The Original Commodores;l-r top; Walter 'Clyde' Orange, Milan 'Quickdraw' Williams, William 'WAK' King, l-r bottom; Thomas McCleary, Ronald LaPread, and Lionel Richie

Commodores member Milan Williams dies



By Gail Mitchell Mon Jul 10, 6:14 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Milan Williams, a founding member of the Commodores, died Sunday (July 9) at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston after a bout with cancer. He was 58.

Williams played keyboards for the R&B/funk outfit, whose members met as students at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Originally comprising seven members, the Commodores' lineup eventually included Thomas McClary (guitar), Lionel Richie (saxophone), Walter "Clyde" Orange (drums), William King (trumpet) and Ronald LaPread (bass). After touring as the warmup band for the Jackson Five, the Commodores signed to Motown subsidiary MoWest in 1972.

The Commodores' first hit was the 1974 synthesizer-pumped instrumental "Machine Gun." Written by Williams, the song climbed to No. 7 on the Billboard R&B chart. The group went on to score seven No. 1 R&B hits, including "Slippery When Wet," "Just To Be Close to You," "Easy," "Nightshift," "Three Times a Lady" and "Still," the latter two of which also notched No. 1 on the pop chart. Richie left the group for a solo career in 1982, and the Commodores recorded for Polydor in the late '80s.