Doo Wop Music
Here’s one of the great doo wop group with their golden oldies music. There is so much going on in this song with Maurice Williams’ lead vocal, the pleas of the group, and the compelling beat, that its brevity at a little more than a minute and a half usually isn’t noticed. Williams said that inspiration for the song came from a situation where he tried to convince his date to stay past her curfew, but she didn’t. And so he wrote the song. In 1960, “Stay” went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the R&B Chart.
Maurice Williams was born in Lancaster, South Carolina, growing up with music from his church. Williams formed a gospel group called the Junior Harmonizers, but their interests veered towards rock and roll and doo-wop, and they changed their name to the Royal Charms. In 1957, they changed their name to the Gladiolas and then in 1958 to the Excellos before settling on The Zodiacs. Williams wrote one of doo-wop’s anthems, “Little Darlin'” and recorded it with The Gladiolas. The Canadian group The Diamonds had the big hit with that song, though. If you would like to read about those two versions of “Little Darlin’,” please click here.