Remarkable Story of Popular Music Group, The Browns, Told for First Time in New Memoir

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Maxine Brown

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The Browns -- Maxine, Bonnie, and Jim Ed -- are a trio of siblings that had tremendous success in the 1950s and ’60s. Following in the tradition of the best of such books, such as Loretta Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, Maxine Brown’s story, “Looking Back to See: A Country Music Memoir,” with a Foreword by Tom T. Hall, published by the University of Arkansas Press (cloth $24.95 ISBN 1-55728-792-0), is told in Maxine’s own plucky, spirited style.

It delves deeply into the Browns’ remarkable past, beginning with a Depression-era childhood in rural south Arkansas. From it emerged a duo, Maxine and Jim Ed, and in 1954 they had a Top Ten hit with “Looking Back to See.” Sister Bonnie later joined them, and strengthened by shared experience they sang their way on to Little Rock’s Barnyard Frolic in 1952, and were soon regulars on the well-known Louisiana Hayride.

Early mismanagement, which Maxine describes quite graphically in her own gutsy style, could not prevent the Brown’s careers from soaring. The group began a long relationship with RCA and with Chet Atkins, and they later joined the Grand Ole Opry cast. In 1959 their rendition of Edith Piaf’s song, “The Three Bells,” not only went to the top of the country charts but spent weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts, and led to appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand.

A vocal group without peer, the Browns were central artists in the changing sound of country and American popular music at mid-century. They were part of major changes in the entertainment business and American culture, participated in the folk music movement in the 1960s, and saw the steady birth of rock 'n’ roll up close as they worked with Elvis Presley and others. Illustrated with many never-before-published photographs, “Looking Back to See” is a remarkable story told here for the first time.

Advance praise for the book comes from many country music legends, including Eddy Arnold, who writes that “it touches my heart to hear her story and to think back to my boyhood. Her story is real.” Maxine Brown lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas.