THE ESQUIRES

The Esquires were a family group from Milwaukee best known for 1967's "Get On Up."

The group came together in 1957 around three siblings: Gilbert, Alvis, and Betty Moorer. Their father, Gilbert. Sr., had toured the south as a member of the Friendly Five gospel group; their mother, Magnolia, played piano and accordion; and their kid brother, Perry, played the alto sax. They called themselves Betty Moorer & The Esquires. When their sister left the group for the wilds of Los Angeles, the brothers shortened their name to the Esquires and Gilbert took over as lead singer. In 1961, Sam Pace joined the line-up as a tenor. Shawn Taylor sang bass from 1965-67, with Millard Edwards succeeding him. Perry Moorer also joined the group as a saxophonist.

The Esquires went through several personnel changes while mainly trying for local recognition. By 1966, they had come up with a pair of original songs, “Get On Up” and “Listen to Me.” That same year, they relocated to Chicago and auditioned for Curtis Mayfield, who turned them down because he was too busy to work with the group. The Esquires returned to Milwaukee and asked a local disc jockey, O.C. White of WAWA, for advice. White referred them to Johnny Pate of ABC Records, who also took a pass. Pate did, however, bring the Esquires to the attention of Bill “Bunky” Sheppard, a Chicago-based Rhythm & Blues entrepreneur who was heavily involved with Constellation Records. Unfortunately for the Esquires, the label went out of business in late 1966.

Sheppard liked the dub of “Get On Up” and played it for his friend, Millard Edwards, who had sung bass with a Chicago group called the Sheppards (named for Bunky, who managed them). Edwards liked the song but felt it was incomplete: “They’re singing ‘get on up,’ and then there’s a big hole there.” Edwards filled in the hole by adding a bass part to the song, in contrast to Gilbert Moorer’s falsetto lead.

Sheppard put out the single on his Bunky label. It zoomed up the charts to #3 in the soul market and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the early fall of 1967. It also became a staple of oldies/classic hits radio. The song’s popularity earned the Esquires gigs at Chicago’s Regal Theater (where they shared the stage with Aretha Franklin), Washington’s Howard Theater, the Royal in Baltimore, the Nixon in Philadelphia, and the Apollo in New York. Their follow-up was a soundalike titled “And Get Away,” which also did well on the charts. In all, the Esquires released five singles on Bunky, as well as an album.

In late 1968, they signed with Scepter, which distributed Bunky, but later returned to Sheppard. In 1970, they put out a single on Capitol, “Reach Out,” which did not chart. By 1971, the Esquires were on Lamarr Records, where they had the top twenty soul hit, “Girls in the City.” They made the soul chart for the last time in 1976, with a disco remake of their signature hit.

Bringing new blood into their vocal mix from time to time, the Moorer Brothers kept the Esquires alive around their native Milwaukee into the 1990s.

Gilbert Moorer, 67, died of throat cancer on August 28, 2008. Alvis Moorer, 71, died on August 21, 2011. And Sam Pace, 68, died on January 7, 2013. Millard Edwards is still alive and lives in Chicago.

Charted singles:

“Get On Up” (1967) R&B #3, Pop #11
“And Get Away” (1967-68) R&B #9, Pop #22
“You Say” (1968) R&B #41, Pop #126
“Why Can’t I Stop” (1968) R&B #48
“You’ve Got the Power” (1968) R&B #29, Pop #91
“I Don’t Know” (1969) R&B #37
“Girls in the City” (1971) R&B #18, Pop #120
“Get On Up ‘76” (1976) R&B #62