Faye Adams

• Name — Faye Adams • Birth Name — Fanny Tuell • Alias — Faye Scruggs Fannie Jones • Born — 22 May 1923 • Birthplace — Essex County, New Jersey, U.S. • Died — 2 November 2016 • Genre — Gospel, rhythm and blues • Occupation — Singer • Years Active — Performance career started 1928 on radio, recording 1952-1976 • Awards — Rhythm and Blues Foundation - Pioneer award (1998)

Fanny Tuell was born in Essex County, New Jersey, of African descent the daughter of Naomi Edwards and David Tuell who was a gospel singer and a key figure in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).

Tuell started performing the age of five with her sisters singing spirituals, regularly performing on Newark radio shows. She entered an Apollo Theatre singing contest and won first prize in 1939. In 1942 she married her first husband, Tommy Scruggs, who became her business manager. Under her married name, Faye Scruggs, she became a regular performer in New York nightclubs in the late 1940s and early 1950s. While performing in Atlanta, Georgia, she was discovered by the singer Ruth Brown, who won her an audition with the bandleader Joe Morris of Atlantic Records. Morris recruited her as a singer in 1952, and signed her to Herald Records, under new management by her former vocal coach Phil Moore. After he changed her name to Faye Adams, she released her second recording and first release at Herald with Morris's song "Shake a Hand". The recording topped the US Billboard R&B chart for ten weeks in 1953 and reached number 22 on the US pop chart. It sold one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. According to the Acoustic Music organization, the "first clear evidence of soul music shows up with The "5" Royales, an ex-gospel group that turned to R&B and in Faye Adams, whose "Shake A Hand" becomes an R&B standard". In 1954, Adams had two more R&B chart toppers with "I'll Be True" (later covered by Bill Haley in 1954 and by a young Jackie DeShannon in 1957) and "It Hurts Me to My Heart". During this period, she left the Morris band and was billed as "Atomic Adams". She appeared in the 1955 film Rhythm & Blues Revue. In 1957 she moved to Imperial Records, but her commercial success diminished. By the late 1950s she was seen as an older recording artist whose time had come and gone, although she continued to record for various small labels until the early 1960s and 70s. DJ Alan Freed called Adams the "little gal with the big voice" and she toured in the Rhythm and Blues Show Tours, which also featured The Drifters, The Counts and The Spaniels.

Adams remarried in 1968, to second husband Clarence J. Jones, and as Fannie Jones' returned to her gospel roots and family life in New Jersey. In the 1970s, she was credited as co-writer with her husband of several gospel and secular songs, and released a single, "Sinner Man", on Savoy Records in 1975. In February 1998, she received an award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and at the time was reported to be living in England. Adams died on November 2, 2016, at the age of 93. Although this was not covered by the media and no formal obituary was located, her death was confirmed by rhythm and blues historian Marv Goldberg through Adams' great-granddaughter, Paris Alexa Williams.

• Year — Label — A-side — B-side — Chart Positions • US Pop — US R&B • 1953 — Atlantic 1007 — "Sweet Talk" — "Watch Out, I Told You" — — — — • Herald 416 — "Shake a Hand" — "I've Gotta Leave You" — 22 — 1 • Herald 419 — "I'll Be True" — "Happiness to My Soul" — — — 1 • 1954 — Herald 423 — "Every Day" — "Say a Prayer" — — — — • Herald 429 — "Somebody, Somewhere, Someday" — "Crazy Mixed-Up World" — — — — • Herald 434 — "It Hurts Me to My Heart" — "Ain't Gonna Tell" — — — 1 • Herald 439 — "Ain't Nothin' to Play With" — "I Owe My Heart to You" — — — — • 1955 — Herald 444 — "Anything for a Friend" — "Your Love Has My Heart Burning" — — — — • Herald 450 — "You Ain't Been True" — "My Greatest Desire" — — — — • Herald 462 — "No Way Out" — "Same Old Me" — — — — • 1956 — Herald 470 — "Teen-Age Heart" — "Witness to the Crime" — — — — • Herald 480 — "Takin' You Back" — "Don't Forget to Smile" — — — — • Herald 489 — "Anytime, Any Place, Anywhere" — "The Hammer Keeps Knockin'" — — — — • 1957 — Imperial 5443 — "Keeper of My Heart" — "So Much" — — — 13 • Imperial 5456 — "Johnny Lee" — "You're Crazy" — — — — • Imperial 5471 — "I Have a Twinkle in My Eye" — "Someone Like You" — — — — • 1958 — Imperial 5525 — "When We Kiss" — "Everything" — — — — • Herald 512 — "Shake a Hand" — "I'll Be True" — — — —