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"GET DOWN BILLY BROWN"

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My name is Billy Brown, often referred to by many as Get Down Billy Brown. My dear and late friend Mr. Blue Lovett of The Manhattans coined that name over forty years ago and it has followed me ever since. I was born on June 30th 1944 in Swainsboro, GA to Arthur and Martha Brown. I was the first born of eight (four boys and four girls). At the age of eight my parents moved out of the South and moved up North to Toms River, New Jersey in the hope and pursuit of a better life. I have three wonderful sons, my oldest little Billy, Shane and Brett. After my wife passed in 2004 I never thought I would remarry, never say never! I met my wife Bernice in Bronx, NY in 2005 and we got married in 2013. As God would have it I moved back down South to North Carolina and this is where my wife and I currently reside. My Father was a Baptist pastor for fifty years so I grew up in church. I can recall being in church for eight hours every Sunday and I looked forward to it every week. At the age of four I started singing in the children's choir and I remember how much I enjoyed singing. I would sing every Sunday at church and all day long around the house. As I got older I continued to sing in the church choir; but it was at the age of twelve after seeing Frankie Lymon on TV singing Why Do Fools Fall In Love, that I knew I wanted to sing professionally. I guess you could say the rest is history! When I turned sixteen my parents moved from Toms River to Farmingdale, NJ and I began working as a construction worker at John Hill Construction. It was during that time in 1960 that I met my best and dear friend the late Mr. Ronald Coleman and that's when my professional singing career began. One day Ronnie overheard me singing as I was walking by his friends house. Ronnie was in the house and came out to see who it was that he heard singing. He walked up to me and said that he and his friends were forming a group and they were looking for a lead singer and asked if I was interested-I quickly replied, yes! The group was originally called The Uniques the members were Ray Morris, Joe Major, Ronnie Coleman, Leon Trent and myself. Joe, Ray and Ronnie sadly are deceased; but Leon is still a good friend of mine and we try to get together as often as we can when I'm in the Asbury Park, NJ area. Shortly after The Uniques was formed we changed the name of the group to The Broadways. The biggest hit for The Broadways was Goin' Goin' Gone. We recorded a few more songs such as Sweet and Heavenly Melody and Are You Telling Me Goodbye. It was shortly after those two recordings that I excepted the offer to be the lead singer for The Moments. It was then in 1968 at All Platinum Record Studio where I met my good friend Al Goodman. The Moments recorded under Stang Record Label which was one of the record labels owned by All Platinum Studios. In 1970 Harry Ray joined the group, he replaced Johnny Moore and we continued recording and performing as The Moments for nine more years. In 1979 Harry, Al and myself left All Platinum Records and we signed with Polydor Records under our new name Ray Goodman and Brown. I'd personally like to take this opportunity on behalf of the late Mr. Harry Ray and Mr. Al Goodman to thank all of our fans for supporting us through the years when we were The Moments and Ray Goodman and Brown. Al, Harry and myself have been blessed by God with the ability to sing and we have shared decades together doing what we love to do. In 2018 the group had a change in personnel, Kevin Owens and Larry Winfree left the group and were replaced with two amazingly talented men, Keenan Blount and Kenny Brown. I am looking forward to working with the both of them for many years to come as we continue singing all the hits that Al, Harry and myself have recorded over the years. To that I say once again thank you to all of our friends and our fans for being so supportive and loyal to us for fifty plus years.

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