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(April 1927 - January 1982)
*Now Playing: "Bad Bad Whiskey"
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Amos Milburn, was born in Houston, Texas in  April, 1927. He has been acknowledged by many to be one of the most important figures in Modern Blues and is considered to be a Forefather to Rock 'n' Roll. After a stint in the Navy during World War II, he signed a recording contract with the new Philo Records label in Los Angeles. This label was the later changed to The Aladdin Records Company to avoid confusion with the Philco Corporation. A long association with that label soon began.

By late 1947 Amos Milburn had a release called "Chicken Shack Boogie" and "It Took A Long Long Time". The jump boogie side "Chicken Shack" was a huge success and would be Milburn's signature tune for the rest of his life.

In mid 1948 Amos Milburn was now a top draw on the R & B circuit. His follow up hits were also a huge success, but this time it was a bluesy ballad much in the style of Nat Cole and Charles Brown called "Bewildered" and the other side called "A & M Blues". His two successive hits put the Aladdin label on the map as one of the big four of the post war years on the West Coast (along with Imperial, Modern, and Specialty).

Amos Milburn solidified his stature as a top R & B artist when he is named the number one Rhythm & Blues recording performer of 1949 in a Billboard Magazine poll of jukebox operators in the country. During that year he placed four of the top thirty records in the United States. In March of 1950, Milburn played New York City for the first time at Bop City, which usually had a modern jazz venue. In September, Milburn recorded "Sax Shack Boogie" which hit like a bomb and boasted a first run order of over fifty thousand, which is a huge number for an R & B tune on an independent record label.

In late November 1950, Aladdin issued their first LPs (33rpm records). Up to this point Aladdin had released only 78rpm records. The first of the LPs was called "Boogie Woogie" and featured sides recorded by Milburn. The second LP, "Blues After Hours", featured the music of Milburn along with Wynonie Harris, Calvin Boze, and Helen Humes. In December, Aladdin Records announced that Milburn's recording of "Bad Bad Whiskey" (written by Maxwell Davis) had surpassed the one hundred thousand sales mark in less than four weeks and would be the biggest seller in the history of the label replacing Milburn's "Chicken Shack Boogie".

In August 1951, "One Scotch One Bourbon One Beer" (written by Rudy Toombs) was recorded. This tune has an advance sale of more than fifty thousand, the largest advance in the history of Aladdin. That recording was compared to "Bad Bad Whiskey" which sold upwards of six hundred thousand, and "Let Me Go Home Whiskey" which had sales of more than three hundred thousand.

Over the next several years, Milburn would have varied successes as a group member and a solo artist but none of his hits would eclipse the success of his earlier recordings. His health deteriorated further and in 1970 he suffered the first of a series of strokes. By 1972 he had retired from the business and returned to his hometown of Houston where he died eight years later on January 3, 1980.