In case you haven't checked out Dan Philips' piece on Diamond Joe/Solomon Burke over at Home Of The Groove, you most definitely should. In that post he's offered up a copy of Diamond Joe doing the same song I'm posting here, "How To Pick A Winner". In fact, it uses the exact same instrumental track.
I'd planned to post the two 45's together at some point just because I think it's interesting to compare the two, but since Dan's got his copy of the Diamond Joe up....I'll stick with this 45 and send you to Dan for the other version.
Personally speaking, I prefer the Diamond Joe, but the comparison's interesting simply because Maurice Williams is no slouch of singer himself. If the name doesn't ring a bell, think: the Zodiac's [Stay], and the Gladiola's [the original version of Little Darling].
Williams presumably hooked up with Toussaint through Marshall Sehorn, his partner. The Zodiacs had an early Deesu label release which was clearly leased through Sehorn's connections.
Could be there's a third 45 by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs on Deesu. Unfortunately, I can't find a Deesu discography [how very odd] so am unable to check. I may just be dreaming on that one.
