Who was Larry Williams?
Born in New Orleans, raised in California, Larry Williams was a good-looking, piano-pounding, singer-songwriter who wrote and recorded some of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs of the 1950s. To his credit are songs such as "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", "Bony Maronie", "She Said Yeah", "Short Fat Fannie" and "Slow Down". The Beatles were big fans and both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded his songs.
In 1965, Larry Williams toured the UK and, backed by the Stormsville Shakers and his longtime friend Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, they recorded two albums together. "The Larry Williams Show" was released by Decca records and the front sleeve pictured Larry and Johnny at the Ricky Tick Club, Guildford.
The other album they made together, "Larry Williams on Stage", was also recorded in a studio, this time in the presence of a frenzied audience, led by Scream in’ Lord Sutch. So authentic-sounding was this ‘live’ recording, featuring snatches of "She said yeah" between songs, that many rock ‘n’ roll fans and reviewers believed it was recorded in the USA. Sue Records, who released it, did nothing to correct this impression and did not credit the Stormsville Shakers on the album, now a collector’s item.

Sadly, Larry Williams was found dead at his Hollywood home in January 1980, a bullet through his head. Though judged to be suicide, many believe he was murdered. Before he died, Larry wrote to Phillip Goodhand-Tait commenting on the two albums they made in London. We hope to publish it on this website shortly.
Phillip Goodhand-Tait and the Stormsville Shakers are proud to have known and worked with one of the legends of rock ‘n’ roll. As a tribute they continue to perform some of those rock ‘n’ roll classics on stage in the style of the 1965 recordings they made together.