(Harold Chuck" Willis)
DISCOGRAPHY 1958-2020 (12CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Willis was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1926. He was spotted at a
talent contest by Atlanta radio disc jockey Zenas Sears, who became
his manager and helped him to sign with Columbia Records in 1951.
After one single, Willis began recording on a Columbia subsidiary,
Okeh. During his stay at Okeh, he established himself as a popular
R&B singer and songwriter, performing material that he wrote
himself. In 1956, he moved to Atlantic Records where he had immediate
success with "It's Too Late", "Juanita" and "Love Me Cherry".
His most successful recording was "C.C. Rider", which topped the US
Billboard R&B chart in 1957 and also crossed over and sold well in
the pop market. Jerry Wexler said it was Willis's surprising idea to
"do an old standard" instead of one of his own songs. "C.C. Rider" was
a remake of a twelve-bar blues, performed by Ma Rainey in Atlanta
before Willis was born. Its relaxed beat, combined with a mellow
vibraphone backing and chorus, inspired the emergence of the popular
dance, The Stroll.
Dick Clark played "C. C. Rider" on American Bandstand, and "The
Stroll" became a popular dance. Willis's follow-up was "Betty and
Dupree", another "stroll" song and a similar "old standard", which
also did well. Wexler said that Dick Clark used "Betty and Dupree" on
American Bandstand to accompany "The Stroll," and that is how Willis
became known as "King of The Stroll." Willis' single "Going to the
River", a song by Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino, was a prototype
for his "stroll" sound, reaching No.4 on the R&B chart.
Willis performed wearing a turban (a gimmick suggested to him by his
friend Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and was also known as the "Sheik of
Shake." In the early 1950s he hosted and performed on a weekly
Saturday night television show in Atlanta, which featured guest
artists such as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke who were passing through
town.
Zenas Sears said that Willis was a better songwriter than a
performer, but also said, "On the TV show Chuck would do five or six different numbers every week. He moved
very well, he handled himself very well and put everyone at ease." He
was a solid, if not spectacular, performer on the road as well, and
"was one of the few artists who would treat a band properly,"
according to Roy Gaines, who was Willis's bandleader and
guitaris.....(Wikipedia)