Maxine Brown

Maxine Ella Brown was born August 18, 1939 in Kingstree, South Carolina. Maxine Brown began singing as a child, performing with New York based gospel groups the Angelairs and the Royaltones. When she was a teenager. In 1960, she signed with Nomar Records, which released the smooth soul ballad "All in My Mind" (which was written by Maxine) late in the year. 

The single became a hit, climbing to number two on the US R&B charts and number 19 on the pop charts, and it was quickly followed by "Funny", which peaked at number three.

In Maxine Brown Also released "One Step At A time" in 1965 and "One In A Million" in 1966, which were both were Northern Soul Classics.

Brown moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1962, but left the label after an unsuccessful year and recording several non-chart singles for the label, and signed to the New York-based uptown soul label, Wand Records, a Scepter Records subsidiary, in 1963.

Brown recorded a string of sizable hits for Wand over the next three years. Among these were the Carole King/ Gerry Goffin songs "Oh No Not my baby", which reached number 24 on the pop charts in 1964, and "It's Gonna Be Alright", which peaked at #26 the following year. 

 

She also recorded duets with label-mate Chuck Jackson, including a reworked version of an Alvin Robinson hit, "Something You Got", which climbed to #10 on the R&B chart. 

However, the company turned its focus to other bigger-selling acts, especially Dionne Warwick.

All backing vocals for Maxine's records were performed by Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations (the same group that backed Elvis presley) plus emerging writer-producers Nick Ashford And Valerie Simpson. Hoping to increase the line of hits for Maxine and her singing partner, Chuck Jackson, Ashford and Simpson took their song catalog to Scepter Records looking for a deal. When they were turned down, the couple approached Berry Gordy at  Motown Records who immediately hired them. Songs that were penned for Maxine and Chuck became blockbuster hits for Ray Charles, such as "Let's Go Get Stoned" (co-written by Jo Armstead), as well as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

In 1969 Maxine left Wand for Commonwealth United, where she recorded two singles, the first "We'll Cry Together" reached #10 in the Billboard R&B chart and also made the lower reaches of the Hot 100.

 A spell with Avco Records followed, but her later recordings generally met with little commercial success. Despite her seeming lack of visibility, Brown is acknowledged as one of the finer R&B vocalist of her time, able to handle soul, jazz, and  pop.