From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Apr 26, 2002  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Maurice Williams

MAURICE WILLIAMS (By Shaun Mather)

Born 26 April 1938, Lancaster, South Carolina

Maurice Williams was the lead vocalist on two highly acclaimed doo-wop
classics, Little Darlin' from the early period of rock 'n' roll and Stay
from 1960 when hard rock was reaching the end of its golden age. Interested
in music from an early age, he learned piano and sang in church before
forming a group, The Royal Charms with his mates. They signed with Ernie
Young's Excello Records in 1956 for whom they cut Little Darlin' as the
Gladiolas. Released in January 1957, the single did well but was out-sold by
the Diamonds, a white Canadian group who took their own attractive and
commercial version to the top of the pop charts. As writer of the song,
Williams was guaranteed a steady income. None of the follow-up singles were
able to repeat the trick so the Excello contract was not renewed when it
came to an end in 1958. As Young owned the name The Gladiolas, they were
forced to change it, eventually agreeing on Maurice Williams and the
Zodiacs. In 1960 they signed to the Herald label where they released Stay, a
classic doo-wop ballad that Williams had penned seven years earlier. It went
all the way to number one on the pop charts, but the Zodiacs were again
unable repeat the success with the follow-ups, I Remember or Come Along.
Under the guidance of the New Orleans production team of Marshall Sehorn and
Allen Toussaint they cut May I, a song with great potential, but no sooner
had the single come out on Vee Jay than the label went bankrupt. It was
picked up by the Dee Su label and despite being a big seller never made the
charts. A live album was cut in 1965 and random singles appeared on
Atlantic, Sea-Horn and Scepter but things stayed quiet until the song was
re-introduced to a new generation via the movie Dirty Dancing.

Recommended listening:
MW & Zodiacs - Anthology - US Ripete. (25 tracks including 4 live ones).
Official website: http://www.mauricewilliamsstay.com/