Arthur Lee Maye occupied a unique place in the history of doo-wop. Besides being a great lead singer who recorded with various groups for over a dozen labels, he was also a professional baseball player who spent thirteen years in the majors.

Arthur was born on December 11, 1934, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and came to Los Angeles as a boy. He was one of the progenitors of the "Jeff High Sound," a harmony style developed in the early- to mid-'50s at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. Out of this circle of friends came members of The Coasters, The Platters, The Penguins, The Flairs, The Medallions, The Turks and others. "We were all friends, we sang with each other, helped each other write songs," Arthur said several years ago. "We didn't realize that we were creating our own musical history, 'cause we were too busy having fun."

His closest collaborators were Jesse Belvin, Richard Berry, Obie "Young" Jessie and Cornel Gunter. "We were just kids and we didn't know much about harmony, so we'd rehearse in the dark to concentrate on our voices. Or we'd sing in hallways at school to get our harmonies to ring off the walls, because the echo would exaggerate our wrong notes."

In 1953 he and his pals put together two groups, The Crowns (with Arthur as the lead vocalist) and The Flairs, and both signed with the Modern/RPM/ Flair record company in Culver City. "Richard Berry sang with me and with The Flairs....We'd rotate guys. It was no problem because we'd been singing together for years."

By the time Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns had their first regional hit, "Love Me Always," in late 1955, baseball had already become an important part of his life. "I was playing in the Pioneer League for Boise, and struggling to get into the majors, so I wasn't around as much to sing and record. When Young Jesse and Cornel were picked up by The Coasters, I probably would have been part of the group, too, except I was off playing baseball."

Still, he managed to enjoy a regional hit on Specialty with a Richard Berry song, "Gloria," dedicated to Gloria Jones of The Dreamers (and not the more famous "Gloria" popularized by The Cadillacs). He was also one of the lead singers of Johnny Otis' all-purpose cover group, The Jayos, along with Jesse Belvin and Mel Williams.

In 1959 Arthur joined the world-champion Milwaukee Braves (who had beaten the Yankees the previous October) and batted .300 in his rookie season. An outfielder, he played with the Braves until he was traded in 1965 to the Houston Astros (1965-66).

He also played for the Cleveland Indians (1967-69), Washington Senators (1969-70) and ended his major league career with the Chicago White Sox (1970-71). Though known on record as Arthur Lee Maye, he played professional ball simply as Lee Maye (not to be confused with Lee May, who joined the majors in the 1960s). In Arthur's thirteen years in "the bigs," he played in 1,288 games with an overall batting average of .274 (including four seasons over .300), hit 94 home runs and 419 RBIs, and scored 533 runs.

"I made the right choice going with baseball," Arthur claimed. "In those days, none of us ever made much money in music, even when we wrote and sang hit records."

His brother Eugene Maye took over The Crowns at one point and recorded on Dig with Henry Strogin. Eugene later recorded with The Millionaires on Specialty in the 1960s.

After retiring from baseball, Arthur worked for many years for Amtrak, but music remained a part of his life. He was very proud of "Moonlight," a single he recorded for Dave Antrell in 1985. Over the past decade, he appeared at most Doo-Wop Society shows, either as an entertainer (until he began having throat problems in the mid-'90s) or as a connoisseur who simply enjoyed listening to the music, hanging out with old friends, and meeting his fans. By 2002, however, he was beginning to suffer the ravaging effects of diabetes and liver cancer.

Arthur Lee Maye died on July 17, 2002, leaving three beautiful daughters and a widow, Pat Littlejohn Maye.

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