Artist:Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
Song:Stay
Album:Dirty Dancing
In retrospect, the one thing the Dirty Dancing soundtrack was good for was resurrecting interest in long forgotten oldies. And this was one of the shortest chart hits ever. Maurice Williams was born Apr. 26, 1938 in Lancaster, SC. He grew up singing in church and formed the doo wop group The Royal Charms in 1953. His big break came in 1956 when Nashville DJ Ernie Young, also owner of Excello Records, liked Williams' song Little Darlin'. This song would eventually be a huge hit for The Diamonds though Williams originally recorded it as The Gladiolas. That made Williams a lot of money as Young didn't try to rip him off. Williams decided not to re-sign with Excello and eventually sent a demo of the song Stay to Al Silver of Herald Records. The song was recorded and was a #1 hit in 1960. Subsequently Williams never matched that success but Stay has been covered by many artists over the years and the 1987 Dirty Dancing soundtrack sold it to a new generation. Stay turns up on a lot of various artists comps. Maurice Williams continues to tour the oldies circuit today and here he is singing Stay on one of those PBS doo wop specials.
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