Billy Ward (singer)

Billy Ward (actually Robert Williams , born September 15, 1921 in Savannah , Georgia , † February 16, 2002 in Inglewood , California ) was an American songwriter, arranger, bandleader, singer and pianist. He is best known as the founder and manager of the vocal group The Dominoes .

Born in Georgia, Ward grew up in Philadelphia . He sang in the local church choir and played the organ. At 14 he won a prize for a piano piece he had written. He was also musically active during the Second World War and directed an army choir.

After military service, Ward attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York . At the end of the 1940s he worked as a singing teacher. He worked with Rose Ann Marks, who had a Broadway agency. Ward formed a singing group that had black and white members and which he therefore called "The Dominoes". However, there was no success and the group broke up again.

In 1950 Ward put together a new group under the same name, this time exclusively with black singers. Ward was the group's pianist and arranger, and occasionally also took part as a singer. He and Marks wrote most of the Dominoes' pieces, and both shared management.

The success was overwhelming, with hits like Sixty Minute Man (1951), Have Mercy Baby (1952), St. Teresa of the Roses (1956) and Star Dust (1957). At the end of the 1950s, the heyday of "Billy Ward and his Dominoes" was over, even if the group continued to exist for a long time with different line-ups.

Billy Ward died in California in 2002.

Web links

• Billy Ward at Rockabilly.nl (English)
• Billy Ward and the Dominoes on Allmusic (English)