Otis Williams born 2 June 1936

Otis Williams (born June 2, 1936, Cincinnati, Ohio), was the lead vocalist of the Charms, an R&B group that had its greatest success in the years 1954-1957. Along with the Cadets/Jacks, they were one of the top black cover groups, though they were covered as much as they covered others. (Williams is not related to Otis Williams of The Temptations).

Williams was a talented athlete and he could have played for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, but he chose for a career in music instead. In 1952 he joined an existing singing group when one of its members was sick. The group, which Otis named The Charms, consisted of Rolland Bradley (tenor), Bob Smith (tenor, soon replaced by Donald Peak), Joe Penn (baritone) and Richard Parker (bass) were drawn to the attention of Syd Nathan of King Records. Nathan only wanted to sign Williams, but Williams insisted on taking the rest of the group along. They signed to a subsidiary label, Rockin' Records, based in Florida and owned by Henry Stone (later of TK Records),

The Charms first record in June 1953, "Heaven Only Knows", was not a hit, and after a couple more releases they moved to another King subsidiary label, DeLuxe, also run by Stone. They recorded several more times before, in 1954, "Hearts of Stone" gave them their first and biggest hit, reaching #1 on the R&B charts for nine weeks at the end of the year. It sold over one million copies, their first recording to do so, and was awarded a gold disc. It also reached #15 on the pop charts, with a cover version by the Fontane Sisters reaching #1.

                              

The group had further R&B chart success with "Ling, Ting, Tong" and "Two Hearts", and they toured with The Clovers, Big Joe Turner and others. However, in late 1955, Stone persuaded the 

other members of the group that they could succeed without Williams, and they left to join Stone’s new Chart label. After a court battle, Williams continued recording for DeLuxe, credited as Otis Williams and His Charms, and had another big hit in 1956 with "Ivory Tower" (#5 R&B, #11 pop).

Williams continued to record for DeLuxe in the late 1950s, but with less success. The Charms had their last recordings released in 1956. These recordings were, however, re-releases of older recordings that featured Otis Williams. The group made no other recordings. “United” (# 5, mid-1957) was Williams’s last entry into the R & B charts.

Otis & His New Group aka The Charms 1955

Though Otis Williams was not a rock ’n’ roller in the accepted sense, he recorded quite a few songs that can only be described as rock n roll. Examples are “Well Oh Well”, “Red Hot Love” and the Coasters-styled “Don’t Wake Up the Kids” (1958), which was covered by The Four Dots with Eddie Cochran on guitar. Williams also did some arranging and producing jobs for Syd Nathan. In 1956 he co-arranged Little Willie John’s “Fever” and in November 1958 he arranged and co-produced Hank Ballard’s original version of “The Twist”.

Otis was drafted in June 1960 and served in the Army for two years. However, he was still able to record occasionally when he was home on leave. From 1960 on his records were released on the parent label, King, instead of DeLuxe. Some were solo recordings, most were still credited to Otis Williams and His Charms. In 1961 they scraped the bottom of the Hot 100 twice with the Hank Ballard-styled rocker “Little Turtle Dove” (# 95) and with “Panic” (# 99). He did his last session for the King label in September 1963.

In 1965-66 Williams recorded for OKeh without success, then retired from music for several years, working as a barber in Cincinnati. Otis had always liked country music and recorded country material for Pete Drake’s Stop label during 1969-1971, including the album “Otis Williams and the Midnight Cowboys". It seems that these were his last recordings as he was also working as a booking agent and talent scout.

In the 1990s Williams returned to group harmony singing, touring internationally with a new Charms group, and, in 2001, being inducted to the United in Group Harmony Association Hall of Fame.                     

Otis Williams  & Rollie Willis

Otis was still active until his last known appearance in 2007, where he performed with The Coda Band.

(Edited from various sources mainly articles by Marv Goldberg, Jay Warner, Jon Hartley Fox.)