Background
Toombs was born in Monroe, Louisiana, United States.
Toombs was born in Monroe, Louisiana, United States.
He wrote more successes for Brown, including "5-10-15 Hours", as well as "One Mint Julep" for the Clovers. Although he began as a vaudeville-style song-and-dance man, he became a productive lyricist and composer of doo-wop songs and rhythm and blues standards during the 1950s and 1960s. His best work was done at Atlantic Records, writing and arranging songs for Ahmet Ertegün.
He died during 1962, murdered by robbers in the hallway of his apartment house in Harlem.
Ruth Brown credited Toombs as a major reason for her success. She describes him as joyful, exuberant man, so full of life that he passed that ebullience on to her.
He taught her how to take a moody blues ballad and make it into a bouncy jump song. His songs (apart from those recordings listed above) have been sung by the following artists: Amos Milburn Hank Ballard Freddy King Ella Mae Morse Otis Williams and the Charms The Orioles James Brown Big Joe Turner Louis Jordan Pat Boone Wynonie Harris Hank Snow Johnny "Guitar" Watson Betty Everett Frankie Laine The Five Keys Albert King Bill Haley & His Comets The Blasters Jack White Rocket Sixty-nine.