Thursday, January 5, 2012

Otis Williams and the Midnight Cowboys

Artist: Otis Williams and the Midnight Cowboys
LP: Otis Williams and the Midnight Cowboys
Song: "I Wanna Go Country"
[ listen ]
Song: "Hello Darlin'"
[ listen ]

Not to be confused with Otis "Big Daddy" Williams of Texarkana and The Temptations, this perhaps somewhat lesser-known Otis Williams was born in Cincinnati and had several chart hits with The Charms in the middle of the 1950s. Though known primarily for singing doo-wop and soul, Otis headed to Nashville in the early '70s to try his hand at country music—and why not? Things hadn't turned out so badly for that other black country singer. For the picture on the back of his self-titled 1971 country western debut, Williams assembled a phony all-black backing band, calling them The Midnight Cowboys after the X-rated film about male hustlers that was in theaters two years before. Unfortunately, the record was not a hit, as the space Americans had allotted for famous black country singers had already reached full capacity. Visit The Real Mr. Heartache blog here to read more about Otis Williams, to find additional details about the making of this record, and to listen to samples from a few more of Otis' songs. As it just so happens, my full name is actually Alex Ottis Williams, so this guy and I are practically related!

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