallace Coley Wallace (April 5, 1927 – January 30, 2005) was an American actor and heavyweight boxer who once outpointed Rocky Marciano in a very close split decision three-round amateur fight. Although Wallace, a Jacksonville, FL native, had a respec ...

) after the pair had heard a blues singer on the street 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 498,7 ...

, singing a mournful song that included the title in its lyrics. The song they heard may have been "One Dime Blues", sung by Blind Lemon Jefferson in the 1920s, which in the lyrics had the line ''"Mama, don't treat your daughter mean,"'' and recorded by

Blind Willie McTell Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont b ...

in 1949. Ruth Brown initially disliked the song but was persuaded by Lance and Wallace to record it in December 1952, after Abramson had speeded up its

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

Cover Versions

The song was subsequently recorded by many others, including: * Anita Wood (1960) * Sarah Vaughan (1962) *

Delaney & Bonnie Delaney & Bonnie were an American duo of singer-songwriters Delaney Bramlett and Bonnie Bramlett. In 1969 and 1970, they fronted a rock/soul ensemble, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, whose members at different times included Duane Allman, Gregg ...

(1970) *

Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known f ...

(1975) *

Susan Tedeschi Susan Tedeschi (; born November 9, 1970) is an American singer and guitarist. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks’ and other musicians. Early l ...

(1998).

References

1953 singles Ruth Brown songs 1953 songs {{1950s-R&B-song-stub