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It should’ve happened… multiple hits, a massive career, world recognition and all the rest.

 

FAYE ADAMS

FAME DENIED, OBLIVION GRANTED:

The truly talented and passed over auditory creators

of Rock, Roll, R&B, Country, Western and the rest.

They had it ALL, but the limelight, the accolades, the

money.

She was a fireball, it has been said. Her label—Al

Silver’s Herald Records–entrusted her with the title of “Atomic Adams.” The legendary Alan “Moondog”

Freed called her the “little girl with the big voice.” For 20 months, Faye (born Fay Tuell, Newark, New

Jersey, 1923) toured with the largest name acts of the time—the Five Keys, Orioles, Moonglows—played

the Paramount, the Apollo, the Howard, appeared in the rock’n’roll flick Rhythm & Blues Review and

during her big year—1953—“Atomic Adams” became the “number four moneymaker among all R&B

performers.” Her second single with the Joe Morris Orchestra—“Shake a Hand,” a Morris composition—

was an R&B chart-topper and became an era defining disk. Many less passionate soul have cut their own

version– .

Two other disks returned her name to the R&B charts—“I’ll Be True” and “Hurts Me to the Heart.”

At this point, Top 40 radio was segregated and little regard was given by the major labels and big-time

radio stations to what was causing a storm of delight for Afro-Americans. Ms. Adams was near 35 when

teenage orientated rock’n’roll took over the airwaves, opening the doors for access to all races and

ethnicities that could shake it up and rock’n’roll. No great seer knew at the time that a music maker could

shake it to the grave. Nineteen sixty three, at the age of 40, Faye left the music business and returned to

singing scared music, much as her father before.