To remember two music greats

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Questions:

1. Where did Chuck Brown start playing guitar?

2. What was Summer's first big hit?

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

I'm June Simms. This week on our program, we remember two music greats, Chuck Brown and Donna Summer.

America lost two major entertainers this week. Chuck Brown was considered the "godfather of go-go" music. Donna Summer was the "queen of disco."

Chuck Brown died Wednesday at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. 

The musician had developed the blood infection sepsis during treatment for pneumonia. He was seventy-five.

The singer was born in North Carolina but moved to the American capital when he was eight. 

The city remained his home, and it was where he invented the music known as go-go.

Chuck Brown grew up poor. He was raised by his mother, Lyla Louise Brown.  He never knew his father. 

Chuck stopped going to school soon after the family moved to Washington. He worked instead. 

He held jobs including shining shoes and selling newspapers.

Chuck Brown got into trouble as a teenager.  He spent eight years in a prison near Washington. He started playing guitar while there.

When Chuck Brown gained his freedom he did not look back. He moved back to Washington. 

He began playing his guitar and singing at events in the area.

In his late twenties, Brown joined some local bands. Within two years he had formed his own. 

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers found a new sound that combined funk, jazz and rhythm and blues music. 

The bouncy beat of go-go music was especially popular in the Washington area. But it influenced music in many other areas.

The nineteen seventy-eight song "Bustin' Loose" is probably the most widely recognized go-go recording. 

It was Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers' biggest hit.

Chuck Brown was considered a hero to many in Washington, DC. The city loves him so much it named a street block for him.  

Hundreds gathered outside the Howard Theater on Chuck Brown Way Wednesday to remember the musician.

Disco singer Donna Summer died Thursday. The sixty-three-year-old had battled lung cancer. Christopher Cruise remembers her life and her work.

Donna Summer was born LaDonna Gaines to a large family in Boston, Massachusetts, in nineteen forty-eight. 

She sang in church as a child. As a teenager she began forming musical groups.

Summer's voice was clear, high and powerful. Her first big hit came in nineteen seventy-five with "Love to Love You, Baby." She was in her twenties at the time.

In nineteen seventy-nine Donna Summer had three number-one hits. One of them, "Hot Stuff," won a Grammy.

Donna Summer was married twice. She had two children. Her last album "Crayons" was released in two thousand eight. 

Donna Summer won numerous awards during her career including five Grammys. 

We leave you with Donna Summer performing her hit song "Last Dance."

I'm June Simms. This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Zulima Palacio provided additional reporting. Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.