10 May 1935, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 2 January 1980, Los Angeles, California, USA. Williams recorded a handful of raucous rock 'n' roll songs for Specialty Records which, among others, later influenced John Lennon. Williams learned to play the piano while in New Orleans, and moved to Oakland, California with his family while in his teens. There he joined a group called the Lemon Drops. In 1954, while visiting his old home town of New Orleans, he met and was hired as pianist by Lloyd Price, who recorded for Specialty. Price introduced Williams to producer Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell. At that time Speciality head Art Rupe signed Williams. His first record was a cover of Price's Just Because, which reached number 11 on the R&B chart for Williams and number 3 for Price. Backed by fellow Specialty artist Little Richard's band, Williams recorded his own Short Fat Fannie, which reached number 1 in the R&B chart and number 5 in the pop chart during 1957.
To
follow up his song about the fat girl, Williams next recorded one about a
skinny girl, Bony Moronie, which was almost as big a hit. Williams had one
final chart single for Specialty the following year, Dizzy, Miss Lizzy, which
reached number 69. (It was later covered by the Beatles, with Lennon singing.
They also covered Slow Down and Bad Boy, while Lennon later recorded Bony
Moronie and Just Because as a solo, providing Williams with steady royalties
income until his death.) A number of singles and an album were issued by
Specialty up until 1959 none of which were hits. That year he was arrested
for selling drugs and sentenced to prison, causing Specialty to drop him and
his career to fade. Can you hear me Mother? He recorded later on for Chess
Records, Mercury Records and for Island Records and Decca Records in the
mid-60s, by which time he was working with Johnny Guitar Watson. In 1966
Williams became a producer for OKeh Records and recorded an album with Watson
for that label. He was virtually inactive between 1967-79 at which point he
recorded a funk album for Fantasy Records. In January 1980, Williams was
found in his Los Angeles home with a gunshot wound in the head, ruled to be
self-inflicted, although it was rumoured that Williams was murdered owing to
his involvement with drugs and, reportedly, prostitution.