‘Keep’ singer and the Zodiacs frontman was 86

Maurice Williams, the frontman of the doo-wop group the Zodiacs and singer-songwriter behind their 1960 hit music “Keep,” has died. He was 86.

The North Carolina Music Corridor of Fame introduced Saturday that Williams died on Aug. 6. His former bandmate Ron Henderson subsequently instructed The New York Occasions that Williams died in a hospital in Charlotte, N.C. No explanation for loss of life was disclosed.

Born on April 26, 1938, in Lancaster, S.C., Williams started performing in church on the age of 6 and shaped his first group, the Royal Charms, throughout his highschool years. They not solely went by a number of names however cut up and reformed earlier than ultimately changing into Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. They quickly turned outstanding figures within the doo-wop scene. 

The group had their first hit in 1957 with “Little Darlin,'” which Williams wrote and recorded as a teen. Three years later, they’d cement themselves in music historical past with “Keep,” a permanent tune that topped the Billboard Sizzling 100. At only one minute and 32 seconds, “Keep” turned the shortest music ever to make it to No. 1 on the chart.

The monitor, which Williams wrote a few highschool sweetheart, was later featured within the 1987 basic Soiled Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray. The movie’s soundtrack album bought 32 million copies all over the world.

Recalling the monitor’s origins in a 2018 interview, Williams defined that its lyrics emerged from a dialog he’d had together with his then-girlfriend.

“This younger woman I used to be going with, she was over to my home, and this explicit evening, her brother was supposed to choose her up at 10,” he mentioned. “So he got here, and I mentioned, ‘Effectively, you possibly can keep slightly longer.’ And she or he mentioned, ‘No, I gotta go.'”

The next  morning, he had the thought to weave snippets of their dialog right into a music and recorded the demo in about half-hour, he mentioned. Afterwards, “Keep” joined a pile of potential tracks for the group to document — till somebody known as his consideration again to it.

As Williams instructed ClassicsBands.com, “I used to be over at my girlfriend’s home, enjoying the tape of songs I had written, when her little sister mentioned, ‘Please do the music with the excessive voice in it.’ I knew she meant ‘Keep.’ She was about 12 years previous, and I mentioned to myself, ‘She’s the age of record-buying.’ And the remainder is historical past… I thank God for her.”

Along with its memorable inclusion in Soiled Dancing, different artists, together with the Hollies and the 4 Seasons, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty, have coated the music at their live shows.

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Following their huge success with “Keep,” Williams and the Zodiacs loved success with their 1961 hit “Could I.” They continued touring and recording music by 2000. Within the mid-Sixties, Williams settled in Charlotte, and in 2010, he was voted into the state’s Corridor of Fame. 

Williams is survived by his spouse, Emily.