BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
THIS MONTH’S MEETING WILL BE THE SECOND SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1721 OXMOOR RD BIRMINGHAM, AL 35209
NEXT MEETING, OCTOBER 13TH 2:00 PM THE SECOND SUNDAY
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
Dr. Jeneve Brooks and John Seals came up from Dothan to our meeting and presented a documentary about BRC member and longtime DJ Gil Anthony. Gil came up also and elaborated on the film and many other stories about his 6 decades in the radio business. It was an excellent film and presented Gil’s life in music and his continuing work in the field of Blues. To watch this film go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfmPCR0GQTs It will be well worth your time.
This month we will be jazzing it up an bit. Our speaker will be Ray Reach. Ray began playing piano at age 8, went on to get a degree in music and vocal from Birmingham Southern College, a Masters Degree in music from the University of Alabama and a Doctorate in Jazz from North Texas University. He has played on over 300 LP’s and presently owns Magic City Music Productions where he does film scoring and album production. Ray’s current projects include working with drummer Steve Gadd (who has worked with Paul Simon, James Taylor and Chuck Corea) Lou Marini, Jr (who has been with Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Blues Brothers Band and Saturday Night Live), Tom ‘Bones’ Malone (who has worked with Blood, Sweat and Tears and the David Letterman Show) and Scotty Barnhart who is director of the Count Basie Orchestra. Ray and BRC Hall Of Fame member, Victoria Hallman teamed up to write songs and will have an album out soon with these songs on it. Come and hear his amazing story.
Planned for the October meeting will be another presentation as we did in June showing and discussing LP covers, the artwork, the photos, banned covers and LP’s that pulled the original cover and then distributed them with another cover for whatever reason or another. Doug Roberts, who was part of the first presentation when we did this type program and myself will be the presenters. Plan on making this and other upcoming meetings.
For the remainder of 2024 all monthly meetings will be on the 2nd Sunday, Oct 13, Nov 10, Dec 8.
RECORD SHOW
Our 39th annual record show was a big success. We had our largest attendance at the Gardendale venue with over 900 people visiting the show. Both Mike McCarty and Wayne Perkins our 2024 BRC Hall of Fame inductees were able to attend and we all had a good time meeting and talking to them. They were both very accommodating to anyone who wanted to talk or get autographs. And we had many other BRC Hall of Fame members drop by. Victoria Hallman. Larry Graves, Henry Lovoy, Joey Roberts, Spooner Oldham and Bob Friedman were there and it was great to see them. And thanks to all those who volunteered to help during the preparation of the show and during the show. We couldn’t have the show without those people. And thanks to the dealers for coming from all over to be with us. Our dealers came from NY, AR, TN, MI, SC, FL, IL, TX, GA, MO, PA, LA, NC, IN, OH, WA as well as AL.
MAURICE WILLIAMS
The following article was taken from the New England Doo Wop Society’s newsletter.
Maurice Williams, who wrote two of the biggest hits of the early rock ‘n’ roll era, “Little Darlin'” and “Stay”, died in a Charlotte, North Carolina hospital on Monday, August 5, 2024, according to longtime friend and Zodiacs , Jr. Williams was 84 and had been in ill health for several years. Born in Lancaster, S.C., on March 26, 1940, Williams began singing in the First Washington Baptist Church choir but soon gravitated toward rhythm and blues. Learning some rudimentary skills from his sister, a classically trained pianist, he quickly turned his attention to creating R&B after discovering Fats Domino. “She would work all day on one (classical) song, and I could write a bunch of (R&B) songs in the same time, so that’s what I did,” Williams admitted in a 2010 interview with this writer. In 1955, Williams and his glee club singing buddies at Lancaster’s Barr Street High School formed the Royal Charms. “We all sang and played instruments. We took our name from two of our favorite groups: the 5 Royales and the Charms.” One of Williams’ earliest compositions, penned at age 13, was “Little Darlin’.” “I was going out with two different girls at the same time. I wrote ‘Little Darlin’ about the one I really wanted to be with. I was head over heels in love.” By the mid-’50s, the Royal Charms – Maurice; tenor and guitarist Earl Gainey; baritone Willie Jones; bass Norman Wade; tenor-baritone William Massey and drummer Mac Badskins – were honing their craft with original songs and the records they listened to on Nashville’s influential WLAC. “There was a disc jockey on WLAC named John Richbourg who played rhythm and blues. His show was sponsored by Ernie Young, who owned Ernie’s Record Mart and Excello Records.” Maurice telephoned Young at his Nashville office in the hope of gaining an audition. “He said, ‘Well, I’d love to have you, but don’t make a special trip. If you happen to have a job over here performing, you can come by.’ I lied and told him that we were playing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville in two weeks! I figured two weeks would give us time to rehearse.” Friends and local merchants in New Town, Lancaster’s black community, donated money to help get the Royal Charms to Nashville. Two weeks later, in late 1956, the group – minus Massey, whose mother forbade him from making the trip – drove the 512 miles in Willie Jones’ beat-up Chrysler with four well-worn tires and no spare. “We prayed a lot,” Williams recalled. “We had $37 and some change when we left.” Duly impressed with the group and their original material, Young signed them to a contract and changed their name to the Gladiolas. “At first, I had ‘Little Darlin’ with a beat like ‘Stand By Me,’ and Ernie Young told me that calypso was very popular, so we gave it a mambo beat.” Issued on Excello in January 1957, “Little Darlin'” sold well in Southern territories and reached Billboard’s national R&B and pop charts in April, peaking at Nos. 11 and 41 respectively. “When the Diamonds asked (about covering it), Ernie advised me to let them do it because they were white, and Mercury had a larger distribution (network). He said, ‘You will get royalties for the rest of your life and they would take it further,’ and he was right.” The Diamonds’ polished rendition hit No. 2 pop behind Elvis Presley’s’ “All Shook Up”. Three follow-ups were issued in 1957-58 but none drew national attention. Still, the gigs were plentiful, and Williams passed over a music scholarship to Columbia’s all-black Allen University. The Gladiolas declined to renew their two-year pact with Excello, hoping to latch on with a label that offered better national distribution. Young, in turn, refused to allow them to keep the Gladiolas name. During a stop in Bluefield, W.V., bassist Robert Gore conceived the ultimate group name from a Ford model automobile he saw called the Zodiac. “We liked it, and my manager suggested I use my name in front, so that way I’d always have my name. We became Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs.” Five obscure singles on the local Cole, Selwyn, and Soma labels followed in 1959-1960. By mid-1960, the Zodiacs included high tenor Henry “Shane” Gaston, tenor Wiley Bennett, baritone Charles “Frog” Thomas, drummer Willie Morrow, and bassist Albert Hill. The self-contained act developed a steady following on the college circuit, playing dances and fraternity parties throughout the Carolinas while continuing to work on original material. A host of labels turned the Zodiacs down, but one of their demos caught the ear of Herald Records president Al Silver. “‘Stay’ was written in 1955 about the same girl that I wrote ‘Little Darlin” for. I wanted her to ‘Stay’ just a little bit longer,” Maurice explained, recalling the 10 PM curfew that her father had imposed. “I thought it was nothing. But I put it on tape, and one day I was playing songs for the nine-year-old sister of that same girlfriend, and she said she liked the song with the high part in it.” A mere one minute and 37 seconds long, “Stay” had an incredible hook: a high falsetto sung by Gaston. “I didn’t sing the original demo flat, but Al Silver had us re-record it and sing it flat – out of key. He said, ‘That way, the average man in the street can sing it.’ We were disappointed, because we had been taught to sing on key, but we did it, and I did that ‘ahhh … just a little bit longer’ and sang it flat to get that contract. “On Nov. 21, 1960, “Stay” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – the shortest chart-topper in rock ‘n’ roll history. National television appearances, a steady stream of concert tours, and two more nationally charted hits, “I Remember” and “Come Along” followed. Between 1963 and 1970, the group label-hopped between Atlantic, Scepter, Sphere Sound, Deesu, Snyder Seahorn, Veep and Plus Records. One original, “May I,” was leased to Vee Jay in 1964 and later became a million-seller for Bill Deal and the Rhondels. Pioneers and purveyors of the beach-music sound, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs performed regularly throughout the Carolinas and the mid-southeastern seaboard. The inclusion of “Stay” in the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack in 1987 helped push sales of the song over 10 million. “That was fantastic,” Maurice stated. “Things really took off again after that. I don’t care what they call us, but I never considered us a beach-music band. I think of us more as doo-wop and rhythm and blues. That’s what we are.” In 2000, Williams appeared on PBS and performed in England. The group continued recording new material and performing until shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. The last Zodiacs lineup, based in Charlotte, included Melvin “Pee Wee” Smith; who toured with the act for nearly 40 years, singer-guitarist Ron Henderson, Jr., whose father sang with the True Tones in the ’50s and ’60s; and falsetto tenor Leon Weaver. Williams continued to receive songwriting royalties for his hits throughout his lifetime. Williams was inducted into the South Carolina Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Beach Music Hall of Fame. In 2001, he received The Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor a civilian can receive from the State of South Carolina, in a special ceremony with Gov. Jim Hodges which Williams called his proudest moment. He was also a parishioner and a staple in the choir at the New Emmanuel United Church of Christ into his retirement years. Williams’ survivors include his wife of over 50 years, Emily. Funeral services have not been announced at this time. “I am truly thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ for all the years of performing and recording, Williams summed, “and our fans for staying with us for more than 50 years.”
‘Little Darlin” (The Gladiolas)
‘Stay’ (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs)
‘Do You Believe’ (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs – flip of ‘Stay’)
UPCOMING RECORD SHOW
The Tuscaloosa Record Show will be held Saturday, Sept 21 from 1:00-6:00 at the Druid City Brewing Company located at 700 14th St, Tuscaloosa, AL. This show is being presented by DJ Tom Kat Kitten and Ragged Company Vintage. Go to https://tuscaloosarecordshow.com/ Check out this show.
BRC RADIO
And don’t forget that BRC radio is on the BRC website. We have three different “DJ’s” if you will. Joe Reddick, Tom Faison and myself play all kinds of music including, hit songs from the 1950’s – present, LP cuts, songs that received little or no air-play, and all genres. Check out some of the shows. Just go the birminghamrecord.com and click on the ‘RADIO’ icon.
See ya,
Charlie