The Midnighters
The Midnighters | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Genres | Rock 'n' roll R&B Doo-Wop |
| Labels | Federal King People |
| Past members | Johnny Otis Jackie "Sonny" Wilson Little Willie John Levi Stubbs Alonzo Tucker Freddy Pride Hank Ballard Henry Booth Charles Sutton Lawson Smith Ardra “Sonny” Woods Norman Thrasher Arthur Porter Cal Green Billy (J.C.) Davis Walter Miller Frank Stanford Wesley Hargrove |
The Midnighters were an American R&B group from Detroit, Michigan. They were one of the most important and influential groups of the 1950's and early '60's, with numerous ground-braking hit records that helped define the R&B music of that era , and played an important and integral part in the development of Rock & Roll and Doo-Wop music. They were also notable for launching the career of lead singer Hank Ballard, and the world-wide dance craze The Twist, and provided a crucial link between R&B and Rock and Roll. Between 1953 and 1962 The Midnighters scored almost two dozen hits on the National Pop & R&B Charts. Their big hits included the million-selling Billboard Top 10 pop hits "Finger Popping Time" (for which they received a 1961 Grammy Award nomination) [1] , and "Let's Go,Let's Go,Let's Go".The Midnighters also enjoyed 13 Top 10 R&B Hits,including 3 R&B # 1's. Top 10 R&B hits included "Work With Me Annie", "It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)", "Annie Had A Baby", "The Hoochi Coochi Coo", "Teardrops On Your Letter", "Get It", "The Float" and "Nothing But Good". They received The Rhythm and Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award in 1992, [2] and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999,[3] Lead singer Hank Ballard received a solo induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The Midnighters as a group are due to receive a retroactive induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.[4]
The Royals: Origin and Early Years
The Midnighters actually formed in 1952 as The Royals. This group was formed in Detroit by guitarist and songwriter Alonzo Tucker. Prior to that time, they were known as The Four Falcons, but that was prior to their recording debut.( They had to change that name , as there was already another Detroit-based group with a similar name ,The Falcons) . During the groups' early years, such notable future stars as Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John ,Freddie Pride, and Levi Stubbs (later to go on to worldwide fame as lead singer of Motown Records group The Four Tops) were members. After several personnel changes,the group finally stabilized, with members Tucker,Henry Booth,Charles Sutton,Sonny Woods,and Lawson Smith.Hank Ballard and Sonny Woods worked on the same Ford auto assembly line in Detroit, and that is where they met.The two became friends, and when Smith, the group's lead singer, was drafted, Ballard joined the group to take his place. This was the Royals' lineup when they were discovered by legendary bandleader,songwriter, and record producer Johnny Otis in 1953. Otis became the Royals' manager, and obtained a record deal for them with Cincinatti-based King Records on it's DeLuxe subsidiary label.Initially, Henry Booth took over Smith's role as lead singer,while Ballard sang back up with Woods,Sutton,& Tucker.Early Royals/Midnighters recordings featuring Henry Booth were Doo-Wop ballads,including the original version of "Every Beat Of My Heart", written by Otis, (which , years later, became the first million-selling hit for Gladys Knight & The Pips ),[5] and "Starting From Tonight" (written by group member Alonzo Tucker) [6].Although these songs were mild successes,they didn't cement the group's success.They weren't really ,at the time,doing anything to distingush themselves from other Doo-Wop groups of the era.But, major changes were coming .Hank Ballard began writing for the group, and quickly became the group's lead singer, and this one change caused the group to experience major success for the first time. Also, around this time , they were moved to another King Records subsidiary, Federal Records, and with Ballard leading, the Royals had their first major hit with "Get It", With Ballard (who also wrote the song) leading, the Royals'style totally changed, from soft Mills Brothers-like ballads to raunchy Rhythm and Blues. "Get It" became The Midnighters' first major R&B hit, spending seven weeks in the Top 10 on the R&B charts, and also selling well in mainstream markets. Also around this time, the group's name changed as well. Their name , "The Royals",was too similar to another group on the King roster, The "5" Royales, so, to distinguish themselves from this group, their name was changed to The Midnighters.
"Get It" was followed by many other hits, all of which featured Ballard on lead vocals.These included the infamous "Annie" series of records, which were actually banned from radio airplay by the FCC for allegedly lewd and sexually-charged lyrics .Despite this,however,they still became huge hits anyway, due to extensive jukebox play in bars and restaurants in Black neighborhoods across America,and, as a result, these songs became million-sellers.The first record in this series was "Work with Me, Annie", (1953) a song that went all the way to #1 on the Billboard R&B Charts...even without the benefit of Radio airplay.The rest of the "Annie" song series included "Sexy Ways" (# 2 R&B,1954),"Annie Had A Baby" (#1 R&B,1954), "Annie's Aunt Fannie" (#10 R&B,1954), and "Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)" (#14 R&B,1955). That particular song was The Midnighters' answer to Etta James' "answer song" to The Midnighters, "(Dance with Me, Henry)" which became her very first hit earlier that year.
The Dry Spell,The Comeback, and The Twist
After one more Top 10 R&B hit in 1955 with "It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)", The Midnighters went into a hitmaking dry spell that lasted 3-1/2 years. During this time , members came and went: Lawson Smith returned from the U.S. Armed Services ,after having been drafted, to replace Charles Sutton, Norman Thrasher replaced Sonny Woods, and guitarist Cal Green replaced Arthur Porter, who'd earlier taken the place of original member Alonzo Tucker, who went on to become a successful independent songwriter, penning hits for ex Royals member-turned solo superstar Jackie Wilson ("Baby Workout", "No Pity (In The Naked City)", "Squeeze Her, Tease Her (But Love Her)" ,"You Don't Know What It Means" , "Years From Now" , The Chi-Lites ("Marriage License") , Gladys Knight & The Pips "Every Beat of My Heart (song)", The Animals, and others. [7] Records on the group were being released during this time, but none were hits. In the meantime , The Midnighters' record label, King , had placed their bets...and their future, on a powerful new vocal group from Georgia: The Famous Flames, featuring lead singers James Brown and Bobby Byrd ,who, by their own admission, had been deeply influenced by The Midnighters' work.[8]
In 1959 ,things began to change for the Midnighters.They were about to experience their second wave of success. The group, now called Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, had finally been switched to the parent label, King Records, and released their first hit in years with Teardrops On Her Letter.This song, while only reaching # 87 on the Billboard Pop chart, was a Top 10 smash on the R&B chart, peaking at # 4, and re-established The Midnighters as a hit-making force.But, even more significant, was the song's flip-side: a song about a dance entitled The Twist . This song too was a hit, peaking at # 16 on the R&B Chart.It was destined to be an even bigger hit for the group, when released 1 year later. But in the interim,record industry politics and a significant power struggle over this song would ensue, one that deeply affect the group, and the entire music industry, for several years to come.
The players in this drama were Hank and The Midnighters themselves,King Records founder and president Syd Nathan, American Bandstand host Dick Clark, and one Ernest Evans, who was soon to be dubbed Chubby Checker.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction
In 2012, The Midnighters as a group were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . A special sub-committee, appointed by the Rock Hall, finally decided to address the issue of deserving groups that were not inducted in the Hall's early years , when their front men were inducted. As a result of this committee's decision, The Midnighters were automatically and retroactively inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame alongside Hank Ballard, under the premise that they should have been inducted with him back in 1990.The inducted members were Henry Booth, Cal Green, Arthur Porter, Lawson Smith, Charles Sutton, Norman Thrasher, Sonny Woods. However, group founder Alonzo Tucker, probably the group's most prolific songwriter, other than Ballard himself, was not inducted for unknown reasons. J.C. Billy Davis, the guitarist for the Midnighters was also not inducted. Davis was with the group from 1958-1988, during the time of their resurgent popularity.
Discography
Charted singles
- Note: Credited as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters unless stated otherwise.
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Pop[1] | US R&B[2] | |||
| 1953 | "Get It" The Royals |
- | 6 | |
| 1954 | "Work with Me, Annie" The Midnighters |
- | 1 | |
| "Sexy Ways" The Midnighters |
- | 2 | ||
| "Annie Had A Baby" The Midnighters |
- | 1 | ||
| "Annie's Aunt Fannie" The Midnighters |
- | 10 | ||
| 1955 | "Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)" The Midnighters |
- | 14 | |
| "It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)" The Midnighters |
- | 10 | ||
| 1959 | "Teardrops On Your Letter" / "The Twist" |
87 - |
4 16 | |
| "Kansas City" | 72 | 16 | ||
| 1960 | "The Coffee Grind" | - | 21 | |
| "Finger Poppin' Time" | 7 | 2 | ||
| "The Twist" (re-issue) | 28 | 6 | ||
| "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" | 6 | 1 | ||
| 1961 | "The Hoochi Coochi Coo" | 23 | 3 | |
| "Let's Go Again (Where We Went Last Night)" | 39 | 17 | ||
| "The Continental Walk" | 33 | 12 | ||
| "The Switch-A-Roo" / "The Float" |
26 92 |
3 10 | ||
| "Nothing But Good" / "Keep On Dancing" |
49 66 |
9 - | ||
| 1962 | "Do You Know How To Twist" | 87 | - | |
| 1968 | "How You Gonna Get Respect (When You Haven't Cut Your Process Yet)" Hank Ballard with The Dapps |
- | 15 | |
| 1969 | "From The Love Side" Hank Ballard and the Midnight Lighters |
- | 43 | |
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 36. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 20.
External links
- THE MIDNIGHTERS' ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION site.
- A history of The Midnighters
- Midnighters' lead singer Hank Ballard appears on CBS Television's To Tell The Truth, November 13, 1961 (YouTube Video)
- The Midnighters' Vocal Group Hall Of Fame site
- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters- about.com/oldies music page\
- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters page on Answers.com
- History of Rock page on Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
- Goldmine Magazine article : "Hank Ballard & The Midnighters helped to shape Rock and Roll" by By Todd R. Baptista - dated 8/23/2011
- A History of Hank Ballard & The MIDNIGHTERS on The Houndblog website