Maurice has many years of hands-on experience as a professional musician, arranger, writer and composer. In the summer of 1966, Brenda and Maurice Coates worked together at a children’s playground at 2nd and Lehigh near downtown Philadelphia. Maurice suggested that he and Brenda sing together for the show they presented for the kids at the end of the summer. They did four numbers. Maurice remembers those 30 years later as, “a Beatles song, ‘A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On’, ‘Heat Wave.’ Everybody was singing ‘Heat Wave’ at that time. And one more that I can’t remember.” Gilda Woods was driving by and heard the performance. She asked them if they had any original material. “I told a little fib,” Maurice admits with a laugh, “I said yes.” In two days they wrote “Dry Your Eyes.” Bob Finz, the in-house producer at Jamie Guyden Records, and Gilda Woods produced their first single, “Dry Your Eyes” b/w “The Wash.” (Dionn 500) at the company’s 8-track studio, about a seven mile from the playground where they started. Recorded at 919 Sound Studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia. Recording information: 919 Sound Studios. Brenda & The Tabulations: Brenda Payton, Maurice Coates, James Rucker, Eddie Jackson (vocals). “You could say it was an overnight success,” Coates says. “Two weeks later we heard it on the air.” “Dry Your Eyes” started to climb the charts on February 25, 1967. It reached Number 2 on the Black Contemporary Singles chart and Number 20 on the pop chart. In 1967 alone, the group had five chart records, starting with their fellow up single, Smokey Robinson’s song; “Who’s Lovin’ You” hit Number 19 on the R&B charts while “Stay Together Young Lovers” got to number 44. The other chart singles in 1967 were “Just Once in a Lifetime” b/w “Hey Boy” (Dioon 504). Next came “When You’re Gone” b/w “Hey Boy” (Dionn 504). And even one more Brenda & the Tabulations release had a B side of “Hey Boy;” (You Gave Me) A Reason to Live (Dionn 511). It appears only once on the Dry Your Eyes album, along with a combination of their own songs and contemporary standards of that time: three hits of 1964, Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By,” the Supremes’ classic, “Where Did Our Love Go,” and the Marvelettes’ “Forever.” Constant touring quickly seasoned the group to handle standards as well as pop songs, as they show on George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess classic, “Summertime.” For Coates, the success lasted five years, five years of constant touring as Brenda and the Tabulations, playing all the important theaters across the country and twice in England, France and Germany, playing cards backstage with Stevie Wonder. Coates “His valet stood behind him hipping him to the cards. Michael Jackson was running around knocking the cards off the table."