Reversing the usual process by which groups break up and give way to solo careers, the Traveling Wilburys are a group made up of solo stars. The group was organized by former Beatle George Harrison, former Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison, thus representing three generations of rock stars. In 1988, the five (who had known each other for years) came together to record a Harrison B-side single and ended up writing and recording an album on which they shared lead vocals. It turned out to be a way to transcend the high expectations made of any of them as individuals, and a delighted public sent the album to number three, with two singles, “Handle With Care” and “End of the Line” hitting the charts. Unfortunately, Orbison died of a heart attack only a few weeks after the album’s release.

Two years later, the remaining quartet released a second album, inexplicably titled Vol. 3. Although it didn’t match the success of the first Wilburys album, it was another million-selling hit. Throughout the ’90s, there were rumors of another Traveling Wilburys record in the works, but no new albums from the group surfaced. Harrison and Lynne did re-team in 1995, when Lynne produced and reworked two John Lennon demos with the Beatles for their Anthology rarities collection.

Formed as a jazz ensemble in the mid-’60s, Kool & the Gang became one of the most inspired and influential funk units during the ’70s, and one of the most popular R&B groups of the ’80s after their breakout hit “Celebration” in 1979. Just as funky as James Brown orParliament (and sampled almost as frequently), Kool & the Gang relied on their jazz backgrounds and long friendship to form a tightly knit group with the interplay and improvisation of a jazz outfit, plus the energy and spark of a band with equal ties to soul, R&B, and funk.

Robert “Kool” Bell and his brother Ronald (or Khalis Bayyan) grew up in Jersey City, NJ, and picked up the music bug from their father. A professional boxer, he was also a serious jazz lover and a close friend of Thelonious Monk. With Robert on bass and Ronald picking up an array of horns, the duo formed the Jazziacs in 1964 with several neighborhood friends: trombone player Clifford Adams, guitarists Charles Smith and Woody Sparrow, trumpeter Robert “Spike” Michens, alto saxophonist Dennis Thomas, keyboard player Ricky West, and drummer Funky George Brown (all of whom, except Michens and West, still remained in the group more than 30 years later).

The growing earthiness of soul inspired the Jazziacs to temper their jazz sensibilities with rhythms more akin to R&B, and the newly renamed Soul Town Band began playing clubs in Greenwich Village. After a mix-up with a club owner resulted in the group being billed Kool & the Flames, they moderated the title to Kool & the Gang and found a leg up with the tiny De-Lite Records. Three singles from their self-titled debut album hit the pop charts, and although the position wasn’t incredibly high, Kool & the Gang became a quick success on the R&B charts. Always a staple of their appeal, the group’s live act was documented on two 1971 LPs, Live at the Sex Machine and Live at P.J.’s, including left-field covers of “Walk On By” and “Wichita Lineman” (as well as the not so unusual “I Want to Take You Higher”).

Studio albums followed in 1972 and 1973, but it was with Kool & the Gang’s sixth LP, Wild and Peaceful, that they hit the big time. “Funky Stuff” became their first Top 40 hit at the end of 1973. Then both “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging” reached the pop Top Ten. During the next four years, however, Kool & the Gang could only manage an occasional Top 40 hit (“Higher Plane,” “Spirit of the Boogie”), and though they did win a Grammy award for “Open Sesame” (from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack), the rise of disco — a movement centered around producers and vocalists, in direct contrast to the group’s focus on instrumentalists — had appeared to end their popularity.

Then, in 1979, the group added two new vocalists, Earl Toon, Jr. and, more importantly,James “J.T.” Taylor, a former Jersey nightclub singer. Kool & the Gang also began working with jazz fusion arranger Eumir Deodato, who produced their records from 1979 to 1982. The first such album, Ladies Night, was their biggest hit yet, the first of three consecutive platinum albums, with the Top Ten singles “Too Hot” and the title track. Celebrate!, released in 1980, spawned Kool & the Gang’s only number one hit, “Celebration,” an anthem favored by innumerable wedding receptions since. With Deodato, the group produced several more hits, including the singles “Take My Heart (You Can Have It if You Want It),” “Get Down on It,” and “Big Fun,” and the albums Something Special in 1981 andAs One a year later. After Deodato left the fold in late 1982, Kool & the Gang proved their success wasn’t solely due to him; they had two immense hits during 1984-1985 (“Joanna” and “Cherish”), as well as two more Top Tens, “Misled” and “Fresh.” The group’s string of seven gold or platinum records continued until 1986’s Forever, after which James “J.T.” Taylor amicably left the group for a solo career.

Although Taylor did reasonably well with his solo recordings (many of which were produced by Ronald Bell), Kool & the Gang quickly sank without him. They replaced Taylor with three vocalists, Skip Martin (formerly of the Dazz Band), Odeen Mays, and Gary Brown, but failed to chart their albums Sweat (1989) and Unite (1993). Taylor finally returned to the group in 1995 for the release of a new album, State of Affairs. They continued well throughout the 2000s, releasing 2001’s Gangland, 2004’s The Hits: Reloaded, and 2007’sStill Kool (recorded after the 2006 death of co-founder Charles Smith). They often collaborated with new and well-known younger talent.

Harold Melvin was one of the driving forces behind Philadelphia soul, leading his group the Blue Notes to the top of the charts during their stint on Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff‘s Philadelphia International label. Despite Melvin‘s billing out front, the Blue Notes’ focal point was lead singer and onetime drummer Teddy Pendergrass, whose surging baritone graced the Blue Notes’ recordings during their glory years of 1972-1975 and gave them a truly distinctive sound. Their output ranged from sweeping, extended proto-disco dance tracks to silky, smoldering ballads, all wrapped up in Gamble and Huff‘s lushly orchestrated production. When Pendergrass left for a solo career, Melvin & the Blue Notes’ commercial fortunes largely reverted to the pre-Pendergrass days (of which there were quite a few), although they did continue to record for a time. They never really disbanded, and by the time Melvin passed away in 1997, he’d been leading the Blue Notes for over four decades.

Melvin was born June 25, 1939, in Philadelphia. A self-taught pianist, he began singing doo wop as a teenager with a group called the Charlemagnes, and put together the very first edition of the Blue Notes in 1954. The original lineup was a quintet featuring Melvin as the lead singer (for a time), songwriter, arranger, and choreographer; ironically, he would mostly relinquish those duties by the time the group achieved its greatest success. The other members were co-leader Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie, Jesse Gillis, Jr., andFranklin Peaker. The Blue Notes cut their first single, “If You Love Me,” for Josie in 1956, and turned it into a regional hit. They recorded for several other labels over the next few years, Dot chief among them, before scoring their first R&B chart hit in 1960 with “My Hero” (released on Val-Ue). Numerous personnel shifts kept the group in flux despite steady recording activity, and Bernard Williams split off to lead what he dubbed the Original Blue Notes in the mid-’60s. Melvin assembled a new version of the Blue Notes centered around lead singer John Atkins, who returned the group to the R&B charts in 1965 with the Landa single “Get Out (And Let Me Cry).” Further releases on Arctic, Checker, and Uni followed over the rest of the ’60s, as well as more personnel changes. During the late ’60s, the group toured often with the Cadillacs, whose young drummerTeddy Pendergrass would prove to be Melvin‘s greatest discovery.

Pendergrass first joined the Blue Notes’ backing band, but demonstrated so much vocal talent that after John Atkins left in 1970, Melvin soon elevated him to the post of lead vocalist. This move helped them land a deal with Gamble and Huff‘s Philadelphia International label in 1972, just as the company was taking its place as soul music’s new epicenter; Pendergrass‘ voice was similar to that of Dells singer Marvin Junior, whomGamble & Huff had courted heavily. By this time, the Blue Notes consisted of Melvin,Pendergrass, bass vocalist Lawrence Brown, baritone vocalist Bernard Wilson, and tenor vocalist Lloyd Parks. With Gamble & Huff now supplying top-quality material and production, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes would become one of the most popular groups in R&B over the next few years. Their self-titled debut mostly featured songs that had been written in anticipation of landing Marvin Junior. The first single, “I Miss You,” was a hit on the R&B charts, but their second was a smash — the classic ballad “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” which featured an anguished, star-making vocal turn from Pendergrass. “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” went all the way to number one R&B, and also became their only Top Five hit on the pop side; it was later covered in 1989 for a number one hit by Simply Red.

The Blue Notes scored again in 1973 with the string-laden dance track “The Love I Lost,” credited by many observers as one of the first disco records; it was their second R&B chart-topper and Top Ten pop single. The accompanying album, Black & Blue, produced another R&B Top Ten in the follow-up “Satisfaction Guaranteed (Or Take Your Love Back).” In 1974, Lloyd Parks was replaced by Jerry Cummings, who debuted on the R&B chart-topping LP To Be True. “Where Are All My Friends” and “Bad Luck” continued their string of Top Ten R&B hits, and a new addition to the group, female vocalist Sharon Paige, helped bring them back to the top of the R&B charts in 1975 with the duet “Hope That We Can Be Together Soon.” Another excellent album followed later that year in Wake Up Everybody, whose title track was another R&B number one; “Tell the World How I Feel About ‘Cha Baby” also reached the R&B Top Ten, and the album cut “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was later covered for a disco smash by Thelma Houston.

However, tension was building within the group. The heavily spotlighted Pendergrass was hungry for separate billing, but Melvin, still the group’s chief organizing force, turned him down. In 1976, Pendergrass left the Blue Notes for a solo career that quickly made him one of R&B’s top sex symbols. Sharon Paige helped fill his shoes on lead vocals, as well as new male lead David Ebo, whose sound was fairly similar to Pendergrass‘. However,Pendergrass‘ departure also signaled the end of the Blue Notes’ relationship with Philadelphia International — their next recordings were for ABC, for whom they hit the R&B Top Ten in 1977 with the title track of Reaching for the World. It would prove to be their last major success, however; after one more album for ABC, they moved to MCA subsidiary Source in 1979 for two LPs that failed to reignite their commercial momentum. Cummingsand Wilson had both departed in 1977, replaced by Dwight Johnson and William Spratelly, and Paige and Ebo both left in 1980. Still, Melvin soldiered on, helming one last album of new material for Philly World in 1984’s hopefully titled Talk It Up (Tell Everybody). It was mildly popular in the U.K., but not enough to re-establish them. Melvin continued to tour with versions of the Blue Notes steadily into the ’90s, and Paige eventually returned to the fold as well. Sadly, Melvin suffered a stroke and never fully recovered; he passed away on March 24, 1997, in his beloved hometown of Philadelphia.

images

images2

images3

images4

images5

scan0038

As the backing duo for singer Tony Orlando, Dawn was among the biggest pop acts of the ’70s. Vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent (later Joyce Vincent-Wilson) got together in Detroit during the late ’60s and made a profitable living as session singers, most often for the Motown label (though Hopkins’ highest-profile gig was delivering the line “shut your mouth” on Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft”). There is some dispute as to how exactly Dawn hooked up with Orlando, or just how many of the group’s early singles Hopkins and Vincent actually performed on. The first single credited to Dawn, 1970’s “Candida,” featured lead vocals by Orlando, but he wasn’t credited because of his job with a music publishing company owned by a different label; the moniker Dawn was actually chosen because it was the name of one of the producers’ daughters. Hopkins and Vincent may have sung on the backing track, or it may have featured different, anonymous vocalists, after which Orlando chose Hopkins and Vincent to be Dawn upon hearing their demo tape. In either case, Orlando didn’t actually meet Hopkins and Vincent until after their second big hit, “Knock Three Times,” established Dawn as a viable act and created demand for a tour. At any rate, the group continued to notch significant hits, with 1973’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” ranking as far and away the biggest. In 1974, the trio got their own variety show on CBS, which ran until 1976; by that time, the hits had begun to dry up and Orlando — wanting to straighten out his personal life — announced his retirement in 1977. Dawn attempted to continue their recording career without Orlando, but it soon became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to attract much of an audience and they moved on to other things. Vincent-Wilson resumed her career as a session singer in the Los Angeles area, and later recorded with her sister Pam Vincent. Hopkins, meanwhile, had been bitten by the acting bug after her stint on the variety show; she became a successful sitcom actress, serving as a regular on shows like Bosom Buddies (1980), Gimme a Break (1984-1987), and Family Matters (1989-1993), plus numerous guest spots on other shows. Dawn also reunited with Orlando for several tours beginning in 1988, and performs regularly at Orlando’s theater in Branson, MO.

Sly & the Family Stone harnessed all of the disparate musical and social trends of the late ’60s, creating a wild, brilliant fusion of soul, rock, R&B, psychedelia, and funk that broke boundaries down without a second thought. Led by Sly Stone, the Family Stone was comprised of men and women, and blacks and whites, making the band the first fully integrated group in rock’s history. That integration shone through the music, as well as the group’s message. Before Stone, very few soul and R&B groups delved into political and social commentary; after him, it became a tradition in soul, funk, and hip-hop. And, along with James Brown, Stone brought hard funk into the mainstream. The Family Stone’s arrangements were ingenious, filled with unexpected group vocals, syncopated rhythms, punchy horns, and pop melodies. Their music was joyous, but as the ’60s ended, so did the good times. Stone became disillusioned with the ideals he had been preaching in his music, becoming addicted to a variety of drugs in the process. His music gradually grew slower and darker, culminating in 1971’s There’s a Riot Going On, which set the pace for ’70s funk with its elastic bass, slurred vocals, and militant Black Power stance. Stone was able to turn out one more modern funk classic, 1973’s Fresh, before slowly succumbing to his addictions, which gradually sapped him of his once prodigious talents. Nevertheless, his music continued to provide the basic template for urban soul, funk, and even hip-hop well into the ’90s.

Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, March 15, 1944) and his family moved from his home state of Texas to San Francisco in the ’50s. He had already begun to express an interest in music, and when he was 16, he had a regional hit with “Long Time Away.” Stone studied music composition, theory, and trumpet at Vallejo Junior College in the early ’60s; simultaneously, he began playing in several groups on the Bay Area scene, often with his brother Fred. Soon, he had become a disc jockey at the R&B station KSOL, later switching to KDIA. The radio appearances led to a job producing records for Autumn Records. While at Autumn, he worked with a number of San Franciscan garage and psychedelic bands, including the Beau Brummels, the Great Society, Bobby Freeman, and the Mojo Men.

During 1966, Stone formed the Stoners, which featured trumpeter Cynthia Robinson. Though the Stoners didn’t last long, he brought Robinson along as one of the core members of his next group, Sly & the Family Stone. Formed in early 1967, the Family Stone also featured Fred Stewart (guitar, vocals), Larry Graham, Jr. (bass, vocals), Greg Errico (drums), Jerry Martini (saxophone), and Rosie Stone (piano), who all were of different racial backgrounds. The group’s eclectic music and multiracial composition made them distinctive from the numerous flower-power bands in San Francisco, and their first single, “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” became a regional hit for the local label Loadstone. The band signed with Epic Records shortly afterward, releasing their debut album, A Whole New Thing, by the end of the year. The record stiffed, but the follow-up, Dance to the Music, generated a Top Ten pop and R&B hit with its title track early in 1968. Life followed later in 1968, but the record failed to capitalize on its predecessor’s success. “Everyday People,” released late in 1968, turned their fortunes back around, rocketing to the top of the pop and R&B charts and setting the stage for the breakthrough success of 1969’s Stand!

Featuring “Everyday People,” “Sing a Simple Song,” “Stand,” and “I Want to Take You Higher,” Stand! became the Family Stone’s first genuine hit album, climbing to number 13 and spending over 100 weeks on the charts. Stand! also marked the emergence of the political bent in Stone’s songwriting (“Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey”), as well as the development of hard-edged, improvisational funk like “Sex Machine.” The Family Stone quickly became known as one of the best live bands of the late ’60s, and their performance at Woodstock was widely hailed as one of the festival’s best. The non-LP singles “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” b/w “Everybody Is a Star” became hits, reaching number two and number one respectively in late 1969/early 1970. Both singles were included on Greatest Hits, which became a number two record upon its fall 1970 release. While the group was at the height of its popularity, Sly was beginning to unravel behind the scenes. Developing a debilitating addiction to narcotics, Stone soon became notorious for arriving late for concerts, frequently missing the shows all together.

Stone’s growing personal problems, as well as his dismay with the slow death of the civil rights movement and other political causes, surfaced on There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Though the album shot to number one upon its fall 1971 release, the record — including “Family Affair,” Stone’s last number one single — was dark, hazy, and paranoid, and his audience began to shrink slightly. During 1972, several key members of the Family Stone, including Graham and Errico, left the band; they were replaced by Rusty Allen and Andy Newmark, respectively. The relatively lighter Fresh appeared in the summer of 1973, and it went into the Top Ten on the strength of the Top Ten R&B hit “If You Want Me to Stay.” Released the following year, Small Talk was a moderate hit, reaching number 15 on the charts and going gold, but it failed to generate a big hit single. High on You, released in late 1975 and credited only to Sly Stone, confirmed that his power and popularity had faded. “I Get High on You” reached the R&B Top Ten, but the album made no lasting impact.

Disco had overtaken funk in terms of popularity, and even if Sly wanted to compete with disco, he wasn’t in shape to make music. He had become addicted to cocaine, his health was frequently poor, and he was often in trouble with the law. His recordings had slowed to a trickle, and Epic decided to close out his contract in 1979 with Ten Years Too Soon, a compilation of previously released material that had the original funky rhythm tracks replaced with disco beats. Stone signed with Warner Brothers that same year, crafting the comeback effort Back on the Right Track with several original members of the Family Stone, but the record was critically panned and a commercial failure. In light of the album’s lack of success, Stone retreated even further, eventually joining forces with George Clinton on Funkadelic’s 1981 album The Electric Spanking of War Babies. Following the album’s release, Stone toured with Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars, which led him to embark on his own tour, as well as a stint with Bobby Womack. The culmination of this burst of activity was 1983’s Ain’t but the One Way, an album that was ignored. Later that year, Stone was arrested for cocaine possession; the following year, he entered rehab.

Stone appeared on Jesse Johnson’s 1986 R&B hit “Crazay.” The following year, he dueted with Martha Davis on “Love & Affection” for the Soul Man soundtrack; he also he recorded “Eek-a-Bo-Static,” a single that didn’t chart. Stone was arrested and imprisoned for cocaine possession by the end of 1987, and he was never able to recover from the final arrest. Stone continued to battle his addiction, with varying degrees of success. By his 1993 induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he had disappeared from public view. Avenue Records gave Stone a recording contract in 1995, but nothing would be recorded.

One of the great male/female soul vocal groups, Ruby & The Romantics had an epic single in 1963 with “Our Day Will Come.” It topped both the pop and R&B charts earning a Grammy nomination for the Best Rock and Roll Recording for the awards period of 1963. Lead vocalist Ruby Nash, along with Ronnie Mosley, Ed Roberts, George Lee, and Leroy Fann were the original members when they began in Akron in 1961. The male members had previously been working in a group known as The Embers and The Supremes until Ruby was asked to join. They went to New York in 1962 and met up with Leroy Kirkland who took them to KAPP Records. That’s when A & R producer Al Stanton gave them the name Ruby and The Romantics. Unfortunately, they never again repeated their chart success, even though they made some other excellent songs, such as “When You’re Young and in Love”, as well as “Hey There Lonely Boy”, ” My Summer Love”, and “Young Wings Can Fly”. By 1965 they had experienced singing all over the world doing shows with icons such as Dick Clark, James Brown, and the Four Seasons, just to name a few. By 1966, Ruby married her hometown sweetheart and has been Ruby Nash Garnett for 42 years now. The group remained together until they retired in 1971. Three of the members has passed on with the only remaining members today being Ruby Nash Garnett and Ronnie Mosley.

– Robin Garnett (Ruby’s daughter)

images2

The Monkees - I_m A Believe

monkees2

Monkees_JAP_1746

images

The 30th anniversary of The Monkees is here! A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those four hand-picked crazies – Davy, Micky, Mike, and Peter – conquered the airwaves and the TV screen with their spoofy humor and groovy sounds. Appreciation has progressed to the point where even the elders in rock’s critical estate can forthrightly proclaim, at no peril to their academic standing, that The Monkees were not just a good band, but an important one. This overdue revisionism means you no longer have to keep your fandom a secret from your hip friends. It’s okay to stand up and say, “I love The Monkees.”

Rhino is leading the charge in what might be termed the third wave of Monkees popularity – after the initial mid-’60s mania and the mid-’80s reunion – with a brand-new album called Justus on October 15, 1996 (the first album featuring all four members in more than 25 years); a new coffee table book (also October ’96) from Rhino Books titled Hey, Hey, We’re The Monkees; a complete career retrospective CD-ROM in the fall of ’96; and last but not least, a full-length documentary of the group (also titled Hey, Hey, We’re The Monkees) airing in January ’97 on the Disney Channel.

Justus offered the four pop phenoms their first opportunity to go into a studio and record an album completely on their own terms. They wrote the songs. They played the songs. They produced the songs. This was a true labor of love, and a long-overdue shot for one of pop music’s most well-known quartets to raid the record industry candy store.

The seed for the album was planted during a few casual conversations between band members about getting back together to just jam. The original thought wasn’t to make a new album, but simply to have some fun. Well, a few months later, and many late nights in the studio, that seed had grown into what every Monkees fan has been holding their breath for: Justus.

The album features 12 newly recorded tunes that showcase not only the wide-ranging musicianship of each band member, but also the diverse nature of their musical tastes. The Monkees were traditionally an eclectic group, blending straight-ahead pop tunes with surreal and humorously offbeat songs all on the same album. Justus will not disappoint as it continues this tradition with songs like “Never Enough,” “You And I,” “Regional Girl,” “It’s Not Too Late,” and a 1996 remake of the classic Mike Nesmith song “Circle Sky,” to name a few.

After Rhino’s 1994 purchase of everything Monkees-related, including all sound recordings released and unreleased; all 58 episodes of the TV series; the film Head; and the hour-long TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee (even the Monkees logo now belongs to Rhino), the label embarked on a massive reissue campaign of all nine original albums: The Monkees; More Of The Monkees; Headquarters; Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.; The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees; Head; Instant Replay; The Monkees Present; and Changes.

In addition to the original lineups, each album contains a bonanza of bonus tracks, alternate versions, different mixes, non-LP A- and B-sides, unissued songs, live cuts, and radio spots. For the first time, musician credits are provided for each track, at long last detailing who played what. There are some eye-opening revelations here, as such stalwarts of American music as Harry Nilsson, James Burton, Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Buddy Miles, and many more are identified as collaborators and contributors to The Monkees’ recordings.

On the video front, Head is available on Rhino Home Video. Rhino has released a limited-edition box set of 21 videocassettes, containing all 58 episodes of The Monkees TV show (individual videos featuring two half-hour episodes apiece are also now being released), plus 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

To put it simply, The Monkees were America’s Fab Four. They rapidly rose to a crescendo of popularity that rivaled and for a period even outstripped Beatlemania. Just as The Beatles had reenergized rock ‘n’ roll and revitalized youth culture with their arrival on these shores in 1964, The Monkees brought boundless wit, creativity, and high spirits to both TV and the Top 40 in 1966. At the height of their popularity, recordings by The Monkees outsold those of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and the group shattered sales records previously set by the likes of Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

The Monkees amassed a dozen Top 40 hits, including a trio of tunes that soared to #1 during the most competitive and high-quality period in pop music history. Between September 1966 and December 1967, “Last Train To Clarksville,” “I’m A Believer,” and “Daydream Believer” collectively occupied the top position for 12 weeks. Sales of their LPs were more phenomenal still: The Monkees occupied the #1 position for 13 consecutive weeks, More Of The Monkees for 18. Both Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. went to the top as well, for a four-in-a-row feat in the incomprehensible space of 13 months. The final tally: 16 million albums and 7 1/2 million singles sold in a mere 2 1/2 years.

Still, commercial clout and unrivaled popularity are just part of the story. The Monkees brought their fair share of musical innovation, as well as an often unrecognized measure of hard-won integrity, to rock ‘n’ roll. Not the least of their accomplishments was the determined fight they waged with the “powers that be” for creative control over their music. It is an interesting story, both as a commentary on the inherent (and misdirected) bias against the system they balked at and as a personal triumph for artistic self-expression that vindicated their standing as musicians.

The four Monkees came from vastly different backgrounds. Davy Jones was, prior to his tryout for The Monkees, a professional horse jockey and thespian who’d been dividing his time between racetracks and the theaters in London’s West End. Peter Tork was a happily ensconced Greenwich Village coffeehouse musician and humorist who was proficient on several instruments. Michael Nesmith headed up from Texas with a love of country and folk music, and a studious knack for songwriting. Micky Dolenz was a Hollywood whiz kid who’d been a child actor (in the TV series Circus Boy) and possessed an outgoing nature and strong voice.

Despite their respective talents, the four of them didn’t exactly add up on paper. How could four guys who’d never previously met, who variously hailed from New York, Los Angeles, Texas, and England, pretend to be a band in any organic, ordinary sense of the word? Somewhere along the way, an improbable chemistry developed. “We were a very visible part of pop culture, formed by a combination of creative people from movies and television,” Mike Nesmith once remarked of The Monkees’ TV personalities.

On the musical side, the group was aided and nurtured – controlled, you might say, at least in the beginning – by a combine of producers and writers overseen by Colgems label impresario Don Kirshner. Songs were picked and sessions were arranged for them. The Monkees sang always but played infrequently. The songs were outstanding, as the band’s handlers were given access to the best and brightest pop tunesmiths in America: Neil Diamond, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Harry Nilsson, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, and Jeff Barry, among others. The band’s first two albums (The Monkees and More Of The Monkees) captured this phase. They were filled with bright, fresh-faced pop songs, bristling with tuneful hooks and melodies. Those early records were perfect, hummable radio fare for those halcyon times, and they remain an undiminished delight nearly 30 years later.

At the time, however, The Monkees caught flak from certain holier-than-thou types in rock’s emerging progressive wing who chided them for the apparent breach of not playing instruments on their records. (Somehow, this judgment did not extend to The Beach Boys, The Mamas & The Papas, the early Byrds, and a profusion of recording artists from pop’s golden era who drew from the same pool of sessionmen as The Monkees.) The Monkees were not unaffected by these complaints. At the same time, they legitimately desired more creative leeway, having grown as musicians and songwriters in the short space of a year. In a showdown with Kirshner spearheaded by Nesmith, The Monkees demanded all or nothing.

In hindsight, it all seems a bit rash, a tempest in a teapot that could have been more diplomatically negotiated. In the end, though, The Monkees were issued their artistic carte blanche, and they backed up their words with solid records of their own design and execution. This was the second phase in The Monkees’ recording career. Album Number Three, Headquarters, was 99 44/100% Monkees, in terms of the playing and singing. Thereafter, commencing with Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., they became sufficiently self-confident to work comfortably alongside session musicians, and the balance between their own talents and those of well-deployed professionals resulted in some of their most satisfying music.

As musicians, they proved they could be innovators as well as entertainers. Mike Nesmith, who owned one of the only three Gretsch 12-string guitars ever made, presaged the country-rock synthesis with songs, dating back to the first Monkees album, that had an erudite twang and rootsy underpinning. No less a figure than Paul Butterfield deemed Nesmith’s “Mary, Mary” worthy of recording by his estimable blues band. Purists couldn’t believe that this cool a tune had been written by – gasp! – a Monkee. Nesmith’s songs were also recorded by such diverse artists as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ian Matthews (whom Nesmith produced), and Linda Ronstadt’s Stone Poneys, who had a #13 hit in early ’68 with his song “Different Drum.”

Micky Dolenz acquired for himself one of the first Moog synthesizers, and the group deployed it in the Gerry Goffin & Carole King-penned ode to groupies, “Star Collector.” Dolenz, who’d never played drums before, learned how to do so in the short space of a year. He got so good at it that Frank Zappa actually asked him to play drums for The Mothers Of Invention. (Zappa, incidentally, remarked that The Monkees’ records were better-produced than 90% of what he heard coming out of San Francisco.) Likewise, Davy Jones swiftly became a decent enough bass player that he could relieve Peter in concert when the latter moved to keyboards. As a musician, Tork was The Monkees’ renaissance man, adding decorative parts here and there much as Brian Jones had done with The Rolling Stones. It was Tork, among all of them, who pushed hardest for The Monkees to realize their creative potential after the Nesmith-led coup. He also helped midwife another band – Crosby, Stills & Nash – who met at his home in Los Angeles.

On the concert front, The Monkees most definitely played their own instruments, effectively silencing their critics. No one will claim that they’d ever have won an instrumental shoot-out with Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Mahavishnu Orchestra. Yet they played competently in a garage-pop style that was raw and appealing, certainly of a caliber with the zestful energy of the early Kinks and Beatles in concert. On occasion, such as the live version of “Circle Sky” (heard in the film Head), they could be downright transcendent. The Monkees could spit it out with the best of them. The Sex Pistols weren’t any more punky in their live version of “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” than The Monkees had been. (Check out the Rhino release Live 1967 for confirmation of this.)

Prior to the recording of Justus, all four guys kept busy with side projects. Both Davy and Micky pursued acting, spending time last year performing and touring with a major road production of the hit broadway show Grease. The two played the role of the DJ, with Davy doing the first half of the tour and Micky finishing up the second half. Peter, who enjoys touring and playing his own music, released Stranger Things Have Happened, a solo album on Beachwood Records. And Mike, famous for his video innovation techniques during the ’80s with projects like Elephant Parts, has released several albums of brand-new material during the past few years.

Most recently Micky, Davy, and Peter embarked on a massive, 60-plus city, standing-room-only tour of the U.S. in celebration of the group’s 30th anninversary. Kicking off in the early summer of ’96, the tour is scheduled to go on until the end of the year, and talks are under way for a possible European leg.

Ultimately, The Monkees are a lot of fun. Let’s be honest about this: Fun has always been a key ingredient in the pop formula, yet it’s been in awfully short supply in the decades subsequent to The Monkees. Rock stars tend to retreat behind an assumed veneer so cool it’s crippling. The Monkees have never been afraid to laugh at themselves, and their brand of humor, embracing everything from dadaist whimsy to genial self-effacement, is endlessly appealing. “As a social document of their era,” writes music journalist Glenn A. Baker, “The Monkees are a precious artifact. But like the perpetual popularity of the Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, Charlie Chaplin, and Monty Python, there is an aspect of Monkees humor that proved timeless.”

The upshot of all this is that, absent the hype and commotion (pro and con) that surrounded The Monkees and their music at the time of its making, the group deserves to be reassessed in the present tense. Surely now they can be seen and appreciated for what they are: an exemplary pop band responsible for some of the most tuneful, luminescent, and lasting records of the rock ‘n’ roll era.

– Parke Puterbaugh 09/96

Quotes About The Monkees

“The Monkees were blessed with singable songs, and they sang them creditably. The productions were clean, the studio musicians impeccable. Even The Monkees’ biggest detractors would have to admit that their albums have worn considerably better than some contemporaneous offerings from ‘serious’ groups.”

– Geoffrey Stokes, Rock Of Ages: The Rolling Stone History Of Rock & Roll

“Monkees music was genuinely enjoyable, ingenious, lightweight pop.”

– NME Book Of Rock

“I think you’re the greatest comic talent since the Marx Brothers. I’ve never missed one of your programs.”

– John Lennon to Michael Nesmith in 1967

“The Monkees are still finding out who they are, and they seem to be improving as performers each time I see them. When they’ve got it all sorted out, they may be the greatest.”

– George Harrison, 1967

“I’m sure The Monkees are going to live up to a lot of things many people didn’t expect.”

– Paul McCartney

“Headquarters: The most perfect example of the brilliance that results from uninhibited love of the music.” “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.: An album as worthy of attention as anything the majority of the hippie bands of the time were doing.”

The Perfect Collection: The Rock Albums Everyone Should Have And Why (Proteus Books)

“Monkees music, given the benefit of a 20-year perspective, comes over in the ’80s with a vibrant buoyancy, far from the mindless pop its detractors claimed it to be. In the vast spectrum of 30 years of rock & roll, The Monkees hold an elevated position.”

– Glenn A. Baker, Monkeemania: The True Story Of The Monkees

“They didn’t meet in high school, spend endless time practicing in a garage, or drive to dive gigs in a broken-down van. People wrote songs for them to sing. Davy, Peter, Micky, and Mike made some money, and others made even more. But guess what? It worked! The songs were great, the show was way ahead of its time, and the ‘band’ became a real band.”

– Press release for Hear No Evil: A Tribute To The Monkees (Long Play, 1992)

Formed primarily for the purpose of starring in a television series, the Monkees were on one hand a cynically manufactured group, devised to cash in on the early Beatles’ success by applying the most superficial aspects of the British Invasion formula to capture a preteen audience. On the other hand, they weren’t devoid of musical talent, and at their best managed to craft some enduring pop/rock hits. “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Stepping Stone,” “Take a Giant Step,” “Valleri,” “Words” — all were pleasantly jangling, harmony rock numbers with hooks big enough for a meat locker, and all were huge hits in 1966-1968. Scorned at their peak by hipsters for not playing on many of their own records, the group gained some belated critical respect for their catchy, good-time brand of pop. It would be foolish to pretend, however, that they were a band of serious significance, despite the occasional genuinely serious artistic aspirations of the members.

The Monkees were the brainchild of television producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who decided to emulate the zany, madcap humor of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night for the small screen. In September 1965, they placed in ad in Variety for four “folk & rock musicians” to appear in a TV series. Over 400 applied for the job, including Stephen Stills and Harry Nilsson, but as it turned out only one of the four winners, guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith, actually saw the ad. Micky Dolenz (who would play drums), Davy Jones (who would sing), and Peter Tork (bass) found out about the opportunity from other sources. Nesmith and Tork had experience in the folk scene; Dolenz and Jones were primarily actors (although Nesmith and Jones had already made some obscure solo recordings).

From the outset, it was made clear that the Monkees were hired to be television actors first and musicians a distant second. There would be original material generated for them to sing in the series, mostly by professional songwriters like Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Neil Diamond. There would be records, as well — had to be, with that kind of weekly exposure, to promote the tunes — but the group wouldn’t do much more than sing, although the series would give the impression that they played their own instruments.

The TV show was a big hit with young audiences between 1966 and 1968, with slapstick comedy, super-fast editing, and thin plots that could be banded together by almost surreal humor. It wasn’t A Hard Day’s Night, but it was, in its way, innovative relative to the conventions of television at the time. The irony was that, by the time the series debuted in September 1966, the Beatles themselves had just released Revolver, and had evolved way beyond their mop-top phase into psychedelia.

Also in September 1966, the Monkees’ debut single “Last Train to Clarksville” became their first big hit, reaching number one, as did the follow-up, “I’m a Believer.” They were quickly one of the most popular acts in the business, yet they were not allowed to play anything on most of their first records, only to sing; the instruments would be handled by session players. This was particularly hard for Mike Nesmith, a serious musician and songwriter, to swallow, although he did manage to place a few of his own tunes on their records from the start.

Eventually the Monkees revealed that they didn’t play on most of their own records, and Nesmith in particular incited the group to wrest control of their recordings into their own hands. Partly to deflect criticism of the group as nothing more than puppets, and partly to effect control over their musical destiny (some of their early recordings had been packaged and released without their consent), the Monkees did indeed play and write much of the music on their third album, Headquarters (1967), with a lot of help from producer Chip Douglas. It didn’t prove the band to be hidden geniuses, in fact sounding not much different from their previous releases, but as a hard-won victory to establish their own identity, it was a major point of pride. They would continue, however, to rely upon industry songwriters for the rest of their hit singles, and frequently employ session musicians throughout the rest of their career.

Despite the questions surrounding their musical competence, the Monkees did tour before live audiences. They made their own contribution to rock history by enlisting Jimi Hendrix, then barely known in the U.S., as an opening act for a 1967 tour; Hendrix lasted only a few shows before everyone agreed that the combination was a mismatch (to put it mildly). But the Monkees were always a lot hipper personally than many assumed from their bubblegum packaging. Their albums are strewn with rather ambitious, even mildly psychedelic, cuts, some rather successful (“Porpoise Song,” Nesmith’s “Circle Sky”), some absolutely awful. In 1968, they gained their freak credentials with the movie Head, a messy, indulgent, occasionally inspired piece of drug-addled weirdness that was co-written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson (before he had broken through to stardom with Easy Rider).

By 1968, the Monkee phenomenon was drawing to a close. The show’s final episode aired in March 1968, and Head, released in November, was not a commercial success, confusing the teenyboppers and confounding the critics (not many people saw it to begin with in any case). Surprisingly, it was not Nesmith, but Tork who was the first to leave the group, at the end of 1968. They carried on as a trio, releasing a couple of fairly dismal albums in 1969, as well as producing a little-seen TV special. By the end of the ’60s, Nesmith — who had established his credentials as a songwriter with “Different Drum,” which was taken into the Top 20 by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys — was also gone, to start a lengthy solo career that finally allowed him to stretch out as a serious artist. That left only Dolenz and Jones, who fulfilled the Monkees contract with the pointless Changes in 1970.

When enough years separated the music from the hype, the Monkees underwent a critical rehab of sorts, as listeners fondly remembered their singles as classy, well-executed, fun pop/rock. That led to a predictable clamor for a reunion, especially after their albums were reissued to surprisingly swift sales in the mid-’80s, and their series was rerun on MTV. Nesmith was having none of it; by this time he was a respected and hugely successful music video mogul with his Pacific Arts company. The other three did reunite to tour and record a predictably horrendous album, Pool It! (Nesmith did join them once on-stage in 1989). Rhino has treated the Monkee catalog with a respect usually accorded for Charlie Parker outtakes, reissuing all of their original albums on CD with added unreleased/rare bonus tracks, and even assembling a box set.

In November 1965, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz came together as The Monkees to film a pilot television program for creator/producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider’s Raybert Productions. The group members were selected via a casting call, word of mouth and just plain luck. All four had prior musical and acting experience.

The Monkees series was sold to the NBC network in February 1966 and began shooting at the end of May. It debuted on September 12, 1966 and ran for two seasons. Fifty-eight half-hour programs were produced over an 18-month period, and the show won two Emmy awards in 1967.

During June ‘66, the Monkees started recording sessions for the show’s soundtrack with a variety of producers and songwriters. Contrary to popular belief, the Monkees did perform instrumentally on some of these sessions and provided the lead vocals for all of their recorded efforts. Additionally, group member Michael Nesmith produced and wrote some of the Monkees’ earliest recordings.

Without a doubt, the architects of the Monkees’ sound were Music Coordinator Don Kirshner and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. In addition to composing and performing the music featured in The Monkees pilot from November ’65, Boyce and Hart’s creations included “Last Train To Clarksville” (#1 in 1966), “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (#20 in 1966), “Valleri” (#3 in 1968), “Words” (#11 in 1967), “I Wanna Be Free” and “She.”

The Monkees scored their biggest hit in late 1966 with Jeff Barry’s production of the Neil Diamond song, “I’m A Believer.” Despite this success, friction developed between the group and Music Coordinator Don Kirshner. Stung by the criticism that they did not fully participate in their own records, the Monkees took control of their musical destiny.

During 1967, the Monkees created two albums (Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.) and two singles (“Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Daydream Believer”) as a full-fledged musical unit with only minimal use of outside musicians. However, by November of ‘67, the individual Monkees had decided to pursue their recorded exploits separately.

In 1968, the Monkees starred in their one and only feature film, Head. A collaborative effort with Jack Nicholson, the movie found only a limited initial audience, but has gone onto to become a cult classic. Towards the end of ’68, the Monkees taped a television special for NBC called 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. It was to be Peter Tork’s last original project with the band. Dissatisfied with the separate direction the group’s recordings had taken, he split from the band in December ’68.

Micky, Davy and Michael continued as a trio for the next year. They mounted a nationwide tour with a backing band called Sam & The Goodtimers, but found their popularity diminishing. Record-breaking Saturday morning reruns of The Monkees series in ‘69 provided something of a rebirth, but record sales did not rebound. In early 1970, Michael Nesmith split from the Monkees to form the First National Band. Micky and Davy recorded one further album (Changes) and single (“Do It In The Name Of Love”) before going their separate ways.

In 1975, Micky and Davy reunited with songwriters Boyce and Hart for live shows and records as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. Ten years later, promoter David Fishof organized a massively successful tour featuring Micky, Davy and Peter. Just a few days short of the 20th anniversary of The Monkees series’ debut, Nesmith briefly rejoined his bandmates on stage at Los Angeles’ Greek Theater for performances of “Listen To The Band” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” After this, the four Monkees taped a Christmas video for MTV, but this reunion was fleeting.

Nevertheless, 1986 proved to be a phenomenal year for Monkeemania. By November, seven Monkees albums were on the Billboard charts and a new single from Micky and Peter (“That Was Then, This Is Now”) went Top 40. This success was due in large part to the re-airing of The Monkees series by MTV (in a deal worked out by Bert Schneider).

In 1987, Micky, Davy and Peter recorded a new album together, Pool It! (for Rhino) and two years later the entire group reunited to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. After this event, all was quiet on the Monkee front until 1994 when producer/creators Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider sold the entire Monkees legacy of films and recordings to Rhino Entertainment. Two years on, Nesmith regrouped the Monkees for an album calledJustus. As the title implied, this was a group effort ala 1967’s Headquarters. An ABC network television special, Hey Hey We’re The Monkees, directed by Nesmith also returned the group to prime time, albeit for one night only. Forty years on from their initial debut, the Monkees are all pursuing different avenues of creativity.

– Andrew Sandoval

Rhino Entertainment

Monkees History

Who Are The Monkees?

The Monkees TV Show premiered on NBC in September 1966 presenting a wacky comedy show about a 4 piece long haired rock band. It was patterned after a movie, as many TV shows are, called “A Hard Days Night” starring The Beatles. The 4 actors recruited for the show had all performed musically prior to the show, and they used their real names for the characters.

Music for them to “romp” to had been created shortly before the show first aired by Don Kirschner, with the actors providing primarily vocals. The album “The Monkees”, released to promote the TV show, became a chart topper with the song “Last Train To Clarksville” even before the show had aired, causing the unexpected reversal of the TV show promoting the record.

The overwhelming success of the music demanded that this “band” perform live, so the actors rehearsed the music and toured the US in December, playing all of the music themselves.

The group was surprised to see the release of their second album, imaginatively titled “More of The Monkees” show up in stores without their input, and go on to be the number 1 album of 1967. The actors demanded and received control of their musical product, as they were being reviled by the musical community for not playing on their records.

They went on that year to create the album “Headquarters”, the favorite of many fans today, playing all of the music themselves. At this point they began to change the musical sound as well as the tone of the TV show, and the project ran out of steam by the end of the second TV season, and ceased production.

Without the TV show for promotion, and with no friends in the music industry because of their “easy fame”, the group went their seperate ways.

In 1986, MTV ran 24 hours of Monkees TV episodes in a special called “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, and revived the 20 year old band, causing a reunion record and tour (minus one notable member), to great success until 1989, when they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before breaking up again.

Today, the music of the group lives on through CD re-issues by Rhino, and the issuing of the entire TV series on Video. The Monkees phenomena remains a major event of 60’s pop culture. Many argue that it began the idea of music video as promotion, and the marketing of TV show products to pre-teen audiences, as well as opening the door to multi-media.

Some still revile the music of the Monkees as “manufactured”, others remember it as a fond memory of their childhood. The Monkees were a real working band in every sense of the word, and provided quality music and comedy in a format that had never been tried before, and were wildly successful at it.

Best known for the number one R&B hit “My True Story,” the Jive Five were one of the few vocal groups to survive the transistion from the ’50s to the ’60s. In the process, they helped move the music itself forward, providing a key link between doo wop and ’60s soul.

Formed in Brooklyn, NY, the group originally consisted of Eugene Pitt (lead), Jerome Hanna(tenor), Richard Harris (tenor), Billy Prophet (baritone), and Norman Johnson (bass). The Jive Five’s first hit, “My True Story,” was their biggest, peaking at number one on the R&B charts and number three on the pop charts in the summer of 1961. None of the band’s subsequent singles — including the minor R&B hit, 1962’s “These Golden Rings” — were as popular, but the group managed to keep performing and recording. Under the direction ofEugene Pitt and Norman Johnson, the Jive Five refashioned themselves as a soul band in 1964, forming a new lineup with Casey Spencer (tenor), Webster Harris (tenor), andBeatrice Best (baritone). This new incarnation of the band signed to United Artists Records. The group only had one hit on UA, 1965’s “I’m a Happy Man.”

In 1966, the Jive Five left United Artists and signed with Musicor, where they had the 1968 R&B hit “Sugar (Don’t Take Away My Candy).” They changed labels again in 1970, signing with Decca. That same year, they changed their name to the Jyve Fyve, in order to appear more contemporary. The Jyve Fyve had only one minor R&B hit, 1970’s “I Want You to Be My Baby.”

The group continued to perform and record for a variety of small labels during the ’70s, but they never had another hit. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, the only constant member wasEugene Pitt. In 1975, Pitt changed the name of the group to Ebony, Ivory, and the Jades, but this new incarnation failed to gain much attention. In 1982, Pitt changed the name of the group back to the Jive Five and the band recorded two albums for the indie label, Ambient Sound. For the rest of the ’80s and the ’90s, the Jive Five were regulars on the oldies circuit.

A ’60s girl group, the Dixie Cups consisted of one cousin (Joan Marie Johnson) and two sisters (Barbara Ann Hawkins and Rosa Lee Hawkins). All three young ladies were from New Orleans, as was producer and singer Joe Jones, who discovered the talented threesome and took them to New York.

The trio was almost known as the Meltones — or worse, Little Miss and the Muffets — but the name Dixie Cups was settled on by 1964. That was the year the girls recorded the well-remembered song “Chapel of Love” on the Red Bird Records label. The number was written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry, and intended to be released by the Ronettes, Darlene Love, or the Crystals. That one single was enough to carry the group into music history. It became the Dixie Cups’ biggest success, a million-seller, and a worldwide hit. A few other hits followed through 1964 and into 1965, like “You Should Have Seen the Way He Looked at Me,” “Little Bell,” “Iko Iko,” and “People Say.” A year later, Red Bird Records was out of the picture. The trio moved to ABC-Paramount, but there were no more hits, and 1966 saw the end of the Dixie Cups. There had been other singles, like “Gee the Moon Is Shining Bright” and “Girls Can Tell,” but there weren’t enough fans to back the releases.

In 1974, Rosa Lee and her sister Barbara Ann left New York behind to return to New Orleans and found work as models for awhile. When the sisters began to sing and tour again, their cousin Joan Marie declined to join in, so her spot was filled by Dale Mickle.

Maurice Williams is one of the most extraordinarily durable figures in the history of classic R&B and rock & roll, despite the fact that, as a performer, he only ever racked up one major national hit on the pop charts. That song, “Stay,” became one of the classic singles in the history of rock — a number one hit upon its release in 1960 on Al Silver’s Herald label, and a popular favorite for decades since, revived in 1987 with its prominent use in the movie Dirty Dancing. Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs recorded only two more minor pop hits before they disappeared from the charts, but Williams has remained active as a performer and, periodically, as a recording artist and songwriter ever since.

Williams was born in Lancaster, SC, on April 26, 1938, and showed himself musically inclined from a very early age — he started learning the piano from his older sister in the late ’40s, practicing daily so that by the time he was ten years old he was having friends from elementary school over for informal jam sessions at his house. Williams had sung in church, but his interest lay more in popular music, and in 1953, he and his friends were ready to form a group that they called the Royal Charms. The group’s original membership, in addition to Williams, included Earl Gainey (tenor, guitar), Willie Jones (baritone), William Massey (tenor, baritone, trumpet), and Norman Wade (bass). They played school events and talent shows, winning several and acquiring a local following, before they finally got a paying gig at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The year they’d started out, 1953, Williams had also written two songs that were to have a pivotal effect on his life and career, and the group’s history: “Little Darling” and “Stay.”

The Royal Charms loved performing, and were popular locally, but working the area around Lancaster, they found their prospects limited. The group’s first real break took place in 1956 when a Nashville disc jockey hooked them up with Ernie Young, the head of Excello Records — Williams, then only 16, bluffed his way into an audition over the phone and then had to raise money from friends and local merchants in Lancaster to make the trip to Nashville in December of 1956.

“Little Darling” impressed Young, although he altered it somewhat, giving the song a calypso beat that it didn’t originally have. He also insisted on the group changing its name — it seemed as though every R&B vocal group (the word “doo wop” hadn’t been invented yet) had either “Royal” or “Charms” in its name, and bird-named groups were too common as well. Young happened to like flowers, and selected the name the Gladiolas.

“Little Darling” by the Gladiolas was released by Excello in January of 1957 and was a hit on the R&B charts, rising to number 11 in a four-week run in the early spring of that year. It had a more muted presence on the pop charts, lingering there for 11 weeks but never getting higher than number 41.

What happened next is a matter of interpretation. In some historians’ eyes, the Gladiolas’ version of the song was undercut by a competing rendition, recorded for Mercury by a white Canadian group called the Diamonds, which rose to number one on the pop charts and sold more than a million copies, even becoming a definitive “doo wop”-type single. On the other hand, some listeners, comparing the two versions, say that the Diamonds’ version is more fully realized than that by the Gladiolas, not only with a more ambitious arrangement and greater vocal virtuosity, but a better sound; the Gladiolas’ single, by contrast, almost seems like a demo, only partly realized in technical terms.

Regardless of the virtues of either, Williams, for his part, never minded the Diamonds’ version, because Young — in an example of honesty all too rare in the record business in those days — told him that, as writer of the song, all he should care about is that it sells and gets played, not whose version sells. Young had also left him with full rights as songwriter, rather than trying to buy them away from him, which Williams admits he could’ve done for practically no money at all in those days. It was a decision that was to earn Williams a vast amount of money at the age of 17 and beyond, and educated him painlessly and well about the business side of the music business.

Williams was a serious high school student, and he earned a music scholarship to Allen University in Columbia, SC, that he had to turn down — he was simply doing too much in music to interrupt his career, tempting as it was. The Gladiolas kept performing, touring the West once before returning to South Carolina, where they became a heavy favorite among fraternities, especially at the University of South Carolina. At the end of 1958, the group decided against re-signing with Excello, which meant they had to give up their name, which Young owned. This could have been a disaster, forcing them to re-establish themselves in a new incarnation, but a name and a song, courtesy of Williams, made that easy. According to Williams, it was group member Bobby Gore who saw a German car called a Zodiac, and immediately seized on the name — Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs became the group’s new identity.

Over the next year, the original Zodiacs’ lineup expanded to nine members, including two saxmen (Calvin McKinnie, Harold Alexander). In 1960, the band hooked up with Al Silver of Herald Records in New York, by way of producers Phil Gernhardt and Al McCullough. The group was supposed to provide demos, and Williams retrieved a song he’d written back in 1953 — strangely enough, to the same girl for whom he’d written “Little Darling” — called “Stay” and present it to Silver.

The group signed with Herald and “Stay,” sparked by a stunning falsetto performance by Shane Gaston, became their debut on the label during the summer of 1960. It hit number one that fall and easily topped a million sales at the time, also becoming the biggest hit in the history of Herald Records. Williams & the Zodiacs never had another record nearly as big as “Stay,” which came out at just the right moment and seemed to sell in subsequent years at the drop of a hat, as a romantic and nostalgia favorite — by some estimates, their record has topped ten million sales internationally. Additionally, other artists, including the Four Seasons, Jackson Browne, and Rufus & Chaka Khan, all made the Top 20 or better with their respective versions of the song, and the Hollies cut it as a single at the outset of their career.

The Zodiacs didn’t fare as well as the song. “I Remember,” also released on Herald, never made it past number 86 on the pop charts and didn’t appear on the R&B charts at all. Neither did “Come Along,” which was released in the spring of 1961 and only climbed to number 83 on the pop charts. During the mid-’60s, the group hooked up with the New Orleans-based production team of Marshall Sehorn and Allen Toussaint. With their guidance, the group cut a passionate, soulful recording of Williams’ “May I,” a dazzlingly beautiful song that held a lot of promise. Unfortunately, they chose to license it to Vee Jay, which was then the most successful black-owned record company in the world. But Vee Jay went into bankruptcy within days of the record’s national release, and “May I” never recovered — the record did get out on the Dee Su label in New Orleans, which rescued it physically from oblivion, and it found an audience on the radio. It has been certified a million-seller by the RIAA, despite never managing to appear on either the pop or R&B charts. Five years later, it became a modest Top 40 hit in a smoother version by Bill Deal & the Rhondels, a white dance-rock and R&B-based band from the Virginia-Carolinas area who’d been doing it on stage for years. The group subsequently released records on Atlantic, Sea-Horn, and Scepter, including a fine single, “Return,” with Gladys Knight & the Pips singing behind them. Williams saw minimal chart action from any of this, but remained active — Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs were still a major draw in the South, especially in their native state, and in 1965 cut a live album at Myrtle Beach, SC.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Williams led various incarnations of the Zodiacs on oldies tours, primarily on the beach music circuit on the U.S. East Coast. In the wake of Dirty Dancing, which yielded sales of another eight million copies of “Stay,” he re-emerged as a recording artist on the Ripete label, based in Columbia, SC, which specializes in beach music (they’ve also got a best-of the Swinging Medallions out on CD). Ripete has since released the impossible-to-find 1965 live album on CD, and an excellent career anthology of Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs.