Jim Ed Brown, a Grand Ole Opry star whose smooth, sweet baritone made him a chart-topper as a solo act, in duets with Helen Cornelius and as one third of the close-harmony group the Browns, whose 1959 hit “The Three Bells” sold more than a million records, died on Thursday in Franklin, Tenn. He was 81.
Kirt Webster, his publicist, said the cause was lung cancer.
Mr. Brown and the other members of the Browns — his sisters Maxine and Bonnie — were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in March.
In 1959, the Browns were preparing to go their separate ways after enjoying a series of Top 10 hits on the country charts. While they were in Nashville for a final session at RCA, Chet Atkins, their producer, asked if there was anything left that they wanted to record. They suggested a song that they had often sung at home, “The Three Bells,” which had been a hit for Edith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la Chanson as “Les Trois Cloches.”
In an interview earlier this year with Peter Cooper of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Mr. Brown recalled: “We recorded it, and after the session Chet said, ‘You kids may think you’re about to retire, but I think you’ve just recorded the biggest song we’ve ever done.’ ” The record, sometimes known as “Little Jimmy Brown,” was an enormous crossover hit, reaching the top of both the country and pop charts.
“Jerry Lee Lewis and Fabian were strong then, and so were all the teen idols,” Mr. Brown said in a 1986 interview. “ ‘The Three Bells’ was a break from that. It was the synopsis of a man’s life. People still enjoy hearing it and cry when they listen to it.”
James Edward Brown was born on April 1, 1934, in Sparkman, Ark., where his father owned a farm, a sawmill, a cafe and a small grocery store. Jim Ed grew up in Benton and Pine Bluff.
On Saturday nights, the family would listen to the Opry radio broadcast, and Jim Ed began imitating stars like Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe and Hank Snow. He and his older sister, Maxine, sang together and performed on the local radio station in Pine Bluff.
In 1952, Maxine entered Jim Ed in a talent contest at station KLRA in Little Rock. He came in second to a harmonica player, but was invited to appear on the station’s “Barnyard Frolic” show. Maxine joined him, and in 1954 the duo signed with Abbott Records, recording under the name Jim Edward Brown and Maxine Brown. “Looking Back to See,” a humorous song they wrote and recorded on Abbott’s Fabor label, made the country Top 10.
The two performed on the star-making radio show “Louisiana Hayride” as well as “Ozark Jubilee,” the first network television show with country music acts. For two weeks they toured with Elvis Presley, at the top of the bill.
Bonnie joined the act in 1955, singing on the Top 10 hit “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow.” The following year the trio signed with RCA, where they soon had two major hits, “I Take the Chance,” a song by the Louvin Brothers, and “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing.” Gradually, Mr. Brown developed a deeper vocal sound.
With the runaway success of “The Three Bells,” and the growing popularity of folk music, RCA packaged the Browns as a clean-cut country-folk act. After recording the solid crossover hits “Scarlet Ribbons (for Her Hair),” “The Old Lamplighter” and “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On,” they were invited to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1963.
“If you listen to the Browns, it’s a very pretty sound,” Mr. Brown told Mr. Cooper. “It was sibling harmony, a sound that was very pleasing. I’ve never heard anybody that could come close to that particular sound. It couldn’t be imitated.”
Both sisters, Maxine Brown and Bonnie Ring, survive Mr. Brown, who lived in Brentwood, Tenn. Other survivors are his wife, Becky; a daughter, Kim Corwin; a son, Jim Ed Jr., known as Buster; and five grandchildren.
The Browns disbanded in 1967, but by that time Mr. Brown had already recorded a solo hit, “Pop a Top,” a honky-tonk drinking song that began, memorably, with the sound of a pop-top beer can being opened (it was actually a can of Dr Pepper) and Mr. Brown crooning:
Pop a top again.
I’ve just got time for one more round.
Set ’em up, my friend
Then I’ll be gone, and you can let some other fool sit down.
Over the next decade Mr. Brown reached the country Top 10 with “Morning,” “Southern Loving,” “Sometime Sunshine” and “It’s That Time of Night,” all in the suave Nashville style of the time. He then recorded a series of duets with Ms. Cornelius that included the No. 1 hit “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You.” In 1996 the Browns reunited to record a gospel album, “Family Bible.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Brown released an album, “In Style Again,” for Plowboy Records, singing with his sisters, Ms. Cornelius, Vince Gill, and Sharon and Cheryl White.
A week before Mr. Brown died, Opry officials and the singer Bill Anderson took the Country Music Hall of Fame medallion to his hospital room and placed it around his neck.
“He was tearing up and so was I, and so was everybody in the room,” Mr. Anderson told The Tennessean newspaper. “He said: ‘I had about convinced myself that even if I don’t make the Hall of Fame, I’ve had a pretty good run. But to wear this medallion and know that I made it to the Hall of Fame makes it perfect.’ ”
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