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A Cincinnati vocal group, the Charms landed a number-one R&B hit for almost ten weeks in 1954 with "Hearts of Stone," a song that remains among the most enduring doo wop anthems. Otis Williams, Richard Parker, Donald Peak, Joe Penn, and Rolland Bradley first recorded for Rockin' in 1953, but did "Hearts of Stone" for Deluxe the next year. They had several other hits, among them "Ling, Ting, Tong," "Two Hearts," "Ivory Tower," and "United," all of which made the Top Ten on the R&B charts between 1955 and 1957. Their songs were issued as Otis Williams & His Charms in 1956 and 1957. Williams later tried his hand at country.
Otis Williams was such a talented guy - he gave up an inspiring career in major league baseball to sing group harmony. Baseball's loss was our gain! In the studio, Otis hit a number of "home runs" and gave us some great group harmony music to cherish forever!!!!
Otis Williams was born and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was really more of a jock that a musician or singer playing baseball and football and hanging out with the rest of the jocks. He'd sing a little bit when was 9-10 years old, "outside under the lamp post." Nate Cole was his musical influence- the only one. "He was the only one I tried to emulate with the small voice that I had." But he never seriously thought about a singing career. He got into it on a "fluke." In 1952, a group of seniors at Withrow High School in Cincinnati had a member get sick and they needed a replacement. Otis really didn't know the guys (since he was a jock and they weren't) but had some classes with them. They approached Otis and he sang with them at a high school variety show. "We sang 'Trees' by the Dominoes." Being the only black group on the show, they were not allowed to have a backup band play behind them. That didn't stop the group from performing acappella and stealing the show. They were discovered by an agent for Sid Nathan of King Records.
At the time (being a senior in high school), Otis wasn't sure he wanted to pursue a career in singing. But Nathan didn't want to sign anyone in the group but him. But Otis really didn't want to sing. "But if I do it will be with the group," Otis recalls telling Nathan. It was a tough call - joining the group to become a singing legend meant giving up a scholarship to Ohio State to play football (one of 13 different schools that wanted him) and what looked to be a promising baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds. Otis, in fact, played minor league baseball for the Reds organization for a while before deciding to give it up completely for his singing career. Looking back, Otis says, "I don't regret it....I had a great time."
In 1953, the group recorded its first record on Rockin' Records - Heaven Only Knows b/w Lovin Baby written by Otis himself. "It was shaky," says Otis, "then again, when you're that young, you don't have a lot of fear." Otis and the guys received a box of the records and played it over and over for themselves and friends. Following the release, the group started performing live in the greater Cincinnati area. "We were young and couldn't travel too far. We were just sailing through."
In 1953 and '54, the group recorded and released Happy Are We b/w What Do You Know About That as well as Bye Bye Baby b/w Please Believe Me. Finally, the group had another release in April '54 - Quiet Please and Fifty Five Seconds. But it wasn't until later in 1954 when the group recorded a big R&B hit for Deluxe – Hearts of Stone which made it into the top 15. The song has a distinctive country twang to it, owing probably to the fact that King Records had a large country inventory. Otis would even sing with some of the country artists including a duet with the country artist Bonnie Lou. This influence definitely comes through on the record and would aid Otis in a later endeavor into country music.
If it weren't for the Fontaine Sister ripping off "Hearts" for themselves, it may have gone even farther than #15. But the Charms didn't try to compete against the white mainstream pop artists like the Fontaine Sisters and Pat Boone (who stole their Ivory Tower for himself). "We had a very good show...I think the best act out there. Musically, we never thought about (the competition)." Otis notes that "at the time it was a black and white thing and we had to struggle as far as comments and things like that but we didn't have it too bad because we came out as stars. We didn't have it quite as bad, but it was bad. But we survived that."
With the success of Hearts, the group was cruising. Otis recalls playing the Apollo theater. It was a grueling schedule - 4 to 5 shows a day. "That was scary.....it was a grind a real grind." recalls Otis. The group would perform and then between shows they'd have to try to rehearse downstairs. "If your show didn't look very good, you didn't go upstairs, I don't care how strong you were or how popular your song was." says Otis. But it was a good lesson for the young group. "Taught a little bit of discipline, I'll tell you," remarks Otis.
Coming off the success of Hearts – early ’55, the group hit the road with some big R&B acts like the Clovers, Big Joe Turner, Faye Adams, Bill Doggett, and the Moonglows on the Top Ten Revue. "We learned how to be entertainers with these groups. How to breath....how to talk to disc jockeys, and agents and managers...the other artists kept us in line...you know, the ego thing....they were our best teachers. If you listened, you learned, if you didn't listen, they wouldn't talk to you."
Later in ’55, the group covered the Five Keys' Ling Ting Tong but the song didn't get much airplay because in New York City the mighty Alan Freed didn't like to play cover records. "Alan and I talked about the covers when we did his show and Alan actually liked me....he gave us as much play as he could knowing he didn't like the covers," recalls Otis. "Disc jockeys in those days were kind of one sided - 'do this for me and I'll do this for you.'" "We were doing record hops," recalls Otis, "and they were charging these kids 50 cents a head at the door and we'd come in perform, sign autographs and leave and we never got a nickel of that." But Otis remembers that his group "always had a good repoire with the public....because we were personable...I made sure that everyone got their clothes on and came out after the show...to talk and sign autographs...trying to be as available as possible."
In 1955, Two Hearts and Two Kisses – not a cover – got major airplay and became a big hit including on Alan Freed's show. The group was also Downbeat Magazine's R&B group of the year. Otis says that "a lot of this (notarioty) went right over our heads, because we were not an egotistical group. We just had fun.....we were interested in singing....so we didn't have all the problems....these things cause problems."
In late 1955, the problems would come as Henry Stone of Deluxe/King underhandedly convinced the other members of the Charms that they could survive without Otis and they left with Stone who formed Chart Records. Court battles ensued, in which Otis asked to be added as a defendant so he could fight for his rights. Otis' side won and he wound up recording as Otis Williams and His Charms. It was obvious that Otis was the driving force behind the group. While the rest of the group went on their merry way, never hitting it big again, and fading from the scene in '57, Otis and his new group were releasing his biggest record - Ivory Tower which made it into the top 10. That's all the proof anyone needs of who the real talent was.
Over the years, Otis also did some work with Hank Ballard, co-producing and arranging the original version of the now-famous Twist. Of course, Chubbie Checker picked it up and took it to even greater heights. Chubbie was sued over using Otis' arrangement and lost but having made so much money off it, it probably didn't matter to Chubbie.
Otis was also slated to record a song called Fever. Otis liked the song and Sid Nathan said he would put it aside for Otis. Meanwhile, Otis was on the west coast for some shows and was getting ready to be in a movie - Don't Knock the Rock with Jane Mansfield. It was at this point that all the hard work and years of performing caught up with Otis and he had a breakdown. Upon returning home, Otis discovered that Nathan had given Fever to Little Willie John to record. John was worried about this fact and asked Otis if it was okay to go forward. Otis not only said okay but helped arrange and sing backup vocals on the record. The result - another terrific R&B recording influenced by the talented Mr. Williams.
Otis kept on recording for Deluxe from ’58 to ’63. After '63, Otis left the business and started teaching at a school for hair design. After that, he started doing hair for a while. In the early 70's, he got a call from Ray Pennington aka Ray Starr who was in Nashville and wanted Otis to come down and record. Otis says "I had just about had it with the hair" and off he went to Nashville. Eventually, Otis started working with Jimmy Key of the Key Talent Agency doing talent scouting and acting as an agent for artists. One day, Otis was approached by Pete Drakeford, the country producer, about putting out an album of some of the Charms songs as well as a some new material. In the meantime, the idea came up about Otis doing a country album. Pete and a friend had a bet that Otis couldn't do it. But Otis knew better and went for it. "At the time, there was a new movie out called Midnight Cowboy," and that's where Otis got the name for his country group. The result was a country album released in '71 on Stop Records. "Came out pretty good. And we had to do the photo shoot, so we went down to the barn." "It was a lot of fun," Otis says, but he says that he didn't really "go country" - he did the album and played one show at Buck Lake Ranch in Indiana but that was it.
Recently, in 1999, Otis returned to group harmony appearing at a UGHA show and at SOC in Pittsburgh. The SOC show was his first and it "breathed a little life into me," says Otis. Trips to Europe followed and since then Otis has been an active participant on the group harmony performance schedule. While he never made it to the baseball Hall of Fame, this past May 2001, Otis was inducted into the UGHA Hall of Fame and performed with a new Charms group that Otis comments "sing better than the other (original) group." A real honor much deserved for one of the hardest working and talented members of the world of group harmony.
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