The Royals

In 1950, vocalists Henry Booth, Charles Sutton, Lawson Smith, and Sonny Woods came together in Detroit to establish The Royals. Sutton’s smooth tenor anchored the group, which drew occasional vocal support from guitarist and arranger Alonzo Tucker and, for a brief period, reportedly counted Levi Stubbs (later of the Four Tops) and Jackie Wilson among its members. Johnny Otis, then scouting talent for Federal Records, encountered the quartet at a 1952 talent show and signed them to the label. Their debut single, the Otis-penned “Every Beat of My Heart,” appeared later that year; although the recording was strong, it attracted little notice at the time, years before Gladys Knight & the Pips scored a major hit with the song in 1961.

When Lawson Smith joined the U.S. Army in 1953, 16-year-old Hank Ballard stepped in to fill the vacancy. Ballard’s voice carried a gospel-rooted power and a flair for composing openly sexual material that left little to the imagination. The Ballard-written “Get It” became a minor R&B hit in 1953, and the following year the group broke through with “Work With Me Annie,” again spotlighting Ballard’s vocals. As the track climbed to the top of the R&B charts, the singers—eager to avoid confusion with the similarly named Five Royals—adopted the name the Midnighters; by the time the single reached number one, it was credited to the Midnighters, marking their first release under the new identity. They would eventually be billed as Hank Ballard & the Midnighters and rank among the most influential acts in early rock & roll.