R.I.P. - Lillian Walker (The Exciters) (5 Mar 1944 - 5 Feb 2023)

Lillian Walker-Moss died on 5 Feb 2023 from a rare form of cancer, angiosarcoma, aged 78. She was a member of the early 60's group The Exciters, perhaps best known for their #4 Hot 100 hit "Tell Him".

The group was formed in Jamaica, Queens, NYC, as The Masterettes by Lillian and high school friends Brenda Reid, Carol Johnson and Sylvia Wilbur. Wilber left soon afterwards and was replaced initially by Penny Carter and then by Herb Rooney. As The Masterettes they released just one single in 1961 "Never Ever" / "Follow The Leader" on a small Brooklyn based label Le Sage. There was already a male group on the label called The Masters of which Herb Rooney was a member. The group had passed the girls house and heard them singing and that is how they became The Masterettes and recorded on Le Sage. They used to do shows with The Masters, opening for them. Rooney wrote the songs they recorded with Cecil Bowen who appears on all releases, so I would guess that he owned the label. After the release of the first single they started doing bigger shows on the same bill as groups like Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Shirelles and The Imperials.

They got the opportunity of auditioning for Leiber and Stoller and their next single was "Tell Him" as The Exciters in Oct 1962 on United Artists which rose to #5 R&B and #4 Hot 100. The song, written by Bert Russell (aka Bert Berns), was not the original as it had been recorded earlier as "Tell Her" by Gil Hamilton (aka Johnny Thunder) on Capitol in May 1962. It was also a later hit in the UK for Billie Davis in 1963 and has been covered many times by different artists.

The success of "Tell Him" resulted in an album of the same name which was heard by The Beatles who invited the group to join them on a six week US tour in 1964. At this time there was still segregation in the south and at one show at Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL, they were told that the couldn't perform but the The Beatles told the management that it was a package deal and if The Exciters weren't allowed to perform then neither would The Beatles. Needless to say there was a quick about turn in attitude!

Lillian on left

However, they were not successful in following up their hit and achieved only four more minor R&B hits, three in the 60s and one in 1978. The flip side of their last 60s hit "Blowing Up My Mind" was picked up on by the Northern Soul scene. Their second minor hit, believe it or not, was "Do-Wah-Diddy" which was covered a few months later by Manfred Mann who had a UK #1 pop hit with it the same year and it stayed on the chart for fourteen weeks. Go figure as it reached only #78 R&B for The Exciters.

Lillian left the group in the early 70s and attended college and gained a masters degree in counselling in which she excelled in for 30 years. She returned to singing with encouragement from her daughter and sang with a group called The Super Girls. Ronnie Pace and Skip McPhee were drafted in to replace Walker and Johnson but the group split up not long afterwards in 1974.

The Exciters recorded six albums in total, four in which Walker was involved up to 1971, and around twenty singles.

Brenda Reid and Herb Rooney were married from 1964 until the mid 80s. Rooney died in the early 90s. Their son Cory Rooney is a successful producer who has worked with Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Jackson and Destiny's Child. Carol Johnson died in 2007 aged 62.

Herb Rooney hooked up with Ian Levine and recorded "Reaching for the Best" which, if not his first Northern Soul tailor made recording then, certainly one of his earliest. It was a UK Top 40 pop hit reaching #31 in 1975. He also recorded several other songs with them (a cover of Eddie Parker's' "Love You Baby" and Sandi Sheldon's "You're Gonna Make Me Love You", "Suffering" and "Swallow Your Pride"). All released on 21st Century Fox and tagged onto the end of the playlist below even though Lillian Walker was not involved as the group was only a duo of Reid and Rooney at this time. (I think one or two of them on Spotify may be later re-recordings)

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