Recording Artists Of The 60s Return To The 60s Main Menu
MAURICE WILLIAMS &
THE ZODIACS
“STAY”
(MAURICE WILLIAMS)
Herald 552
No. 1 November 21, 1960
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Maurice Williams’ (b. Apr. 26, 1938, Lancaster, S. C.) sister is the one that got him interested in music. She
taught him piano and soon he was chirpin’ in a gospel group called the Junior Harmonizers. It was there
that he met Zodiac-to-be Earl Gainey (tenor, guitar); both were students at Lancaster’s Barr Street High
School. Willie Jones (baritone), William “Bunchie” Massey (tenor, baritone, trumpet), and Norman Wade
(bass)–also Barr Street students–soon joined the pair in a secular group, the Royal Charmers (named
after their favs, the Five Royals and the Charms). The Royal Charmers won a talent contest in 1955, and
a Saturday morning hometown radio show over WLCM gave them exposure and a growing audience.
After numerous successful nightclub gigs, public parties, and a tour throughout the South, the Royal
Charmers–with the addition of drummers Mac Badskins and Bob Robertson, seven in number–headed
to Nashville in a beat-up bald-tired Chyrsler to record for Ernie Young’s Excello label. “Sweetheart Please
Don’t Go” b/w “Littie Darlin” credited to the Gladiolas, appeared in 1957; “Little Darlin”‘ went to number
41, but a cover version by the Diamonds (#2, 1957) became the cherished classic remembered by oldies
fans the world over.
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“Mr. Young told me somebody else wanted to record ‘Little Darlin’,” Maurice told DISCoveries’ Stan
Hardin, a one-time recording member of the Zodiacs. “At first I was against it, but Mr. Young gave me
good advice–‘Don’t let your ego get between you and your money. You wrote the song.’ The more copies
sold, the more money you make.’ He was a very honest man. He could have bought the rights from me
for peanuts.” “Excello released three more 45s by the Gladiolas– “Run Run Little Joe,” “Hey, Little
Girl,” and “Shoop Shoop”–but not one nudged a notice.
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When the group left Excello, Ernie Young retained the rights to the Gladiolas name. In their needed name change, Maurice told DISCoveries, “Our station wagon had broken down in Bluefield,
W. Va., and we were towed into a dealership. While the repairs were under way, we were looking at new
cars in the showroom. Right there on the showroom floor was a German-made Zodia, a car about the size
of a golf cart, and a group member Bobby Gore says, ‘That’s it! The Zodiacs! Maurice Williams & The
Zodiacs.”‘ Under this monicker, Maurice and his group (minus Badskins and Robertson) briefly recorded
for Phil Gernhard’s Cole and Selwyn labels. Massey and Wade left, and the group dissolved.
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Maurice rebounded with a new and projected to be an improved Zodiacs–Wiley Bennett (tenor), Henry Gaston (tenor), Albert
Hill (bass guitar), Little Willie Morrow (drums), and Charles Thomas (baritone). After two singles on
the Soma label, Gerhard–much later, Lobo’s manager and head of Big Tree Records–approached AI
Silver at Herald about a little tune he, but not Maurice, believed in.
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“I had never thought that much about ‘Stay,’ DISCoveries was told. “In fact, I had thrown the
lyrics in the trash. One night we were playing my demos and my girl’s 10 year old sister went
crazy over ‘Stay.’ That changed my thinking.”
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The song was written by 15 year old Maurice in 1953 within days of his creating “Little Darlin’;
and written for the same never-to-be possessed dream girl. “She had to be in by 10 p.m.,” he told
Hardin. ” and this one night I just didn’t want her to leave. She argued that she would get into
trouble. I tried to convince her she wouldn’t, but she knew better and left. Like a flood, the words
just came to me.”
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Silver liked “Stay,” which would become he shortest number one disk in pop history,
but he told the group to sing the first word flat. “He said we were singing it too good,”
Williams told Rolling Stone‘s Parke Puterbaugh. “Man, we had cut thisthing I don’t
know how many times, trying to get it right for him. When he said, ‘Sing it flat,’ that just pissed
everyone off. I said, ‘We couldn’t care less how it comes out.’ “
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The outcome is history. Over the years, numerous other artists have had hits with their
own readings of “Stay,” among them the Hollies (1963), the Four Seasons (#16, 1964),
Jackson Browne #20, 1978), and Rufus & Chaka Khan (R&B: #3, 1978). Williams and the
Zodiacs followed up with two singles that made the Hot 100–“I Remember” (#86, 1961)
and “Come Along” (#83, 1961). Curiously enough, while the group’s 1964 release
of “May I” has been certified by the RIAA as a million-seller, the disk never appeared on
either the pop/rock or R & B listings; though two years later Bill Deal & the Rondells would
break the top 40 with their rendition.