"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
Song by Ruth Brown
Released1953 (1953)
Recorded1952
GenreR&B
Length2:50
Songwriter(s)Johnny Wallace
Herbert J. Lance

"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" is a song written by Johnny Wallace as well as Herbert J. Lance and recorded by Ruth Brown in 1952. It was Brown's third number-one record on the US Billboard R&B chart and her first pop chart hit.[1] Brown re-recorded the song in 1962 when it made number 99 on the US pop chart.[2]

Song Background

According to Atlantic Records producer Herb Abramson, Lance wrote the song with his friend Wallace (the brother of the boxer Coley Wallace) after the pair had heard a blues singer on the street in Atlanta, Georgia, singing a mournful song that included the title in its lyrics. The song they heard may have been "One Dime Blues" sung by Blind Lemon Jefferson in the 1920s, which in the lyrics had the line "Mama, don't treat your daughter mean"[3] and recorded by Blind Willie McTell in 1949. According to Ruth Brown herself, the song's lyrics originated from a black church spiritual. Brown initially disliked the song but was persuaded by Lance and Wallace to record it in December 1952, after Abramson had speeded up its tempo.[4]

Cover Versions

The song was subsequently recorded by many others, including:

References

  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 87.
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
  3. ^ "Blind Lemon Jefferson – One dime blues". Genius.com. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  4. ^ Deffaa, Chip (1996). Blue Rhythms: Six Lives in Rhythm and Blues. University of Illinois Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780252022036. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean.
  5. ^ "Cover versions of (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean written by Herb Lance, Charles Singleton, John Wallace Jr". Secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
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