Maurice Williams was with the Zodiacs when he made "Stay." He was with an earlier group, the Gladiolas, that made the original "Little Darling." But it was immediately "covered" by a white Canadian group, the Diamonds, and it was just about the biggest hit single in the NYC area in the summer of 1957. Both Alan Freed and Jocko had a policy of playing only the originals when a song was "covered," and their shows were where I heard the Gladiolas' version of "Little Darling."

Record producers in the Fifties and Sixties had a nasty practice: they'd con (mostly black) young singing groups into signing recording "contracts" that had them turn over the song rights to the producers. The producers then would then make the song available to (mostly white) singers and groups, and make royalties from both versions.

In an extreme case, a black group, the Rays, made a single with "Silhouettes" as the A-side and "Daddy Cool" as the B. It reached Billboard Top 10. Within a week, the Diamonds covered both sides on their single, and it reached Top 10, too.