File:James_Brown_1996_(HQ).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
James Brown
Sign in to saveAlso known as The Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, James Joseph Brown, Jr., Soul Brother #1ffff
American musician (1933–2006)
James Brown was an American musician who lived from 1933 to 2006 and became one of the most influential figures in music history. He is widely considered the "Godfather of Soul" for pioneering funk and soul music styles that fundamentally shaped popular music and culture.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Film & TV
Barnwell, South Carolina, USA
James Brown (May 3, 1933 - December 25, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter, eventually referred to as "The Godfather of Soul"(GFOS). Brown started singing in gospel groups and worked his way on up. He has been recognized as one of the most iconic figures in the 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. He was also called "the hardest-working man in…
Known for
- The Godfather of Soul — Self (archive footage)2026
- Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music — Self (archive footage)2025
- James Brown: Say It Loud — Self (archive footage)2024
- Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan — Self (archive footage)2023
- Death by Fame — Self (archive footage)2023
- Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues — Self (archive footage)2022
- Best of the 60s: The Story of Ready, Steady, Go! — Self (archive footage)2021
- Nueva York: A Musical History of Latin New York — Self (archive footage)2021
- Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage — Self (archive footage)2021
- 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything — Self (archive footage)2021
via TMDB
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Joseph
- Family name
- Brown
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Augusta
- Place of death
- Atlanta
- Occupation
- sound designer
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Genre
- gospel music
- Instrument
- drum kit
- Record label
- Philips Records
- Discography
- James Brown discography
- Mass
- 65
- Official website
- www.godfatherofsoul.com
- Image
- James Brown Live Hamburg 1973 1702730029.jpg
- Height
- 1.68
- Voice type
- baritone
- Convicted of
- robbery
Show 18 more facts
- social media followers
- 1210000
- end of work period
- 2006-00-00
- Commons category
- James Brown
- date of birth
- 1933-05-03
- date of death
- 2006-12-25
- manner of death
- natural causes
- topic's main category
- Category:James Brown
- Commons gallery
- James Brown
- cause of death
- heart failure
- ethnic group
- African Americans
- start of work period
- 1954-00-00
- birth name
- James Joseph Brown
- name in native language
- James Brown
- different from
- James Brown
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
- copyright representative
- Broadcast Music, Inc.
- place of burial
- Beech Island
- P12674
- Jichuk Station
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by various nicknames, among them "Mr. Dynamite", "the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business", "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk", "Godfather of Soul", "King of Soul", and "Soul Brother No. 1". In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown was one of the first ten inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986. His music has been heavily sampled by hip-hop musicians and other artists.
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He rose to prominence in the mid-1950s as the lead singer of the Famous Flames, a rhythm and blues vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd. With the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a dynamic live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “James Brown” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (14)
Available in 88 languages
- Español
- Français
- Deutsch
- 中文
- 日本語
- Русский
- Português
- Italiano
- العربية
- Afrikaans
- Albanian
- Amharic
- Aragonese
- Armenian
- Asturian
- azb
- Azerbaijani
- Bahasa Indonesia
Show 69 more
- Basque
- Belarusian
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Central Kurdish
- Chuvash
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Egyptian Arabic
- Esperanto
- Estonian
- Faroese
- Finnish
- Galician
- Georgian
- Greek
- Haitian Creole
- Hausa
- Hebrew
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Ido
- Interlingua
- Irish
- Latin
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Luxembourgish
- Macedonian
- Malagasy
- Malayalam
- Mingrelian
- Nederlands
- Norwegian
- Norwegian Nynorsk
- Occitan
- Pashto
- Piedmontese
- Polski
- Punjabi
- Romanian
- Scots
- Scottish Gaelic
- Serbian
- Serbian (Latin)
- Sicilian
- simple
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Sundanese
- Svenska
- Tajik
- Tamil
- Tiếng Việt
- Türkçe
- Ukrainian
- Urdu
- Uzbek
- Venetian
- Waray
- Welsh
- Wu Chinese
- Yoruba
- zh_min_nan
- zh_yue
- فارسی
- ไทย
- 한국어
via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0