Twisted Tales: Arthur Lee Maye a Pro at Both Baseball and R&B

Posted on Apr 10th 2009 5:00PM by James Sullivan
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When Kobe Bryant's rap album was quietly shelved, the message was clear: Athletes, keep your musical aspirations in your locker. Be it the Chicago Bears' 'Super Bowl Shuffle' or the teen-idol turn of '60s baseball phenom Tony Conigliaro, when athletes get in front of the microphone, the result is almost always blooper material.

Only one man could claim a legitimate dual career in professional sports and the recording industry. L.A. native Arthur Lee Maye faced Sandy Koufax and played in the Milwaukee Braves outfield alongside home run king Hank Aaron. As an R&B singer, he performed with James Brown, met Sam Cooke and sang backup on the original version of 'Louie Louie.'

Ironically, Maye's talent for both made him a superstar at neither. He had longevity, recording for various labels and playing for several major league teams from the mid-'50s through the early 1970s. He had some regional hits in the Los Angeles area, and he once led the National League in doubles. He was a classic line-drive hitter, hitting the ball solidly up the middle, both literally and figuratively, but never made the All-Star team. Still, Maye was deservedly proud of his accomplishments. As he told one interviewer, "I feel that I'm the best singing athlete that ever lived. I'm not bragging. It's just a fact."

He attended L.A.'s legendarily musical Jefferson High School, where his fellow students, including future members of the Platters, the Coasters and the Penguins, went "doo-wopping up and down the halls." There he became lifelong friends with Richard Berry, the man who wrote and recorded the original 'Louie Louie.'

Despite his obvious talent for singing, Maye signed with the Milwaukee Braves after high school, working his way through their extensive minor league system until he made the majors in 1959. Singing came second to baseball: "I could always sing at 50," he said, "but I couldn't play baseball at 50." In the off-season, he cut records, first as Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns, then solo. He spent one winter touring California with bandleader Johnny Otis, recording new versions of classic vocal-group tunes like 'Earth Angel' and 'Only You' with a lineup that included Berry and R&B star Jesse Belvin.

But his double career was not exactly glamorous, and not without headaches. After being traded to the Houston Astros, Maye found himself in the middle of a lawsuit when he was hired to perform at a Houston nightclub called the Dome Shadows, named in reference to the Astrodome, the team's new ballpark. When a big bopper named Lee May broke into the big leagues (Arthur Lee Maye played baseball as Lee Maye), he had to convince his wife it was the other Lee May who'd been named in a paternity suit.

Despite nagging injuries that kept him from playing every day, Maye retired from baseball in 1971 with a respectable .274 batting average and more than a thousand hits. Though he recorded many excellent singles for Specialty, Modern and other notable labels, he never had a true hit as a singer. He took a job with Amtrak, working there for 20 years until his retirement. Arthur Lee Maye died in 2002 at the age of 67, a case study in consistency. "The greatest thrill is not getting to the major leagues," he said. "It's staying there."

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