Joe Brown

Although born in Lincolnshire, Joe Brown grew up in London and became the epitome of the cheerful cockney, loved as much for his lovable personality and sense of humour as his catchy pop hits like I'm Henry The Eighth, A Picture Of You, It Only Took A Minute and That's What Love Will Do. His parents ran a pub in the east end of London and Joe was sucked into music during the skiffle boom of the late 1950s, forming his own skiffle group, The Spacemen. In 1958 he was hired by TV producer Jack Good to play guitar on the TV series Boy Meets Girls, backing touring American stars like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. Signed to Decca Records by manager Larry Parnes, Joe had his first hit in 1960 with Dark Town Strutters Ball, followed by a series of singalong Top 10 UK hits, notably A Picture Of You and It Only Took A Minute. He toured with his own band The Bruvvers and went on to become a star of stage (in Charlie Girl) and screen (What A Crazy World). He also appeared regularly on various family TV shows as he became accepted as an all-round entertainer and expanded his musical style through the 1970s to encompass country, blues and gospel with the group, Brown's Home Brew. A champion of the ukulele, Joe also recorded with George Harrison and in 2005 co-wrote the musical show Don't You Rock Me Daddio and continued to record, with well-received albums like Hittin' The High Spots (2004) and More Of The Truth (2008) and launched his own ukulele range. His daughter Sam Brown also became a successful singer and son Pete Brown a record producer.