Complete Releases: 1956-62 by Maurice Williams/The Gladiolas/The Zodiacs (CD,...

The late 50s saw the translation into mainstream pop of styles and sub-genres of popular music that had previously been the preserve of the specialist charts, and doowop was one of those phenomena. The vocal groups which emerged from the gospel scene and the barbershop quartets found a market in the popularisation of R&B, as radio, TV and mass media provided wider promotional platform in the wake of rock n roll. This collection tells a small part of that story in encapsulating the early career of Maurice Williams as leader of the two groups of which he was a key member and songwriter, namely The Gladiolas and The Zodiacs.\n\nThe Gladiolas scored a big R&B hit with their first single for Excello in 1956 with Little Darlin but suffered the fate of many similar R&B artists when it was covered for the mainstream market by The Diamonds, and released several more records for Excello and other labels without success. With his group renamed The Zodiacs, Williams got a deal with Hs