Louis Brooks, born Louie O'Neal Brooks (March 19, 1911 – May 5, 1993) was an American R&B

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

and bandleader, whose recording of " It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)", featuring vocalist

Earl Gaines Earl Gaines Jr. (August 19, 1935 – December 31, 2009) was an American soul blues and electric blues singer. Born in Decatur, Alabama, he sang lead vocals on the hit single "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)", credited to Louis Brooks and his ...

, reached no.2 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

in 1955. Brooks was born in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, United States into a musical family; his father was a saxophonist in a

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

-style

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

band. He formed a small band in the 1940s and played in local clubs in the Nashville area. As Louis Brooks and the Downbeats, the group first recorded for

Tennessee Records Tennessee Records was a mid-20th century United States–based record label, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Tennessee mostly released country music, but the label's biggest hit was "Down Yonder", a ragtime piano performance by Del Wood ...

in the early 1950s, supporting vocalists including Christine Kittrell and Helen Foster as well as recording under their own name. They recorded several

instrumentals An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to ...

featuring pianist Lovell "Knot" Phillips. Renamed as Louis Brooks and his Hi-Toppers, the group began recording for the Excello label in 1954. The following year they had their biggest hit, "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)", featuring Earl Gaines. The record entered the R&B chart in July 1955 and reached no.2. The song was also

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

successfully by

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a popular music, pop music ...

and

Hank Ballard Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks; November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003) was an American singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of the Midnighters and one of the first rock and roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He played an inte ...

and

The Midnighters The Midnighters were an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan. They were an influential group in the 1950s and early 1960s, with many R&B hit records. They were also notable for launching the career of lead singer Hank Ballard and the w ...

. Brooks and his band continued to perform regularly in the Nashville area in the 1950s; their vocalists included Larry Birdsong and Helen Hebb, the sister of

Bobby Hebb Robert Alvin Von Hebb (July 26, 1938 – August 3, 2010) was an American R&B and soul singer, musician, songwriter, recording and performing artist, best known for his 1966 hit " Sunny". Biography Hebb was born in Nashville, Tennessee. His par ...

. Brooks also played as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

in Nashville, as well as working full-time at the First National Bank in the city. He died in Nashville in 1993, at the age of 82.

References

1911 births 1993 deaths Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee 20th-century American saxophonists Excello Records artists Jazz musicians from Tennessee American jazz saxophonists {{US-jazz-saxophonist-stub