1955 was a pivotal year for The Charms.
On October 29th, the vocal harmony group had performed on stage at Carnegie Hall, as part of Lou Krefetz‘s “Top Ten Rhythm and Blues Show” — “the first time that the sacred precincts of Carnegie Hall [will] have resounded to the rhythms of rock and roll music,” announced The Call prior to the historic occasion in its October 21, 1955 edition.
Lou Krefetz’s Top Ten Rhythm & Blues Show –
The Charms with The Clovers, Faye Adams, Joe Turner, Bill Doggett, Bo Diddley, The Five Keys, Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams, Gene & Eunice, Etta James, and Charlie & Ray
Emcee: Al Jackson
That same night, incredibly, The Charms also played a midnight show at Harlem’s famed “high spot,” The Apollo, as part of a cavalcade of 1955’s “newest (and) youngest rhythm & blues stars,” including Little Willie John, whose debut King 45 “All Around The World” was listed at #6 on Billboard‘s R&B Best Sellers in Stores chart at the time of the Apollo shows. Topping the bill for this week-long series of performances was Jack Dupree, whose latest single “Walking The Blues” had been released by King in July, while Otis Williams And His Charms were slotted for “the number two” spot, as reported by The New York Age in its October 29, 1955 edition. Unlike other vocal groups of that period, The Charms, under Otis Williams’ direction, incorporated dance steps into their stage routine.
1955’s Newest Youngest Rhythm & Blues Stars
One week only beginning Fri., Oct. 28th
Emcee: Nipsey Russell
Saturday “Midnite Show“
Williams would recount the thrill of the experience at a presentation delivered in 2018 at Cincinnati’s historic Herzog Studio:
It was very modern for us to do what we did. We did choreography. Nobody did choreography. The Dominoes were there with King, and there was Bull Moose Jackson. But nobody did choreography. While I watched different groups working, they all got all around the mike and sang like, uh – I don’t know, I can’t understand. There was no feeling there – no feeling at all. So I said, I don’t want to do this.
So I tried to do some dance steps. I could dance pretty good – the jitterbug. So I started making up steps, and the next thing you know, we go to New York — the Apollo. And we, like, turn it out. Everybody’s listening to you but they’re watching your feet. That had never been done before. Just sit there and watch your feet. Then they’d smile at you and they’d [look] back down, watching your feet. That was interesting, that was really interesting. Everybody thinks dancing came from The Temptations — [but] that’s six years later.
Otis Williams with son, Kent Butts
while Henry Glover & Syd Nathan both look on
Cincinnati’s Herzog Studio – May 19, 2018
(image courtesy of Elliott Ruther)
George Pitts, writing for The Pittsburgh Courier fifteen months after the Apollo shows, substantiates these claims when he singles out Otis Williams And His Charms as “one of the best coordinated of the many singing groups,” while elsewhere in that same edition of The Courier, the group is described as “one of the smoothest acts of its kind in show business.” Echoing this point is Joan Hinton of Cincinnati in a letter published that very year in the Afro American:
My favorite singers are a local group, Otis Williams and his Charms. They have wonderful personalities and have strictly original dance routines which make them enjoyable to watch as well as listen to.
Years later, Williams would tell The Cincinnati Post‘s Rick Bird that he formulated the group’s elaborate dance routines in the family living room, inspired by the Rockettes and Hollywood musicals:
I wore my mother’s rug out trying this stuff. She had to buy a new rug by the time we were done.
On the heels of the group’s successful New York stint, The Charms would stay out on the road performing a series of one-nighters throughout the month of November – with only two nights off – as part of Universal Attractions‘ “Lucky Seven Blues Show,” whose stops included Cincinnati’s Greystone Ballroom, Detroit’s Golden Horn Ballroom, Chattanooga’s City Auditorium, Jacksonville’s Two Spot Ballroom, Tifton, Georgia’s Tobacco Warehouse, and a week of shows at Washington, DC’s renowned Howard Theatre for the tour’s conclusion.
Lucky Seven Blues Show
Cleveland’s Circle Theatre
Nov. 6, 1955
1955 would end on a high note when December’s Cash Box Juke Box Operators Poll found The Charms beating out Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters, The Five Keys, The Clovers, and The Midnighters for Best R&B Vocal Group.
Cash Box
Dec. 3, 1955
Billboard‘s Disk Jockey Poll from that same year also revealed The Charms to be the #3 Most-Played R&B Artist, behind Johnny Ace and Ray Charles:
Billboard
Nov. 12, 1955
The Charms’ version of “Hearts of Stone” — one of eleven versions vying for supremacy in a highly competitive marketplace — managed to sell one million copies, as reported in the September 16, 1955 edition of The Charlotte News. Syd Nathan, after trying, and failing, to build a pop division at King Records beginning in 1949, was now beginning to realize his pop aspirations, thanks to The Charms, under the leadership of Otis Williams. As the 1950s progressed, and as their relationship with A&R producer Henry Glover deepened, The Charms would find themselves repeatedly stepping beyond rhythm & blues into pop terrain.
“Hearts Of Stone” & “Ling Ting Tong“
Two songs in Billboard’s Top 30 Pop chart
Curiously enough, Otis Williams did not initially consider himself a musical person. As Williams explained in 2018:
I started out very young. Not a singer, at all – by no means was I a singer. I had nothing but football and baseball in my mind, and I seemed to excel at both of those at Withrow High School.
Williams, in fact, had been contemplating a baseball contract offer from the Cincinnati Reds, as well as college offers from five major schools, including an Ohio State University scholarship, when he was asked to speak about recording with Syd Nathan and Henry Glover at King Records – a subject about which Williams felt he “knew nothing.”
A high school junior, Williams had been pulled into music initially as a last-minute replacement member for a vocal group performance at Withrow High School’s minstrel show, an annual tradition since 1930, under the direction of George G. Smith (to be replaced, in 1966, by “Sounds of Withrow“). Williams had previously sung with these vocalists informally, spontaneously in the high school’s lavatory, where the room’s built-in reverb helped sweeten the vocal blend. The performance at the Withrow minstrel show as a member of the only African American participants in the competition, however, was a running of the gauntlet in which the group was subject to open hostility:
They didn’t put any music behind us. We had to do ours acapella. There were eight or nine acts on the show. Everybody had music put to their songs, their performances. But we didn’t.
A Withrow audience member, according to Marv Goldberg (of R&B Notebooks fame), subsequently reached out to King Records and spoke favorably of the performance by the vocal group, whose membership included Richard Parker, Joe Penn, Rolland Bradley, and Robert Smith (later replaced by Donald Peak). “My mother and I got the phone call from King Records asking us to come over to talk to them about recording,” remembers Otis Williams on Herzog Music‘s “Lost On The River” podcast. The other members of The Charms were “begging me to do this – begging me to do this singing thing,” Williams recalls,
Syd Nathan, however, was only interested in Otis Williams, whose career path up to that point had been much more strongly allied to athletics than music. Still ambivalent about the prospect of a musical career, Williams balked at the notion of being a solo singer and firmly insisted that recording at King would be an all-or-none proposition. Thus, signed to King, The Charms — whose name, a candy reference, was coined by Otis Williams — would find its 1953 debut single being “relegated” to Rockin’, a King subsidiary label overseen by Henry Stone. Was this, as Marv Goldberg postulates, something of a payback move by Nathan in response to Williams’ assertiveness?
b/w
Released Jul. 1953
The Charms’ next single, a reissue of the two sides already pressed on Rockin’, would be their first release for DeLuxe, who would use the occasion to launch the label’s Rhythm and Blues Series (catalog number beginning 6000). On the group’s subsequent DeLuxe release, Henry Stone’s name would appear on the songwriting credits for both songs “Happy Are We” b/w “What Do You Know About That” (two of four songs recorded September 25, 1953). Stone’s name also appears with Otis Williams on writing credits for three of the four songs recorded at the following King Studios taping session of February 12, 1954.
Otis Williams’s firm declaration in 2018 — speaking as a songwriter with 60 or so songwriting credits registered with ASCAP and BMI — that he “never wrote one word with anybody” casts doubt, however, on the notion of Williams and Stone working together in a collaborative fashion, particularly given the geography (i.e., Henry Stone was based in Miami). Williams, as a guest on Herzog Music‘s “Lost On The River” podcast, minces no words about the common practice of record executives attaching their names to musical copyrights they had no hand in creating:
They were doing that to everybody, you know. But we were like the forerunners of “Gimme the money, gimme the money, gimme the money!” And we knew nothing about money. I saw fifty cents a day going to high school, you know, so what do I know about money? Contracts and all that, do’s and don’ts, I knew nothing about that. Nobody in the group knew anything about that.
Henry Glover, on other hand, as Williams himself has emphasized — and for which there is a body of supporting historical evidence — served as a musical mentor, who ended up exerting a greater influence on Otis Williams And His Charms’ body of work during his time as a King Records executive. Williams recalls in 2018:
What Henry was about was music. He was a trumpet player [with Lucky Millinder’s big band], and then he settled down in the A&R thing with King. But Henry was one of these guys if you get involved in something, he’d help you think it all the way through. You know, he wants to know the bottom line, and that’s what he was teaching me without me knowing that’s what he was teaching me. He took me under his wing.
While Henry Stone’s name would be attached to two of the six songs recorded at The Charms’ next King Studios recording session in June of 1954, it is worth noting that Henry Glover’s publishing company, Jay & Cee, makes its first appearance in the group’s recorded output vis-à-vis “Who Knows” (a song that would also be pressed and distributed in Jamaica, along with one other song from that June 1954 session, “My Baby Dearest Darling,” co-written by Otis Williams and Rolland Bradley).
Written by Joe Penn & Richard Parker
“Jay & Cee”
So when exactly did Henry Glover enter the picture as the group’s A&R producer? Judging from publishing and songwriting evidence, it would appear that the productive September 13, 1954 recording date that resulted in “Hearts of Stone” and four other songs (including “Crazy Crazy Love“; “Two Hearts“; and “When We Get Together“) might be the first “known” session overseen by Glover, whose publishing company, Jay & Cee, is attached to all but one of these titles, while Glover’s name is also listed as the sole songwriter on “Let The Happenings Happen.”
Written by Henry Glover
Thanks to a 1972 interview with Henry Glover that was later published in Steve Tracy’s book-length examination of Cincinnati’s blues heritage – Goin’ To Cincinnati: A History Of The Blues In The Queen City – we now know that Glover, indeed, was the A&R producer at King Studios that day, rather than in New York City, where typically he would be managing studio operations for King:
The gentleman who just walked in was with Otis Williams and the Charms. I heard the Charms [for the] first time outside my window in the Manse [Hotel] in Cincinnati. They serenaded out the window for about four or five weeks, and finally (laughs) Henry Stone came to town and heard about that. I was so busy doing other things that I didn’t have a chance to record them. He signed them up on a label called Chart, and I recorded them for him. I recall that night in the studio, I used the same gimmick that I did in the case of Willie John. I had just heard about a record that came out in California that was a hit. I can’t even think of the group’s name [The Jewels of San Bernardino], but it was a thing called “Hearts of Stone.” I had the record into Cincinnati so fast, no one ever heard of the other group. We got the record out on the street before they ever got it distributed. Of course, the Charms had the big hit on ”Hearts of Stone.”
Gusto Records would later affirm Henry Glover’s guiding hand at this historic King Studios recording session by actually spelling out the producer credit on their 45 reissues of “Hearts Of Stone” in the US and Canada (see below). And should all this corroboration prove to be insufficiently credible, keep in mind that Otis Williams himself, on the Herzog Music podcast, validates Henry Glover’s A&R oversight role on “Hearts of Stone” — a song Williams believes to be the first doo-wop million-seller.
Canada
“Produced by Henry Glover“
Recorded at Cincinnati’s “Deluxe Recording Studio”
Rushed to the marketplace within two weeks of its September 13, 1954 recording date, “Hearts of Stone” would become ‘hot’ in New Orleans by October 30; in Miami by November 20; in Memphis by December 11; and in Atlanta, Nashville & Shoals, Indiana by December 18. By Christmas Day, the song would sit atop the Cash Box R&B chart and on New Year’s Day, as well — four consecutive weeks, in fact, at the number one position.
“Hearts Of Stone“
Rhythm & Blues Top 15
Cash Box
“Hearts Of Stone“
Billboard‘s “Best Sellers“ Pop Chart
January 1, 1955
“Records didn’t take off that fast in those days”
Otis Williams – Herzog Music podcast (2018)
Some three decades later, Martin Scorsese would utilize “Hearts Of Stone” to memorable effect in 1990’s classic film, Goodfellas, while here in 2025, seventy years after the song’s release, “Hearts Of Stone” would be used as bumper music in season four episode eight of the HBO hit television series, Hacks.
For the following Charms recording session — held November 18, 1954 at King Studios and presumably overseen by Henry Glover — the vocal group would record exactly one song: “Mambo Sh-Mambo.” Popular music at that moment was experiencing something of a mambo craze, as evidenced by sessions held just six days prior at King Studios for the purposes of recording “Mambo Honky Tonk” by The Morgan Sisters and “Tennessee Mambo” by Bonnie Lou [see also Latin Musical Influences at King Records + Federal, DeLuxe, Bethlehem & Audio Lab].
b/w
Cash Box “Award o’ the Week” Winner
Dec. 11, 1954
The Charms would reconvene at King Studios four days later on November 22, 1954 to record two more songs: “Ling Ting Tong” (written by Mabel Godwin and first recorded for Capitol by The Five Keys) and “Bazoom I Need Your Lovin’” (authored by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and first recorded for Capitol by The Cheers). The Charms’ version of “Ling Ting Tong” (popular in Jamaica, where it was pressed and distributed) held its own against The Five Keys, peaking at nearly identical positions on Billboard‘s Pop (#26 – Jan. 22, 1955) and R&B (#6 – Jan. 29, 1955) charts.
Cash Box
Mar. 5, 1955
Both versions tied for #8
January 11, 1955’s King Studios session date yielded three recordings, including “Ko Ko Mo” — made famous by Gene & Eunice, and up against fourteen other versions, including one by King’s own Jack Cardwell — along with Leiber & Stoller’s “Whadaya Want,” a song written for The Robins and covered by King’s own Jack Cardwell.
“Two Hearts” — an Otis Williams original that was designated an R&B “Award o’ the Week” winner by Cash Box in February (despite having been released, as Marv Goldberg notes, the previous November) reached the #14 position on Cash Box‘s R&B Top 15 chart by the following month. The song’s pop appeal would soon become apparent, when versions by Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, and Pat Boone all appeared in March, with additional covers recorded by The Crew-Cuts, The Doodlers, The Lancers, Bert Convy, and the 5 Demarco Sisters.
Cash Box
Rhythm & Blues Top 15
Mar. 12, 1955
“Two Hearts, Two Kisses
(Make One Love)“
Frank Sinatra
(1955)
Pat Boone
(1957)
Ace Adams would name-check “Two Hearts” in his “Between The Lines” column for The New York Age, an African American weekly, and one of the few publications of the era to mention Henry Glover and The Charms in the same sentence:
Ace Adams
“Between The Lines” column
The New York Age
Henry Glover, head rhythm and blues man at King Records, is really hitting the jackpot these days. His “Rock Love” is high on the hit parade, and it looks as though he has another hit with “Two Hearts” by The Charms.
Henry has been with the King label for years since he replaced Foch Allen, Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s former husband. Glover is responsible for such hits as “Annie Had A Baby,” “High Heels,” “Hearts of Stone,” and Tiny Bradshaw’s “Soft.” Keep up the good work, Henry.
The Encores
(1958)
Otis Williams Remembers Henry Glover
– Notes on their working relationship –
2018’s Herzog Music podcast
EXCERPTS
We get on the road, and I’m not happy because I don’t know anything about what I’m doing. I need to know what’s going on around me – when it pertains to me. So I would go back to Cincinnati on breaks or whatever, and Henry would talk to me, asking me about what I felt, what I hear. He never changed one note of any song that I arranged. Never changed a note. And I kept wondering about that, because I didn’t know anything, you know.
It was surprising to me that he would give me that kind of time. He was a legend before he was a legend, you know what I mean. So I’m going along with Henry (laughs), he’s got me by the hand. So we’d sit down and play. He’d show me chords, and he’d listened to stuff that I’ve done, or other artists, and then tell me how to make certain moves with my voice. He asked me if I wanted to do country, and I said no, but I wind up doing some country with Bonnie Lou. And then later on I did my own [country] album [1971’s Otis Williams And The Midnight Cowboys] …
Now if anybody talks to me about a nice person, somebody that really had his mind made up to be a nice person – [Henry] was a nice person. He made you feel good when you did something with him or did something around him. If you messed up on playing guitar or something, he wouldn’t go over and jump in your face. He’d talk to you. You know, when you take a break. “Come here, man, let me say something to you.” That kind of guy. And that guy gets more out of you than you thought you had – because he was interested in what you were doing. And you wouldn’t do that again, because it’s just Henry. And people didn’t understand who was over in that studio doing all that producing and arranging and writing. Henry Glover.
When he told me about country music, I said, no, man. He said, yeah, you ought to try it. And when I went to Nashville to do that album for Columbia [accompanied by Pete Drake, Scotty Moore, and D.J. Fontana, et al.], everybody with a name was in that control room. That just shows you don’t know – you don’t know what people think of you ...
“That was the best move that Syd Nathan ever made was to get Henry. Because Henry really could do it all. He could do the whole thing.
[Henry] told me what I had was special, and I didn’t understand that. It took me three or four years to understand what he was saying, that I had a special talent.”
Otis Williams
Herzog Music’s “Lost On The River” podcast
Otis Williams’s appearance at a Lucky Millinder recording session in New York City in March of 1955 — as one of three lead vocalists who also received support from vocal harmony group, The Admirals — may have caused ripples of discontent when word got back to the rest of The Charms, supposes Marv Goldberg. Otis Williams remembers that it was just prior to the April 2, 1955 television appearance on Detroit’s “Saturday Night” program hosted by Ed McKenzie that Donald Peak, Rolland Bradley, Joe Penn, and Richard Parker informed Williams that the group was now going out on its own as a foursome.
The four members of the group would promptly bring suit (presented in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by attorney and future Cincinnati mayor, Theodore Berry) and be granted a temporary injunction in May that disallowed any other group of “rythm and blues singers” from making records under the same name. A subsequent motion by King’s parent company (i.e., Crystal Corporation) to lift the injunction was denied, thus necessitating a name change for Otis Williams’s “new” group of vocalists — Rollie Willis (Williams’s cousin), Larry Graves, and Chuck Barksdale, according to the King session notes compiled by Michel Ruppli — on the first DeLuxe single release following the civil suit, which happened to be “Gum Drop.”
Otis Williams And His New Group
“Gum Drop“
b/w
Selected as a “Best Buy” in Rhythm & Blues for the week ending August 27, 1955, Billboard reported that “Gum Drop” had been getting a strong response in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Nashville, plus Detroit, where the record “also had a big pop following.” Billboard also acknowledged that “Gum Drop” was seeing its first big push despite being “on the market for two months.” Mercury Records had released a competing version of “Gum Drop” by The Crew-Cuts on August 13th that was selling well, to which Syd Nathan had taken great offense, notes Marv Goldberg, and avenged by rush releasing two weeks later a new version recorded by The Ray Allen Trio, a white group, who were then rebranded as The Gum Drops [name checked in Zero to 180’s piece from March 2025], so as to detract from Mercury’s sales.
“Gum Drop“
Written by Rudy Toombs
Lois Music = Syd Nathan’s Publishing Company
Racy Billboard ad
Sep. 3, 1955
Deluxe ended up releasing three singles with the vocalists billed as “Otis Williams And His New Group” before litigation was finally settled in Williams’s favor. In addition to the April 22, 1955 recording date that also produced “Miss The Love” (a Henry Glover original that was also rendered by Bonnie Lou for King), Otis Williams And His ‘New’ Charms made it to King Studios that same year on September 9th to record four tracks, including two penned by Rudy Toombs: .“Rolling Home” and “That’s Your Mistake.” The legal matter thus resolved, the last of these three interim single releases, “That’s Your Mistake,” was then reissued in late December with the group now named “Otis Williams And His Charms.” This single, furthermore, was also tagged for distribution in Italy on Parlophon, as part of an American King Series of 7-inch singles and EPs primarily released in the mid-to-late 1950s (below).
Written by Rudy Toombs
Released in Italy
“American King Series” on Parlophon
(includes ironic typo “whith“)
“That’s Your Mistake“
Billboard Top 50
Feb. 25, 1956
Otis Williams acknowledged in 2018 that he had provided vocal support on at least one recording session for Bonnie Lou — this begs the obvious question: .which song(s)? Check out this letter written by Syd Nathan dated “21 November 1955” (below) and mailed to radio stations en masse, accompanied by the “newest mix” of Bonnie Lou’s recent hit “Daddy-O,” which would peak on Billboard‘s Top 100 chart just a few days later on November 26, 1955 at the #28 position. Nathan’s letter informs disk jockeys that “Daddy-O” (originally released in September, but as the B-side) had been reissued the following month – augmented with “two harmony parts in the vocal plus a smattering of clarinet in the instrumental” – and was now being issued yet again, though this time paired with “Miss The Love.” Listen to the male voices answering Bonnie Lou on the chorus on either the original mix or the “clarinet remix” — are we listening to Otis Williams?
Q: Did Otis Williams provide vocal support on Bonnie Lou‘s “Daddy-O“?
By year’s end, Henry Stone and Syd Nathan would decide to end their partnership, with the “breakaway” Charms ending up being signed to Stone’s Chart Records once the dust had settled. Did Stone contrive to drive a wedge through Otis Williams’s original singing group, wonders Marv Goldberg. The “Rhythm & Blues Ramblings” column in Cash Box‘s December 10, 1955 issue spells out some of the specific terms of the settlement:
The settlement consisted of all unreleased masters of Crystal Records to be the property of Stone; fifty percent of the copyrights of Crystal Publishing Company; the Charms contract (not including the services of Otis Williams, lead singer of the group, who remains with King); an undisclosed amount of cash, and several other small items. Stone recently formed Chart Records and Sherlyn Publishing Company.
Cash Box
Dec. 24, 1955
1st single release by the “breakaway” Charms
The Charms:
Mark 1
1955 DeLuxe EP
(image courtesy of Marv Goldberg)
The Charms:
Mark 2
1956 DeLuxe EP
(image courtesy of Marv Goldberg)
Despite the turmoil within the group, the juke box and radio hits made by Otis Williams in partnership with Henry Glover, meanwhile, showed no signs of slowing in popularity, as evidenced by a December 15, 1955 news item in The Columbus (Ga.) Ledger about five female students from Baker High School who provided halftime entertainment at a basketball game by “pantomiming records under the billing, Otis Williams And His Charms.”
Otis Williams and his new vocal ensemble’s first taping session of the new year at King Studios on January 29, 1956 produced a pair of new tracks. One of those recordings, fortunately – “Ivory Tower” – would help maintain the heady momentum of the previous year. While Cathy Carr‘s version for Cincinnati’s Fraternity Records would make it all the way to the #2 position in Billboard’s “new” Top 100 chart, Otis Williams And His Charms‘ recording for DeLuxe, nevertheless, was a worthy competitor, peaking at #12 in May and, for a two-week period in April, even ahead by a nose.
“Ivory Tower“:
Otis Williams And His Charms vs. Cathy Carr
ahead by a nose
Cash Box would designate “Ivory Tower” — plus the debut single from James Brown & the Famous Flames, “Please Please Please,” wisely enough — as “R&B Sure Shots” in the trade journal’s April 7, 1956 edition, while “Ivory Tower” and Little Willie John‘s “Fever” both stayed lodged in Billboard‘s Top 50 throughout the month of July. Otis Williams states on Herzog Music’s 2018 podcast that “Ivory Tower” deserves recognition as the group’s second million-selling single.
“Ivory Tower” & “Fever“
Billboard Top 40
Jul. 21, 1956
King’s distribution system, which included the UK, Australia, and New Zealand (not to mention Finland), meant that “Ivory Tower” would enjoy international reach. The song even prompted this novelty news item in the June 30, 1956 edition of Bristol, England’s Post Green ‘Un newspaper:
The Hon. Mrs. Gerald Legge would doubtless be appalled, but I first heard “Ivory Tower” sung by a two-year-old girl at a talent competition.
She didn’t win but succeeded in arousing my interest in the professional versions by Jean Campbell (Polydor) and Otis Williams and his Charms (Parlophone). Miss Campbell, who is one of the Keynotes and a former Cyril Stapleton star, has faultless diction and has nothing to fear from comparison with the more famous version by Mr. Williams, which however, has much to commend it.
Certainly her coupling “Let’s Go Steady” easily outstrips “In Paradise,” the Charms second offering. But give both a trial.
“Ivory Tower“
Released in the UK
(1956)
45Cat: “We sang along to this one a lot in our RAF billet back in ’56.”
“Ivory Tower“
Cash Box
Mar. 31, 1956
Record Reviews – Pop Singles
Many years later, Brian Wilson would meet Otis Williams on a visit to Cincinnati and confirm personally that he had taught his Beach Boys brothers vocal harmonies using The Charms’ recording of “Ivory Tower” — one of 27 tracks included on 2012 UK compilation album: Brian Wilson’s Jukebox: The Music That Inspired The Man.
Otis Williams And The Charms, meanwhile in early 1956, managed to tape two more songs at King Studios on February 9th – “One Night Only” and “It’s All Over” – before the group decamped to New York City for more extensive recording sessions under Henry Glover’s supervision later that year. Both of the tracks, coupled for single release, received an R&B “Award o’ the Week” designation in Cash Box‘s June 2, 1956 edition, while in that very same issue, “It’s All Over” would find itself reviewed in the Pop section (below):
Cash Box
June 2, 1956
Record Reviews – Pop Singles
Reviewed with the likes of Sammy Kaye, Ted Weems, Hugo Winterhalter, Dick Hyman, Dick Jacobs, and Della Reese
Cash Box‘s singles review:
(combined with “It’s Too Late” by Chuck Willis)
Otis Williams, currently topping the charts with “Ivory Tower,” and Chuck Willis, making his debut on Atlantic, both introduced commercial rock and roll tunes, this week, with great potential for the pop charts.
Otis Williams Spotlight
Uncredited Arrangement & Production Work:
“Fever” by Little Willie John
March 1, 1956
Cincinnati’s King Studios
Little Willie John: Vocals
Edison Gore: Drums
Edwyn Conley: Bass
Jon Thomas: Piano
Bill Jennings: Guitar
Ray Felder: Tenor sax
Rufus Gore: Tenor sax
Otis Williams revealed on Herzog Music‘s 2018 “Lost On The River” podcast that part of his “artist development” at King Records under the tutelage of Henry Glover included arranging and production work for other King artists, most notably on Little Willie John‘s “Fever” — one of three producing and arranging sessions, Williams remembers, for the gifted young vocalist from Cullendale, Arkansas:
What to do with the song – what should we do with this song? It was just a cold opening, beginning. But what to do with it? [sings] “You never know how much I love you” (emulates the drummer’s high hat riff), we didn’t know what to do with the thing.
So the whole thing of “Fever” was turned over to where there was nothing there – [hums the bass line]. That’s what we came up with.
And I said, now we need something else. So we were doing a practice run on the song, and all the guys were just [snaps his fingers in a steady rhythm], popping their fingers. We left it in!
Then we did something else to it – the horns, we didn’t have horns. All we had was voices, but if you listen to it, you can hear the voices. You can hear the voices, but they sound like horns. You have to tear it down to really understand how strong that song was.
“Fever“
Cash Box
R&B Singles Review:
Little Willie John comes all the way with “Fever.” It is a pulsating slow beat that is exciting in material and in performance. This is a side that will grip the kids in both pop and r&b markets. It is a side for everybody. A great beat, a great lyric, a great arrangement and a great vocal.
It is worth pointing out that “Fever” was also deemed one of the “Discs of the Week” within the Pop Singles Reviews section of that very same May 5, 1956 edition of Cash Box — praised as “exceptional” and filled with “tremendous pop potential.”
Jay & Cee
At The Charms’ next recording date in New York City, where an impressive eight numbers would be committed to tape, the group’s membership now included, besides Otis Williams, Rollie Willis, Lonnie Carter, Matt Williams, and Winfred Gerald. Henry Glover’s name appears on the songwriting credits for four of these eight songs:
- “I’d Like To Thank You, Mr. D.J.” [Bernice Snelson & Henry Glover]
- “Pardon Me” [Otis Williams & Henry Glover]
- “Blues Stay Away From Me” [Alton Delmore, Wayne Raney, Rabon Delmore, Henry Glover]
- “I’m Waiting Just For You” [Carolyn Leigh & Henry Glover]
- “Whirlwind” [Julius Dixon]
- “Gypsy Lady” [Larry Harrison & Luther Dixon]
- “I’ll Remember You” [Rudy Toombs]
- “Creation Of Love” [unissued]
All three singles released from these New York City sessions would merit “Award o’ the Week” status from Cash Box — “Whirlwind” b/w “I’d Like To Thank You, Mr. D.J.” (Sept. 15, 1956); “Gypsy Lady” b/w “I’ll Remember You” (Nov. 10, 1956); and “Pardon Me” b/w “Blues Stay Away From Me” (Jan. 5, 1957).
DeLuxe “bio disc“
Text includes names of the new Charms members:
Lonnie Carter, Rollie Willis, Matthew Williams, Winfred Gerald
DJ Fred Mitchell of Toledo radio’s WOHO would select “Gypsy Lady” as a “Potential Hit of Tomorrow,” as reported in the October 28, 1956 edition of The Blade, while Houston, Texas likewise gave this track a thumbs up, per the “Houston Happenings” column in Cash Box‘s December 8, 1956 issue. Additionally, “Big” Jim Reed of Cincinnati’s WCIN indicated that “Pardon Me” had been getting radio airtime, as detailed in the “Regional Record Report” for Cash Box‘s January 26, 1957 edition.
It is not exactly clear when in 1957 Otis Williams And His Charms completed the subsequent New York City taping session that netted four songs, including “Walkin’ After Midnight” and (calypso cash-in number) “No Got De Woman” — but given that ads for “Walkin’ After Midnight” first began appearing in February, we must therefore disregard Michel Ruppli’s studio notes stating that the recording session had taken place in July. Though the group’s version of “Walkin’ After Midnight” ended up not being able to keep pace with Patsy Cline‘s classic take, the Marshall News Messenger (of Marshall, Texas), nonetheless, reported in its April 7, 1957 edition that Otis Williams And His Charms’ recording was now “tops in pops for the first time in a big way.”
b/w
Cash Box Top 60 Chart
Apr. 13, 1957
Henry Glover waxed six more sides with the group that same year – presumably in New York City – tracks that were then issued as three single releases, beginning with “Talking To Myself” b/w “One Kind Word From You.” Cash Box would announce the record’s release in the “R&B Ramblings” column of their June 8, 1957 issue, yet Billboard, oddly, would not get around to reviewing these two sides until September. “Talking To Myself” ended up being one of two single releases in Japan by Otis Williams And His Charms, the other being “No Got De Woman” b/w “Nowhere On Earth.”
b/w
A-side penned by Rose Marie McCoy, Bob Kornegay & Henry Glover
45 – Japan
(1958)
Cash Box‘s review of the follow-up single released from this same New York City session — “United” b/w “Don’t Deny Me” — observed that “Otis Williams and His Charms jump in on a tune that has been creating a fuss in several areas.” Baltimore (below) would happen to be one of those areas that responded positively to “United,” as shown in The Afro American‘s “Rock And Roll Hit Parade” for July 6, 1957.
“United“
Afro American
Jul. 6, 1957
Despite being recorded nearly two years earlier, “Rolling Home” – covered by two different King country artists, Larry Harvey (key track on all-star train song compilation, Choo Choo Bop) and Grandpa Jones (whose version would be released 1960 and titled as “Fast Moving Night Train“) — was held back for release until August of 1957, per Cash Box‘s singles review. The original “Rolling Home” did well in Houston, and also received designation as a “potential hit” by DJ Fred Mitchell of Toledo radio‘s WOHO.
Written by Rudy Toombs
“In record circles, Otis Williams is rapidly becoming known as the hit-maker.”
“Three in a row for this Cincinnati lad”
Otis Williams And His Charms would return to Cincinnati’s King Studios for the final taping session of the year on December 18, 1957. Of the four songs recorded by the group, “Oh Julie” – first released by The Crescendos in November – was shown to have the most pop potential. DJ Hal Botham of CJET-AM in Smith Falls, Ontario and DJ Vic Hill of Ottawa’s CKOY both selected the Otis Williams version of “Oh Julie” as part of their “pops” Top Ten for the week ending March 8, 1958, as reported in The Ottawa Citizen, while one 45Cat contributor chimed in that “Oh Julie” reached #7 for the week of March 17, 1958 at Toronto’s CHUM .
“Oh Julie“
Written by Kenneth Moffitt & Noel Ball
Published by Excellorec
Fortunately for history’s sake, Randy Fox, author of Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story, has the inside info on “Oh Julie,” both the original version released on Nashville-based Nasco (subsidiary of Nashboro, owner of Excello) and its competitor on DeLuxe, including hard-to-obtain sales numbers related to its parent company, King:
As the song surged in airplay and popularity, Cincinnati’s King Records quickly issued a version by Otis Williams & the Charms on King’s De Luxe subsidiary. [Excello founder] Ernie Young responded with ads placed in Cash Box, heralding the Crescendos’ version as “THE ORIGINAL.” Along with Ernie Young cranking up the hype, Noel Ball played a role by convincing the boys’ parents to excuse them school for a promotional tour. He booked them to a national television appearance on American Bandstand on January 14, 1958, where they shared the stage with Sam Cooke.
On January 6, 1958, “Oh Julie” entered Billboard’s [Top] 100 for an eleven-week run, eventually topping out at number five. Two weeks later, on January 27, it debuted on Billboard‘s R&B chart for a twelve-week run, topping out at number four. Sales of the single eventually exceeded one million, with Otis Williams & the Charms’ version on De Luxe selling over 300,000 copies, and a third version by Sammy Salvo on RCA Victor moving 250,000 platters.
The next King Studios recording date of May 23, 1958 would produce three new tracks, including both sides of the group’s next release, “Burnin’ Lips” b/w “Red Hot Love” (latter side penned by Jesse Stone, early producer, arranger, and songwriter for Atlantic Records). This single did not catch fire, nor did the following one, whose two sides had been cut August 25, 1958 at King Studios — “Don’t Wake Up The Kids” (co-written by Henry Glover, slyly taking a page from Leiber & Stoller) b/w “You’ll Remain Forever” (authored by songwriting legend, Otis Blackwell).
b/w
B-side by Otis Blackwell
The year’s final King Studios taping session circa late September 1958, however, would net three songs, including “The Secret,” which seemed to have some pop potential. Cash Box‘s review would acknowledge that despite Carmen MacRae and The Gainors having “the head-start sales edge,” nevertheless, “this is a dynamic performance of the tune that demands attention.”
Top 100 Chart
Cash Box
Oct. 28, 1958
Otis Williams Spotlight
Uncredited Arrangement & Production Work:
“The Twist” by Hank Ballard
November 11, 1958
Cincinnati’s King Studios
Hank Ballard: Vocals
George De Hart: Drums
Edwyn Conley: String bass
Navarro Hastings: Electric bass
Sonny Thompson: Piano
Cal Green: Guitar
Ray Felder: Tenor sax
Henry Moore: Tenor sax
Otis Williams, under Henry Glover’s musical mentorship, was also instrumental in helping to shape a smash hit that would launch a future dance revolution when covered – rather faithfully – by Chubby Checker, whose version ended up being the first (and only?) song to the reach the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart twice on two separate chart runs. Williams relayed the back story on Herzog Music‘s 2018 podcast:
[Hank] wrote the song at the Walnut Hills YMCA, where we grew up, you know – boxing and all that stuff. He wrote that song after watching – we used to have a dance every Wednesday night. They bring in a big band if they could. Count Basie or somebody, anybody. And he saw the kids in there doing the dance, doing The Twist but not knowing it was “The Twist” – they were just dancing. And out of all the dancing he saw, he picked up on a couple of people doing the Twist. He went back to the hotel, the Manse Hotel up in Walnut Hills, wrote the song that day. Took it on the road. He must have done it two or three times – it sounded like crap. And (laughs) so when he came to Cincinnati, he called me, he said, “Hey man, I got this song. I just left The Midnighters, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come on over and do this song with me” …
So I turned this song around. All we needed then was the band, you know. Everything else was there. I put it all in place. I did it in one night, with the harmonies and where they should be [i.e., the key vocal refrain “ooh wop wop”].
Williams points out that “The Twist” might be the last doo wop hit of the early rock era. Originally released as the B-side of “Teardrops On Your Letter” (authored by Henry Glover), Hank Ballard’s “Twist” would ultimately enter Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart over a year later on July 18, 1960 and spend a total of sixteen weeks there – six consecutive weeks in the Top 40 – peaking September 19, 1960 at the #28 position.
Armo/Jay & Cee
The following February, King issued a new DeLuxe single release — “Pretty Little Things Called Girls” (recorded August 25, 1958) paired with “Welcome Home” (recorded c. late September 1958) — most likely as a stop gap.
Otis Williams And His Charms’s first studio session of the new year at King Studios that March captured the two sides of their forthcoming single – “My Prayer Tonight” b/w “Watch Dog” – both songs having been written by Henry Glover. Billboard‘s March 23, 1959 singles review would find Otis Williams in the Pop singles section (below):
Written by Henry Glover
Billboard
Reviews of New Pop Records
March 23, 1959
Otis Williams And His Charms’s next King Studios appearance of the new year (c. Apr 1959) would produce three new tracks: “Funny What True Love Can Do“; “Tears Of Happiness“; and “I Knew It All The Time.” Cash Box‘s April 25, 1959 review would find Otis Williams, once again, in the Pop singles section (below):
b/w
Cash Box
Reviews – Pop Singles
Apr. 25, 1959
Cash Box‘s A-side review:
Williams beautifully surveys this glowing romancer about a couple’s marriage. This heart-warming stint deserves and should receive attention from pop-R&B marts.
On June 11, 1959, a dubbing session took place at King Studios whereby “female voices” were added to a finished mix of “Blues Stay Away From Me” — previously recorded 1956 in New York City with Henry Glover. The previous year, Billboard ‘s Bob Rolontz had already sounded the alarm on the popular music trend of spotlighting “fem groups,” in addition to “flute leads” (kicked off by the response to Bill Doggett’s updated arrangement of Tiny Bradshaw’s “Soft”) and also “instrumental” recordings in a think piece published in the February 3, 1958 issue. Could this strategic sweetening of the master mix explain why “Blues Stay Away From Me” appeared on Cash Box‘s Top 100 pop chart in July and August of 1959?
“Blues Stay Away From Me“
Cash Box
Top 100 Pop Chart
Henry Glover’s decision to leave King in late 1959 — likely due to Syd Nathan’s remarks in this November 23, 1959 Billboard news item — thus, meant the closure of a chapter in the musical life of Otis Williams. The following year, Williams found himself drafted by the U.S. Army, where he would serve for two years. Williams would return to the music business following his military service, though that story is beyond the scope of this piece and worthy of its own telling.
Larry Nager‘s profile of Otis Williams for The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s April 3, 2003 edition – “Williams’ Charmed Life Took More Than Luck” – concludes with this astute observation from Terry Stewart of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum:
He’s the real deal. He goes back all the way to the beginning. He’s part of the first wave that really started to cross over.
I think he’s one of the first R&B stars that really started to pull the black and white cultures together. His music … really influenced all of the emerging musical trends of America.
Phi Kappa and Tau Delta Sigma members –
spreading the news about their big party tomorrow night
Special thanks to Charlie Dahan for his generous assistance, along with everyone involved with Herzog Music‘s Lost On The River podcast, whose information proved to be invaluable:
Hosts
Elliott Ruther, Elias Leisring, Aaron Sharpe, Bill Furbee
Engineer
Clint Stephenson
Production
Matt Spaulding
SEE ALSO
Winter 2020 issue of Ugly Things
Bill Furbee‘s history piece –
“Charmed Legacy:
Otis Williams as Doo-Wop Pioneer, Midnight Cowboy, King Records Arranger & Resurrector“
FYI
Zero to 180’s 2015 piece –
