Hank Ballard And The Midnighters never quite made big league status. But alongside cutting a rug on the 50s scene, they had several fondly recalled hits for Syd Nathan’s Federal Records.
In 1972 Hank Ballard contributed a six-minute monologue, Recitation By Hank Ballard, to James Brown’s Get On The Good Foot album. On it he sycophantically hailed Brown as “a real live living legend,” and gave thanks to him as “the only one besides myself that had a strong belief in my talent and knew he could formulate a groove that would put my style back into this galaxy.” This monotonous outpouring was a lowpoint on one of Brown’s most entertaining albums.
It was a little sad to hear the Detroit-born singer reduced to this, considering there was a time when the discs and stage shows of Hank Ballard And The Midnighters were one of Brown’s chief inspirations on entering the music business. In their early days as performers, Brown and long-time associate Bobby Byrd would study the live acts of established stars performing in Greenville, South Carolina.
“The best group we ever saw in Greenville was Hank Ballard And The Midnighters,” Brown wrote in his autobiography, James Brown: The Godfather Of Soul. “They had Work With Me Annie, Annie Had A Baby and Sexy Ways, all hits even though most radio stations wouldn’t play them. Really, the Annie records were just good fun, and so was The Midnighters’ stage act. For instance, while the piano player was playing, his pants would drop and he’d have long handles on like a clown.”
As The Midnighters worked the Greenville audience up into a frenzy, Brown recalled that he and Byrd “would clasp hands real strong and I said, ‘OK, one day we’ll be up there, and somebody else will be down here lookin’ up at us.’”
Ballard would claim that in the mid-50s, by which time he and The Midnighters were established hitmakers on King/Federal Records, he was able to use his position to persuade the reluctant company boss Syd Nathan to record what would turn out to be Brown’s first hit, Please, Please, Please. Though Brown does not mention this in his book, he plainly retained an affection and respect for the singer, which is why he gave him a chance to revive his career as a solo artist after Ballard and The Midnighters had disbanded in the mid-60s, and to update his style.
Dance Master
It didn’t really work. If Ballard is recalled these days it is usually in association with the dance craze-launching The Twist, though even then he and The Midnighters had to take a back seat behind Chubby Checker’s vastly more successful cover of their original recording of the song. Yet Ballard was a fine vocalist with a far greater range than Brown and Checker. The fiery, if somewhat controversial ‘Annie’ series of records released on Federal between 1954 and 1956 were effective examples of the fusion of gospel, blues, R&B and vocal group sounds, which were so influential in future developments in rock and soul.
For several years the records simply went out under the name The Midnighters, as did their first 12″ album, Their Greatest Hits, released on Federal in 1956. But this was subsequently re-released on parent label King a couple of years later, with a different cover, as Their Greatest Juke Box Hits, by which time they were Hank Ballard And The Midnighters, presumably to take advantage of Ballard’s elevated profile as the writer of The Twist.
Jukebox Joy
The belated inclusion of “Juke Box” in the title certainly feels justified. Given the radio ban on some of their songs arising from what were deemed at the time to be suggestive lyrics, it was their popularity in jukebox establishments which were the key to sales, with several of their numbers riding high in the jukebox charts of the day. Jukeboxes are also a more forgiving medium for listening to records created to give a two- or three-minute one-off ‘fix’ of entertainment. The formulaic similarity about much of The Midnighters’ material made them less suited to the LP format.
For that reason, it is actually Moonrise, the oldest track on Their Greatest Hits, which is most welcome. Although Ballard became The Midnighters’ galvanising force, he was not a founder member of the group, formed in Detroit in 1950. Entering the business under the name of The Royals, the group had been talent-spotted by Johnny Otis who recommended them to the Ohio label Federal, based in Cincinnati. Otis also wrote the top side of The Royals’ first single Every Beat Of My Heart. It didn’t sell, but was subsequently revived by Gladys Knight And The Pips, whose more sumptuous interpretation gave them their first national hit in 1961.
Moonrise was recorded at The Royals’ second Cincinnati session in 1952. The lead vocal was by Charles Sutton, with interjections from the song’s writer Alonzo Tucker, who would later be the often uncredited writer of Jackie Wilson gems like Doggin’ Around and Baby Workout. Tucker wrote the number with the intention of capturing a moonrise-style atmosphere, and the recording features a celesta and an early echo effect round the vocals. The song enjoyed only decent sales in some of the US northern cities on release but, listening to it now, this atmospheric, often overlooked track is surely overdue elevation to the top rank of compositions to have emerged from the vocal group era.
Raunchy R&B
Sonny Woods, the Royals’ bass vocalist, clearly could spot talent. It was he who later recognised the singularity of Gladys Knight and showed her how to perform Every Beat Of My Heart when she and The Pips toured with The Midnighters. And it was Woods who heard Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks) singing on the assembly line of the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, where both of them worked, and induced him to join The Royals. By 1953, he’d moved ahead of Charles Sutton as their lead vocalist. Ballard also wrote songs, and these led to a change in the group’s style towards a harder, raunchier, more R&B-influenced sound. Get It, a co-write by Ballard and Tucker, was an early example, and it paid off, giving The Royals their first Top 10 R&B hit in the summer of 1953.
Whereas Sonny Til and The Orioles, with their smooth four-part harmonies, had been the model for The Royals, Ballard was listening to Clyde McPhatter, at that time the lead singer with Billy Ward And His Dominoes. Ballard’s rich, creamy tenor has often been likened to McPhatter’s, although he was slightly earthier and more macho than McPhatter, who demonstrated an uncanny mix of sensitivity and fragility with his emotionally exposed performances on the Dominoes’ recordings Deep Sea Blues,When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano and The Bells.
Ballard’s timbre on the later country-style ballad Teardrops On Your Letter (the top side of the original release of The Twist) was certainly McPhatteresque, but in the early 1950s, it was the Dominoes’ big-selling Have Mercy Baby, one of the few truly rocking songs McPhatter sang with the group, which provided inspiration for Ballard’s reformulation of The Royals’ sound.
Hight Voltage
Yet whereas Have Mercy Baby had a booting sax, Ballard was keener on having an electric guitar up front. Work With Me Annie featured the guitar of Arthur Porter, as did many later tracks. It made the Top 10 in the US R&B charts, and was enough to stimulate the group’s change of name to The Midnighters. This change was to ensure there was no confusion between themselves and the more established The “5” Royales, ironically as in their less successful period The Royals had sought to exploit the confusion in identities.
With a steamy opening blast from Porter’s guitar, Sexy Ways was a successful follow-up single that reached No.2 on the US R&B charts, though here the sound was augmented by a honking saxophone. Of the series of ‘Annie’ songs subsequently launched, Their Greatest Hits includes both Annie Had A Baby and Annie’s Aunt Fannie, in which Ballard bemoans the inhibiting effect of said relative on his relationship with the irresistible Annie. Switchie Witchie Titchie was another cheeky song featuring a flirty girl with “ice cream hips”. By now the mania for Annie-related answer songs was in the region of 20, among them being Etta James’ Roll With Me Henry.
Not to be outdone, The Midnighters shot back with Henry’s Got Flat Feet (Can’t Dance No More), another US Top 20 R&B hit in 1955.
Latter Period
The influence of these songs, with their fun lyrics, strong harmonies and solid backbeats, can be heard on later records such as Gene Vincent’s Rollin’ Danny, featuring Johnny Meeks on guitar. But for record buyers, by the mid-50s the novelty was wearing thin. The closing track on Their Greatest Hits, was the most recent, recorded in 1956. But although Tore Up Over You was a decent slice of R&B, with good blues licks from Porter’s replacement Cal Green, the song was not a hit.
While they remained big favourites on the live circuit, between the middle of 1955 and early 1959 The Midnighters’ records failed to make the charts. They were even temporarily dropped by Federal/King, until a sudden revival via The Twist. For a few more years, the group was able to ride the dance craze with the likes of Finger Poppin’ Time, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, The Hoochie Coochie Coo, The Continental Walk and The Switch-A-Roo all making the national charts between 1960 and 1962.
The Midnighters disbanded in the mid-60s, after which Ballard worked with James Brown, cutting several solid records. Then, at first reluctantly, he joined the oldies circuit in the 80s. There, he surprised audiences with his energy. “Don’t sit me down,” he’d tell show organisers, “my biggest thrill is watching people dance to my music.” Perhaps he remembered how a young James Brown had looked up at him in adulation all those years ago.
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