Another great of doowop and early soul has died - this time Maurice Williams (86) whose biggest hit 'Stay' holds the record as the shortest major hit at just one minute and 36 seconds. It may have been short but what a great record. And it wasn't the only huge hit that Williams made. Born in South Carolina, Maurice formed a group called the Royal Charms (named after the Five Royales and the Charms) but the name was changed to the Gladiolas when they went to Nashville to record 'Little Darlin' for Excello. This was a fair sized hit but the song, written by Maurice, became an even bigger hit when covered by Canadian group the Diamonds. After playing around the Carolinas for a couple of years and having changed their name to the Zodiacs (named after the British Ford Zodiac), the group presented a demo of 'Stay', a song written several years earlier, to Al Silver of Herald records in New York. The song was a huge hit, despite its brevity, and went on to be covered by the Hollies, the Four Seasons and Jackson Browne. The follow ups, 'I Remember' and 'Come Along' were moderately successful and 'May I'. recorded for Veejay in 1965, sold well, but none could match the success of 'Stay', which enjoyed a new lease of life when it was featured in 'Dirty Dancing' in 1987.
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John Howard told me that he interviewed Maurice in Orlando at a club called Little Darlin's. He was a very affable guy who was touring at the time with Dave Somerville, lead singer of the Diamonds, so clearly there was no animosity despite the Diamonds having a bigger hit (Of course Maurice got a lot royalties for the song over the years). Maurice was performing both his original material and contemporary stuff. John was planning to write an article for Now Dig This, only to discover that Seamus McGarvey had already written an 18 page article.
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