Talk:Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs

Group name

I read the All Music Guide biography of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, written by Bruce Eder & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, and I don't remember the band ever being named The Excellos.

Below is a portion of the above-referenced text:

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 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 change 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..."

Can anyone offer any input? If not, I'd like to change this article to reflect what AMG has.

Bri4daz (talk) 19:36, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

The Zodiacs

This article states that "...in the early summer of 1959, the band recorded...several tracks that [they]...had hoped would fetch them a hit. One of the last tracks that they recorded that day was "Stay," a song that Williams had written a couple of weeks before."

The All Music Guide biography of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, written by Bruce Eder & Stephen Thomas Erlewine says, "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 hstory, "Little Darling" and "Stay."

Does anyone have any knowledge that could clarify the discrepency between the years: 1959 per Wikipedia and 1952 per AMG?

Bri4daz (talk) 20:41, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Active years of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs

In the biographical inset portion of the main article it shows the active portions of the career of Maurice Williams as enmding in the early 60's (1962). I was the social director at an apartment complex in Columbia, SC at the same time I was attending the University of South Carolina in the early and middle 70's (best job I ever had). During this period I had occasion to book MW and the Z's on several different dates. Please note that this was at least a decade AFTER Williams alleged retirement from performing. I would like to point out that this is not rumour or something I heard someone say. Fact is, I cut the checks for payment to the band leader, Mr. Maurice Williams, myself. He was always a crowd pleaser and THE favorite performer at these functions.4.154.4.101 (talk) 12:54, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

I've removed that bit. The article says MW is still active in the music industry, and whenever it was that he last performed with a group called the Zodiacs hardly seems important. Rothorpe (talk) 13:36, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

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