Born 1940 in Lancaster South Carolina.

Maurice with the help of his sister, had already learned how to play keyboards by the age of ten and was practising every day with school friends. The youngsters jamming sessions continued for three years until they became good enough to form a band which they named The Royal Charms.

Their first gigs were talent shows and school proms. In 1953 they secured their first paying job at $70 which had to be split with five other band members. In 1959 they played their first gig as Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs at the University of South Carolina.

At just 13 years of age Maurice wrote two songs which have become rock 'n' roll classics. "Little Darling" and "Stay" were both written about his girlfriend. "Little Darling" was apparently written in an attempt to patch things up after he'd strayed to another girl and "Stay" because she was under curfew to be home by 10pm. Nowadays of course almost everyone knows the lines to that song

"Your Mama Won't Mind, And Your Daddy Won't Mind...".

Sales of "Stay" topped ten million following it's inclusion in the soundtrack to the 1987 film Dirty Dancing and Maurice has since received a multi platinum award. Royalties from that one song have ensured his financial independence.

Anyway back to the early days of the story...

The Royal Charms continued performing until 1955, but Lancaster S.C. was not the place to get a recording contract. A disk jockey John Richbourg at WLAC in Nashville arranged a meeting with Ernie Young, the head of Excello Records. Maurice recalls "Mr Young told us not to come to Nashville until we had a job, he had no idea I was only sixteen".

To fund the trip to Nashville the residents of Lancaster chipped in anything from fifty cents to two dollars each, and in the winter of 1956 The Royal Charms headed off to Nashville in their old Chrysler with bald tyres and no spare. After travelling on the icy roads through the mountains of Carolina and Tennessee they eventually made it to Nashville.

After a meeting with Mr Young and playing "Little Darling", which he liked, they had their first recording contract. As is often the case, the record company boss insisted on changing the name of the group and, as he (Mr Young) liked flowers, they became the Gladiolas recording "Little Darling" in 1956. Released in January 1957 the record zoomed up the R&B charts but received little air time on the predominantly white pop radio stations.

It was a time when many black artists had their songs covered by white artists and that's exactly what happened.

"I remember the meeting with Mr Young very well. He said a white group called The Diamonds wanted to record "Little Darling". At first I was against it, but Mr Young gave me some very sound advice that I've always remembered. Don't let your ego get between you and your money. You wrote the song and the more copies you sell, the more money you make. He was an honest man and could have easily bought the rights from me for peanuts and kept the profits himself"

The Diamonds version went all the way to number one in the pop charts giving Maurice Williams a number one hit record at just 17 years old. Maurice resisted the temptation to quit school, where he was doing well enough to graduate from Barr Street High School in Lancaster. Then he got the phone call that every rock and roll act was waiting for. An invitation to appear on the Allen Freed Show in New York.

"I knew that if I went, I wouldn't graduate from high school, and I was the only member of the Gladiolas still in school. I told the group to go on without me, but they all said if you don't go, we don't go, so we didn't. That turned out to be Allen Freeds last show, so I never had the opportunity again, but I don't regret the decision".

Maurice graduated with the class of 57, winning a musical scholarship. "Mr Belk, my high school principal was furious when I declined the scholarship, he had worked so hard to get it for me. He told me it would be the worst mistake I'd ever make because rock 'n' roll was just a fad and wouldn't last - thank God he was wrong"

In 1958 the contract with Excello ran out and Maurice felt a change of record label was needed. As The Gladiolas name was the property of Ernie Young, a new name was needed. Maurice explains "Our station wagon had broken down in Bluefield, West Virginia and we were towed into a dealership. While repairs were underway, we were looking at new cars and there was a German made car called a Zodiac, it was about the size of a golf cart. Bobby Gore said That's It! The Zodiacs, Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs and that name has been unchanged for 34 years"

From the trash to number one...

"I had never thought too much about "Stay" and had thrown the lyrics in the trash. However I still had a demo tape and one night we were playing demos and my girlfriend's sister heard it and went crazy over it. That changed my thinking and we used the song as a demo for Al Silver at Herald Records". Herald released "Stay" in the summer of 1960 and by November it was number one. Williams' second number one single featuring the incredible drop-dead falsetto from Henry 'Shane' Gaston could have so very nearly been forgotten.

1964 and Maurice teamed up with the legendary New Orleans producers, Marshall Seahorn and Allen Toussaint. He had just written "May I" and Seahorn promptly placed it with Vee Jay records out of Chicago which was one of the premier rock 'n roll labels of the time. Vee Jay had artists like Jerry Butler, Jimmy Reed, The Impressions, Four Seasons and the new rock 'n' roll sensations, The Beatles on their roster.

Just as "May I" hit the streets, Vee Jay declared bankruptcy in the midst of litigation over Beatles royalties. The record was then  issued on the local Dee Su label out of New Orleans. Although a local Carolina Beach Music Classic the record failed to chart and today you can hear it on oldies stations accross the US.

Right, that brings us to the release on Dee Su 302 - "Being Without You".

Now we are talking about one of the finest records ever made, well that's my personal view. Please forgive me this moment or two of drooling and excuse me while I wipe my chin. I first heard this record in 1975 and thirty years on, it's still a joy to listen to. The ideal Northern Soul mixture, uptempo and blasting horn intro, with strong male vocal and wonderful backing group and with soulful lyrics like "sugar mama, sugar lips, girl you're so fine" oh, it's all too much.

Beg, steal or borrow a copy of this disc, but for now...