The Midnighters

The Midnighters were an American R&B group from Detroit, Michigan. They were an influential group in the 1950s and early 1960s, with many R&B hit records. They were also notable for launching the career of lead singer Hank Ballard, and the world-wide dance craze The Twist. 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 controversial solo induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The Midnighters as a group were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 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 met when they worked on the same Ford auto assembly line in Detroit. They 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 Cincinnati-based King Records on its DeLuxe subsidiary label. Initially, Henry Booth took over Smith's role as lead singer, while Ballard sang back up with Woods, Sutton, and 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), and "Starting From Tonight" (written by group member Alonzo Tucker). Hank Ballard began writing for the group, and became the group's lead singer, and the group experienced success. They moved to another King Records subsidiary, Federal Records, and "Get It" became their 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. "The Royals", was too similar to another group on the King roster, The "5" Royales, so, as 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. The first record in this series was "Work with Me, Annie", (1953) a controversial song that reached #1 on the Billboard R&B Chart. 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 first hit earlier that year.

Dry spell, 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 had earlier taken the place of original member Alonzo Tucker, who went on to become a successful independent songwriter, penning hits for 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",(originally recorded by The Midnighters), The Animals, and others.^[5] (Tucker is also the actual, though uncredited , writer of Jackie Wilson's big hit, "Doggin' Around". However, for reasons unknown, Nat Tarnopol , the controversial President of Wilson's record Label, Brunswick Records, placed the name of his as-yet-unborn son Paul Tarnopol's name on the record as writer. This was verified on a telecast of ABC's newsmagazine show 20/20) .^[6][7][8] 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 had been influenced by The Midnighters' work.^[9]

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 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 one year later.

According to the book The Twist, by Jim Dawson, Dave Appell, working for Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe's Cameo-Parkway Records of Philadelphia, wanted to record a version of The Midnighters' hit, "The Twist." Although Ballard was credited as the sole writer of the song, its origins allegedly went back further than that.^[10] In the summer of 1960, while serving as bandleader of Cameo-Parkway's house band, Appell wanted to re-record the song, as he saw the song as having hit potential. In the meantime, Dick Clark, the host of ABC's American Bandstand, also noticed how local white teens in Philly were dancing to Hank and The Midnighters' original, and felt the same as Appell. But, having no literal or financial connection to The Midnighters' record label, King Records, Clark had no way to capitalize on The Midnighters' song. Clark gave promotion and airplay to two of The Midnighters records, "Finger Popping Time", and "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" on American Bandstand in exchange for King Records president Syd Nathan giving Clark licencing rights for one of his artists on Cameo Parkway,one Ernest Evans, later to be known as Chubby Checker, to record The Twist. Clark was part owner of Cameo-Parkway, and several other record companies at the time.

2012 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 pioneering 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 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, and Sonny Woods. Original Midnighters Lawson Smith (now known as Abdul Bin-Asad), and Norman Thrasher, the last surviving members of the group, accepted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on behalf of the group, and acknowledged departed members, including original member and group founder Alonzo Tucker, who, strangely, was not inducted.

Discography

Charted singles

• Note: Credited as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters unless stated otherwise.

References

External links

• YouTube Interview with 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Norman Thrasher of The Midnighters.
• 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)
• Hank Ballard & The Midnighters-Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame Inductees
• 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 Todd R. Baptista - dated 8/23/2011
• A History of Hank Ballard & The MIDNIGHTERS on The Houndblog website
• The MIDNIGHTERS: The Original Bad Boys from Detroit-from Charles Crossley's Top of The Charts Forum
• The Midnighters: (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2012) A Bio by Joanna Connors from The Cleveland Plain Dealer

• YouTube Interview with Original Midnighters' member Lawson Smith (Abdul Bin Assad)