Little Darlin'

This was originally recorded by The Gladiolas, a black vocal group from rural Lancaster, South Carolina. After coming up with the song, they scrimped up enough money to record it in Nashville at the end of 1956. Early in 1957, it was released on the Excello label as their first single, going to #11 on the R&B charts. The song took off when it was covered later that year by The Diamonds, a white group from Canada that had a hit with the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers song "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" the previous year. The Gladiolas later changed their name to Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs. In 1960, they topped the Hot 100 with "Stay."

This was written by Gladiolas leader Maurice Williams, inspired by the same girl who was the subject of "Stay." Williams says he was madly in love with her, but couldn't make it work. In the song, he admits his mistake (trying to love two) and makes a play for her affection.

In doo-wop tradition, there are lots of nonsense vocalizations in this song, like "ah ya ya ya" and "wella wella." Some words in the lyrics are also augmented for the sake of the sound, like changing "wrong" to "wrong-a."