Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams

In 1949 saxophonist and bandleader Paul Williams delivered one of the earliest major successes of the R&B period when he released “The Hucklebuck,” an adaptation of Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time.” That single held the top position on the R&B charts for fourteen weeks and ranked among the three Top Ten and five additional Top Twenty R&B instrumental hits Williams placed with Savoy across 1948 and 1949.

Williams performed with Clarence Dorsey during 1946, then cut his first sides with King Porter for the Paradise label in 1947 before assembling his own group late in the year. Saxophonists Noble “Thin Man” Watts and Wild Bill Moore, trumpeter Phil Guilbeau, and vocalists Danny Cobb, Jimmy Brown, Joan Shaw, and Connie Allen all worked in Williams’ ensemble at various points. In the 1960s he joined Atlantic Records’ house band and led the orchestras of Lloyd Price and James Brown until 1964. After stepping away from music for a time, he founded a booking agency in New York in 1968. His remaining Top Ten hits were “35-30” in 1948 and “Walkin’ Around” in 1949.