Zodiacs front man Maurice Williams dies at age 86

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Maurice Williams, a Charlotte resident who wrote and performed three Billboard hit singles, including No. 1 "Stay," died Aug. 6 at age 86.

Ninety-seven seconds cemented Maurice Williams’ place in music history.

Mr. Williams, lead singer of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, whose song “Stay” is the shortest No. 1 single on the Billboard charts, died Aug. 6 in Charlotte. He was 86.

Born April 26, 1938, in Lancaster, South Carolina, Mr. Williams, a 2010 inductee to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, began performing in church at age 6 and formed his first music group, The Royal Charms, when he was a student at Barr Street High School. He learned to play piano at 10 from his sister Carol and showed a combinantion of music skills and personality that drew neighborhood kids to his house for impromptu jam sessions at his home.

Although Mr. Williams honed his skills as a performer in church, he also showed potential as a secular songwriter.

“I used to get up every morning and start writing,” he told Our State magazine in 2012. “Mother would fix coffee, and when I wasn’t in school, I’d jump on the piano and start writing songs.”

Mr. Williams’ first major hit came in 1957 with the song "Little Darlin’," which he wrote at age 15 and recorded with his group the Gladiolas in 1956. The song, which was inspired by high school sweetheart Mary Shropshire, rose to No. 11 on the Billboard R&B chart, and later became a hit for The Diamonds, a Canadian band. That song was included in the movie soundtracks of “American Graffiti” (1973) and “Ishtar” (1987).

In 1959, Mr. Williams renamed the group to Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, and a year later released “Stay,” which was also inspired by Shropshire. In the 1950s, young couples went their separate ways at a respectable hour, but Mr. Williams found inspiration in those social constraints.

“We were real young,” Williams said. “I was 17 then, real innocent.” … [Shropshire] was the one I was trying to get to stay a little longer. Of course, she couldn’t. So, I got up the next morning and wrote ‘Stay.’”

“Stay” was later featured in the 1987 movie “Dirty Dancing,” and more than 8 million copies of the soundtrack include the tune. Artists including The Four Seasons, Jackson Browne, and Cyndi Lauper have recorded the song.

Mr. Williams also earned commercial success with the 1961 hit “May I,” which became his third million-seller in what became a six-decades-long career of touring and recording.

Mr. Williams and his wife Emily moved to west Charlotte in 1965, and he played piano at New Emanuel Church of Christ. Years after the apex of his professional career, fans would walk up to shake hands or share stories about how his music touched their lives.

“It’s fantastic,” said Mr. Williams, who was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2007. “It makes you feel good to be part of that time, especially to have something last that long.”

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