"Poor Willie" is the first single recorded commercially by The Parliaments

The Parliaments

The Parliaments were a doo-wop quintet from Plainfield, New Jersey, formed in the back room of a barbershop in the late 1950s and named after the cigarette brand. After some early personnel changes their lineup solidified with George Clinton, Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas...

. The single was released in 1959 by APT Records

Apt Records

Apt Records was a sub-label from ABC-Paramount Records. The label released only singles. The name was derived from ABC-Paramount's parent company, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres....

 (APT 45-25036), a subsidiary of Hull Records. Both songs were written by all of the Parliaments, which by this time consisted of George Clinton

George Clinton (funk musician)

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

, Robert Lambert, Charles Davis, and Grady Thomas

Grady Thomas

Grady Thomas is a former member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...

. The B-side of the single was entitled "Party Boys".

The record was not a hit, but it has become a collector's item, fetching hundreds of dollars at record conventions and on eBay

EBay

eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

.