#24: Games That Grown Up Children Play by Browning Bryant

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: July 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Games That Grown Up Children Play”
Lyrics: “Games That Grown Up Children Play”

Known professionally as Browning Bryant (born in 1957), he was the only child of Maud and Ray Bryant, and a long-time resident of Pickens, South Carolina. He was given a guitar at age three, took lessons at age seven, and soon began performing. He attained success singing folk-pop that was uncharacteristically mature and introspective for a pre-teen heartthrob. With a young voice compared to Wayne Newton, Browning Bryant’s career is highlighted in a meteoric rise starting around the age of ten. In 1967, he sang at the Easley Football Jamboree and was invited on a Charlotte, North Carolina, TV show. He appeared six times on The Arthur Godfrey Show on CBS. That led to a talent agency visit in New York. In 1968 , at the age of eleven, he was signed to Dot Records. His first single release was in 1969 at the age of twelve.

Bryant Browning’s debut single release was “Games That Grown Up Children Play”.

“Games That Grown Up Children Play” was cowritten by obscure songwriters Alex Zanetis and Jerry McBee. Zanetis wrote songs recorded by Skeeter Davis, Joe Henderson (“Snap Your Fingers” – #2 R&B/#8 Billboard Hot 100 – 1962), Brenda Lee (“As Usual” – #12 USA/#5 UK – 1963 pop charts), Faron Young, Jim Reeves (“I’m Gonna Change Everything” – #2 country hit in 1962; “Guilty” #3 country hit in 1963), Patsy Cline, Johnny Burnette, Barbara Lewis, Dean Martin, Stonewall Jackson, Bill Anderson (“Me” – #8 country hit in 1964), George Jones, Kitty Wells, Eddy Arnold, and others. Some of Jerry McBee’s songs were recorded by Roy Orbison, Charley Pride, Billy Walker, Bobby Bare, Kitty Wells, Eddy Arnold, Dobie Grey, Jeanne Pruett, Pure Prairie League, Brenda Lee, Lulu, Jerry Lee Lewis, T. G. Sheppard, Ray Price, Faron Young and others.

“Games That Grown Up Children Play” is a song about adults in different circumstances. Image one: a derelict person who doesn’t pull themselves together – as “the state takes care of something to eat, there’s no point in working today.” Image two: people of high society who “drink pink champagne all the week,” and send their children to private schools so they won’t be a bother. Image three: A mother is weeping, while her baby is sleeping as they fly in a plane. She is tired of living in a loveless marriage.

The heavy observations by this twelve-year-old singer may have been too much for some DJs. The single didn’t get much traction.

“Games That Grown Up Children Play” peaked at #1 in Greenville (SC) and #2 in Fredericton (NB). It also cracked the Top 30 in Seattle.

Browning Bryant had a followup single titled “Poppa Says” which was a commercial failure. His third effort was a cover of the 1962 Dickey Lee teen tragedy tune “Patches” about a double-suicide. Bryan’t cover made the Top Ten in Kansas City (MO) and Kingston (ON). His first three singles included on his debut album, Patches. He also covered the 1960 Christmas tune “Little Altar Boy” which was first recorded by Vic Dana. After four single releases on Dot, Browning Bryant moved on to RCA. But after releasing one single and his second studio album – One Time in a Million – with his new label, they dropped him.

At the height of his career, Browning Bryant appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Ed Sullivan Show, and on four occasions he appeared and cohosted on The Mike Douglas Show. He appeared twice on The Merv Griffin Show and on nine occasions on The Kraft Music Hall. On TV he shared the stage with Eddy Arnold, the Cowslips, Polly Bergen, comedians Tim Conway, George Carlin and Soupy Sales, “Catwoman” on Batman Julie Newmar, Jeannie C. Riley, actress Jane Powell, Bing Crosby, Johnny Cash, Kate Smith, Don Ho, Paul Lynde, Bernadette Peters, Phil Harris, Bobbie Gentry, The Letterman, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in comedians Judy Carne and Artie Johnson, anthropologist Margaret Mead, Peggy Lee, The Stattler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and Anita Bryant. He also opened for Wayne Newton for three weeks in Las Vegas. He was also nominated “Best Boy Singer” in a reader poll by teen magazine 16 Magazine.

Johnny Cash and Browning Bryant sing a duet

In 1974, he surfaced with a single release on Reprise Records and his third album – Browning Bryant – the latter on the Warner Brothers label. The album was produced by Allen Toussaint, who was well established as a songwriter. Toussaint’s most notable hits were “Mother-In-Law” by Ernie K. Doe (#1 R&B and pop hit in 1961), “I Like It Like That” by Chris Kenner (#2 R&B and pop hit in 1961), “Java” by Al Hirt (#4 hit in 1964), “Working In A Coal Mine” by Lee Dorsey (#8 in 1966), and later “Southern Nights” by Glen Campbell (number-one pop and Hot Country Songs hit in 1977). Toussaint provided Browning Bryant with a new style based on syncopated funk. Though Browning mastered the transition in the recording studio, DJs in Top 40 radio have his new material another pass.

Years later, Allen Toussaint was asked by a reporter, “are there any albums by artists you worked with that you feel are overlooked? That fans should look out for?” Toussaint replied, “Well, many years ago there was an album with a young white guy called Browning Bryant. A young white guy from south Carolina. A good looking young chap who played just enough guitar to support his singing. I remember feeling very good about the album but it didn’t do very much at all. I didn’t give very much thought back then to what should happen as I was always on to the next project. But thinking back that was a good one.”

In the 1970s Bryant briefly ventured into theater with the lead role in a musical road show production of Tom Sawyer. 

After his career waned, Bryant graduated from Clemson University with a political science degree, and then worked for many years in management for the Belk department store chain. He continued to write songs and record privately.

He recorded at least three other albums at Workhorse Studio in Easley, including a Christmas album in 2003, and continued to help artists in the studio for years afterward.

Browning Bryant died in his parents home at the age of 62 in 2019.

July 19, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Mike Ellis, “Pickens’ own Browning Bryant, singer and former teen heartthrob, dies,” Greenville News, November 18, 2019.
Garth Cartwright, “Allen Toussaint: King Creole Reflects on New Orleans, Making Music & The Prez,” Alligator Justice, May 6, 2014.
“Browning Bryant,” Imdb.com.

CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top Ten | July 26, 1969