Jim Ed Brown has the career distinction of topping the charts as a member of a trio, a duo, and as a solo artist. He also has one of the smoothest singing voices ever put on record.
One of five children of a struggling Arkansas lumberman and his wife, Jim Ed and family gathered around the family’s battery-powered radio to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights.
Inspired by what they heard, Jim Ed and his older sister Maxine would harmonize together. They began appearing on local radio while Jim Ed was still in high school.
By his second year in college, Jim Edward (as he was credited) and Maxine were regulars on the Barnyard Frolic on Little Rock radio station KLRA. Their first hit, “Looking Back to See,” became a No. 8 country hit in 1954. The next year, younger sister Bonnie joined them, and they became the Browns, scoring another Top 10 hit with “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow.” The group signed with RCA in 1956 and quickly notched two Top 5 hits, “I Take the Chance” and “I Heard the Bluebird Sing.”
After a two-year stint in the service, Jim Ed joined his sisters again, and in 1959 they hit with the “The Three Bells,” topping the country chart for 10 weeks and the pop charts for four weeks. Follow-up singles “The Old Lamplighter” and “Scarlet Ribbons” were pop-country hits as well.
The Browns joined the Opry in 1963, but by the mid-’60s, Bonnie and Maxine decided to retire. Jim Ed went solo and scored hits throughout the next two decades. His 1966 smash, “Pop a Top,” hit No. 3.
Beginning in 1975, Jim Ed co-hosted the syndicated weekly television series Nashville on the Road for six seasons. He also teamed with Helen Cornelius to become one of country music’s most successful duos. The pair topped the charts with “I Don’t Want To Have to Marry You” in 1976, and were named CMA Vocal Duo of the Year in 1977.
In 1983, Jim Ed became host of You Can Be a Star, a country music talent search on The Nashville Network. In 1994, he and his wife Becky co-hosted TNN’s travel show Going Our Way.
Today, Jim Ed hosts the nationally syndicated Country Greats Radio Show and remains the smooth-voiced crowd pleaser, and from time to time Opry audiences witness a truly magical moment, when Bonnie and Maxine reunite with Jim Ed on stage and the Browns are once again together in the spotlight.
Latest CD
Jim Ed Brown At His Best