Facts :
Date of Birth: May 3, 1933
Place of Birth: Macon, GA, USA
Sign: Sun in Taurus, Moon in Leo
Education: Alto Reform School
Relations: Wife: Adrienne Brown (deceased); companion: Rolonda Watts; kids: Deanna, Terry, Daryl, Venisha,Yamma
James Brown dies : Dec 25, 2006

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James Brown is #2 of all time with hit records behind Elvis Presley. He is number 1 in R&B  hits with
over 116 charted hits during his career :
James Brown has 96 top 100 hits, Aretha Franklin 86
James Brown has 116 R&B hits, Aretha Franklin 90+
Related topic : Hit list,
 

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Timeline 
May 3, 1933
James Brown is born in Barnwell, South Carolina. He is raised in poverty in Augusta, Georgia, 40 miles away.

1953
James Brown joins the Gospel Starlighters, a vocal quartet led by Bobby Byrd, after completing a four-year stint in prison for robbery. The group will change its focus from gospel to R&B and its name to the Famous Flames, as Brown becomes the focal point of the act.

November 1, 1955
The Famous Flames record "Please Please Please" at the studio of WIBB in Macon, Georgia.

January 23, 1956
Producer and talent scout Ralph Bass travels to Macon to sign James Brown to the King/Federal label, beating Leonard Chess (of Chess Records) to the punch.

February 4, 1956
James Brown and the Famous Flames cut "Please Please Please" at King/Federal studios in Cincinnati, backed by the label's crack house band. James Brown's recording debut rises to #5 on the R&B chart.

October 1, 1957
After Little Richard abruptly quits rock and roll for religion, James Brown honors pending tour dates in the South in his place. Several members of Little Richard's backup band, the Upsetters, become Famous Flames.

October 1, 1958
James Brown's first #1 hit, "Try Me," is released. It is the best-selling R&B single of 1958—and the first of 17 chart-topping R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades.

October 24, 1962
The midnight show on this particular evening of James Brown's seven-night stand at the Apollo Theatre in New York City is taped and released as Live at the Apollo.

OCTOBER 28-29, 1964
The concert film The TAMI Show is recorded in Santa Monica, CA, featuring James Brown, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones and the Supremes.

February 1, 1965
James Brown records "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," a revolutionary single that ushers in a whole new era of soul music. Released that summer, it tops the R&B chart for eight weeks and even cracks the pop Top Ten.

July 1, 1971
James Brown signs with Polydor Records, for which he'll record extensively throughout the decade.

September 1, 1972
"Get On the Good Foot" tops the R&B chart for a month and peaks at #18 in the pop Top Forty. A gold-certified million seller, it establishes James Brown as a potent influence on black music in the Seventies—or, as he takes to calling himself, "the Godfather of Soul."

January 5, 1974
The Payback, the most successful of James Brown's Seventies albums—many of which were double-LPs with lengthy, extended tracks—makes its debut on Billboard's album chart. It is the only gold-certified (500,000 copies sold) album of his career.

September 1, 1974
Price stages a music festival in Zaire, Africa, with boxing promoter Don King. The event attracts 120,000 people and offers James Brown, B.B. King, Etta James, Bill Withers, the Spinners and others.

September 1, 1979
James Brown, who has watched his sales figures slip in the disco era, attempts to move in on that market with The Original Disco Man, which only reaches #152 in the album chart.

June 1, 1980
James Brown contributes an unforgettable cameo as a manic preacher in the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd film The Blues Brothers.

September 1, 1984
Bronx rapper Afrika Bambaataa teams up with James Brown to record the anthemic single "Unity."

January 11, 1986
"Living in America," the theme song from Rocky IV, reaches #4 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, becoming James Brown's biggest pop hit since "I Got You (I Feel Good)" went to #3 in 1965.

January 23, 1986
James Brown is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first induction dinner, held in New York City.

December 15, 1988
James Brown is sentenced to a six-year prison term after a year's worth of arrests on various assault, drug possession and vehicular charges. He leaves prison on parole on February 27, 1991.

February 25, 1992
James Brown receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards.

February 25, 1993
James Brown receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the fourth annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards. MC Hammer is his presenter.

May 3, 1998
James Brown turns 65 years old.

Dec 25, 2006 
James Brown die after being hospitalized with pneumonia