Hank ballard and the midnighters

The Midnighters began their career as the Royals as they were organized in late 1950 or early '51 by Henry Booth and Charles Sutton. The original band members were said to have also included Levi Stubbs who later moved on the Four Tops and Jackie Wilson. By 1952, when bandleader Johnny Otis discovered the group at the Paradise Theater in Detroit and recommended them to Federal Records producer Ralph Bass, the personnel comprised of lead singers Booth and Sutton, harmony vocalists Lawson Smith and Sonny Woods, and guitarist Alonzo Tucker. Booth led the Royals' first big hit, the Otis doo wop composition "Every Beat of My Heart", which was then made into a smash hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips. “The Royals' early st

“Dance with Me Henry”, unlike other cover songs, was a totally different song to that of “Work with me Annie”. Usually, artist would take an existing hit, and re-sing it with the same lyrics, but maybe spice it up a little with the artist own flavor. In this case, Gibbs made an answer to “Work with Me Annie”, something that was occasionally done during the 1950’s. Another unusual fact about the two songs was that cover songs of the original piece was said to be an R & B style of the original rock and roll/pop style. While listening to the two songs, it was evident that the format was the other way around. We see a white musician, performing to a song with white music traits, a rock version of the original R & B version of “Work with Me Annie”. And the fact that the cover song by Gibbs wasn’t a remake of the original, it was even stranger to have a white musician remaking a song of a black music group. “Gibbs has been unfairly maligned by rock critics for building her career in the 50s by covering R&B hits of LaVern Baker and Etta James.” Her very White, pop-oriented takes on "Tweedle Dee" (late 1954) and "Dance with Me Henry" (early 1955) were what she remains most notorious for. “These covers stole a lot of the thunder from the original performers, at a time when rock & roll was struggling to gain a foothold in the pop mainstream.” However, it would be ridiculous to blame Gibbs for singing material that Mercury selected for her. “One of the reasons why black people have often been portrayed as improvisers rather then composers is that racism has rendered their compositions invisible and inaudible.” It was also evident that during the 1950s, black music was becoming very popular amongst many teens, and white music was beginning to dwindle, losing many of its audiences to R & B and jazz performers.

As "Work with Me Annie" was gaining momentum in early 1954, the Royals changed their name to the Midnighters to avoid confusion with the Five Royals, another hard, gospel-styled R&B group. "Annie" and its answers kept the Midnighters going strong for a year and a half. The success of "Work with Me Annie" led to a numerous number of songs such as "Annie's Aunt Fannie," Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)," and Etta James' "answer" s

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