Tiny Tim & The Hits - Doll Baby 1958 UT

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Tiny Tim & The Hits (Eastern Shore, Maryland)

Personnel:
Timothy "Tiny Tim” Wilson (Lead)
Thomas Price (Baritone)
William Collier
Lionel Brown
Orlesto Smith

Biography:
Howard Harrison "Timothy" Wilson was born in 1943 in Salisbury, Maryland. Wilson got started young is a profound understatement. Adopting Frankie Lymon and Little Anthony as his prime models, he joined the group of Norma Lee Trader called Five Hits & A Miss in the late 50's. All the guys are from the Eastern shore of Maryland, and all went to the same schools and same churches. When Norma Lee Trader left to make life, Timothy Wilson, Lionel Brown, Orlesto Smith, Thomas Price and William Collier change name as Tiny Tim & The Hits. The group recorded "Wedding Bells" b/w "Doll Baby" for Roulette in 1958. After this 45’ the group splits.

Five years passed before Thomas Price and William Collier resurfaced with Samuel Culley and Ervan Waters as the Diplomats on Arock Records. The tight-harmony remake of "Unchained Melody" was the first single, and they got their foot halfway through the door with their second single, "Here's a Heart" (October 1963). Timothy Wilson join the Serenaders with Howard Curry, Sidney Barnes and George Kerr. Timothy Wilson went on to become a 60’s soul pioneer and scored his next huge hit in 1967 with “Baby Baby Please,” which was big on the soul charts in New York and New Jersey.

Wilson became a favorite at the famed Apollo Theater in New York with a number of hits including “Queen Of Hearts,” “I Wanna Know Right Now,” “Say It Again,” and “Oh How I Wish She Were Mine,” and became the first east coast artist signed to Motown. In the early 1990’s he became the lead singer of Frankie Lymon’s Legendary Teenagers, his voice still as strong as it was in the 60’s. Note: Timothy Wilson passed away April 23, 2017.