31 Facts About Dennis Brown

Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD was a Jamaican reggae singer.

Dennis Brown was born on February 1,1957, in Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica.

Dennis Brown's father Arthur was a scriptwriter, actor, and journalist, and he grew up in a large tenement yard between North Street and King Street in Kingston with his parents, three elder brothers and a sister, although his mother died in the 1960s.

Dennis Brown began his singing career at the age of nine, while still at junior school, with an end-of-term concert the first time he performed in public, although he had been interested in music from an even earlier age, and as a youngster was a fan of American balladeers such as Brook Benton, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin.

Dennis Brown cited Nat King Cole as one of his greatest early influences.

Dennis Brown regularly hung around JJ's record store on Orange Street in the rocksteady era and his relatives and neighbours would often throw Brown pennies to hear him sing in their yard.

Dennis Brown recorded up to a dozen sessions for Dodd, amounting to around thirty songs, and worked as a backing singer on sessions by other artists, including providing harmonies along with Horace Andy and Larry Marshall on Alton Ellis's Sunday Coming album.

Dennis Brown was advised by fellow Studio One artist Ellis to learn guitar to help with his songwriting, and after convincing Dodd to buy him an instrument, was taught the basics by Ellis.

In 1972, Dennis Brown began an association that would result in his breakthrough as an internationally successful artist; He was asked by Joe Gibbs to record an album for him, and one of the tracks recorded as a result, "Money in my Pocket", was a hit with UK reggae audiences and quickly became a favourite of his live performances.

Dennis Brown followed this with another collaboration with Holness on "Westbound Train", which was the biggest Jamaican hit of summer 1973, and Dennis Brown's star status was confirmed when he was voted Jamaica's top male vocalist in a poll by Swing magazine the same year.

In 1973, Dennis Brown was hospitalized, due to fatigue caused by overwork; at the time, rumours spread that he only had one lung and had only a week to live, or had contracted tuberculosis.

Dennis Brown was advised to take an extended break from performing, and concentrated instead on his college studies.

Dennis Brown saw the UK as the most important market to target and performed for five consecutive nights at the Georgian Club in Croydon to raise funds to start his new DEB Music label with Castro Dennis Brown.

Dennis Brown recommenced working with Joe Gibbs, with an agreement that, in return for studio time for his own productions, Dennis Brown would allow Gibbs the use of any rhythm recorded in the process.

The first album from this arrangement, the 1977 release Visions of Dennis Brown, gave him his biggest success up to that point, blending conscious themes and love songs, and confirming Brown's transformation from child star to grown-up artist.

Dennis Brown toured the UK in the fall of 1977 with Big Youth, and described the tour: "It's like I was appointed to deliver certain messages and now is the time to deliver them".

Dennis Brown had begun producing recordings by his protege, Junior Delgado.

Dennis Brown had further success himself with a discomix of "How Could I Leave You", a version of The Sharks' rocksteady standard "How Could I Live" with accompanying toast by Prince Mohamed.

In March 1978, Dennis Brown flew to Jamaica, where he was booked at the last minute to perform at the One Love Peace Concert at the National Arena, backed by Lloyd Parks' We The People Band.

Visions of Dennis Brown was given a wider distribution via a deal between Lightning Records and WEA and topped the UK reggae album chart in September 1978, this chart run lasting for five months.

Dennis Brown released a huge amount of work through the 1980s, including the 1986 Jammy-produced album The Exit, but his biggest success of the decade came in 1989 with the Gussie Clarke-produced duet with Isaacs "Big All Round", and the album Unchallenged.

Dennis Brown continued to record prolifically in the 1990s, notably on the Three Against War album in 1995 with Beenie Man and Triston Palma, and on albums produced by Mikey Bennett, and his profile in the United States was raised by a series of album releases on RAS Records.

Dennis Brown was like a community person, he would earn money and in one hour he would give it away.

Dennis Brown had developed respiratory issues, probably exacerbated by longstanding problems with drug addiction, mainly cocaine, leading to him being taken ill in May 1999 after touring in Brazil with other reggae singers, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Dennis Brown died the next day, the official cause of his death was a collapsed lung.

Dennis Brown was survived by his wife Yvonne and ten children.

Dennis Brown has left us with a vast repertoire of songs which will continue to satisfy the hearts and minds of us all for generations to come.

Dennis Brown was an inspiration and influence for many reggae singers from the late 1970s through to the 2000s, including Barrington Levy, Junior Reid, Frankie Paul, Luciano, Bushman, and Richie Stephens.

Dennis Brown was honoured on the first anniversary of his death by a memorial concert in Brooklyn, which featured performances from Johnny Osbourne, Micky Jarrett, Delano Tucker, and Half Pint.

The Dennis Emanuel Brown Trust works to educate youngsters, maintain and advance the memory of Dennis Brown, and help to provide youngsters with musical instruments.

In 2008, the Dennis Brown Trust announced a new internet radio station, dedicated solely to the music of Dennis Brown, and in the same month a tribute concert was staged by the Jamaican Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates featuring Dwight Pinkney, Derrick Harriott, Sugar Minott, George Nooks, and John Holt.