Maurice Williams, writer and lead singer of ‘Stay,’ dead at 86

NEW YORK (AP) — Maurice Williams, a rhythm and blues singer and composer who along with his backing group the Zodiacs grew to become certainly one of music’s nice one-shot acts with the basic ballad “Keep,” has died. He was 86.

Williams died Aug. 6, based on an announcement from the North Carolina Music Corridor of Fame, which didn’t instantly present additional particulars.

A author and performer since childhood, Williams had been in varied concord teams when he and the Zodiacs started a studio session in 1960.

They unexpectedly made historical past close to the top with their recording of “Keep,” which Williams had dashed off as a teen a couple of years earlier.

Over exhausting chants of “Keep!” by his fellow vocalists, Williams carried a lot of the track and its plea to an unnamed woman. Halfway, he stepped again and gave the result in Shane Gaston and certainly one of rock’s most unforgettable falsetto shouts — “OH, WON’T YOU STAY, JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER!.”

Barely over 1 minute, 30 seconds, among the many shortest chart-toppers of the rock period, the track hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1960 and was the group’s solely main success.

However it was coated by the Hollies and the 4 Seasons amongst others early on and endured as a favourite oldie, recognized finest from when Jackson Browne sang it dwell for his 1977 “Operating On Empty” album.

“Keep” additionally was carried out by Browne, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and others on the 1979 “No Nukes” live performance at Madison Sq. Backyard and appeared in its authentic model on the blockbuster “Soiled Dancing” soundtrack from 1987.

The track was impressed by a teen-age crush, Mary Shropshire.

“(Mary) was the one I used to be attempting to get to remain a little bit longer,” Williams instructed the North Carolina publication Our State in 2012. “After all, she couldn’t.”

Williams’ profession was in any other case extra a narrative of disappointments. He wrote one other falsetto showcase, “Little Darlin,” and recorded it in 1957 with the Gladiolas. However the track as an alternative grew to become successful for a white group, the Diamonds. In 1965, Williams and the Zodiacs reduce a promising ballad, “Could I.” However their label, Vee-Jay, went bankrupt simply because the track was popping out and “Could I” was later successful for an additional white group, Invoice Deal & the Rhondels.

Really helpful Tales

Like many stars from the early rock period, Williams grew to become a fixture on oldies excursions and tributes, whereas additionally making the albums “Let This Night time Final” and “Again to Fundamentals.” Within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, he settled in Charlotte, North Carolina and in 2010 was voted into the state’s Corridor of Fame. Survivors embody his spouse, Emily.

Williams was born in Lancaster, South Carolina, and sang with relations in church whereas rising up. He was in his teenagers when he fashioned a gospel group, the Junior Harmonizers, who grew to become the Royal Charms as they developed into secular music after which the Zodiacs in honor of a Ford automotive they used on the street. In the meantime, he was a prolific author and wanted little time to complete what grew to become his signature hit.

“It took me about thirty minutes to put in writing ‘Keep,’ then I threw it away,” he later instructed www.classicsbands.com. “We had been on the lookout for songs to file as Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. I used to be over at my girlfriend’s home taking part in the tape of songs I had written, when her little sister stated, ‘Please do the track with the excessive voice in it.’ I knew she meant ‘Keep.’ She was about 12 years outdated and I stated to myself, ‘She’s the age of file shopping for,’ and the remainder is historical past. I thank God for her.”