Faye Adams

Rhythm and Blues Pioneer

b : 1923 in Montclair, New Jersey (USA) Faye Adams was the daughter of gospel singer David Tuell, one of the leaders of the Church of God In Christ. She started to sing gospel at the age of five. Having married her future manager Tommy Scruggs in 1942, she began a career for herself performing under her married name, Faye Scruggs. In the early 1950s, while performing in Atlanta, Georgia, she was discovered by the singer Ruth Brown, who introduced her to Atlantic recording artist Joe Morris (2). By 1952, having changed her name to Faye Adams, she had been signed to Herald Records as lead singer with The Joe Morris Orchestra. Her first release, an enormous hit, was Morris's song "Shake A Hand", which topped the US Billboard R&B chart for ten weeks in 1953, also reaching #22 on the US pop chart. Adams had two more R&B chart toppers in 1954 with "I'll Be True" and "It Hurts Me to My Heart". "Atomic Adams" saw her success gradually diminish. By 1963, remarried and now Fannie Jones, she had retired from the secular music scene and returned to her gospel roots and family life in New Jersey