4 April 1941, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 3 September 1994, Decatur, Georgia, USA. A former amateur boxer and a dancer on the Jim Lounsbury record-hop television show, Lance also sang with the Five Gospel Harmonaires and for brief period with Otis Leavill and Barbara Tyson in the Floats. His 1959 Mercury release, I Got A Girl, was written and produced by Curtis Mayfield, a high-school contemporary, but Major's career was not truly launched until he signed with the OKeh label three years later.
Delilah
opened his account there, while a further Mayfield song, the stylish The
Monkey Time in 1963, gave the singer a US Top 10 hit. The partnership between
singer and songwriter continued through 1963-64 with a string of US pop chart
hits; Hey Little Girl, Um Um Um Um Um Um, The Matador and Rhythm. Although
Lance's range was more limited than that of his associate, the texture and
phrasing mirrored that of Mayfield's work with his own group, the
Impressions. 
1965's Ain't That A Shame marked a pause in their relationship
as its commercial success waned. Although further vibrant singles followed,
notably Investigate and 'Ain't No Soul (In These Rock N Roll Shoes)', Lance
left OKeh for Dakar Records in 1968 where Follow The Leader was a minor R&B
hit. Two 1970 releases on Curtom, Stay Away From Me and Must Be Love Coming
Down, marked a reunion with Mayfield. From there the Major moved to Volt,
Playboy and Osiris, the last of which he co-owned with Al Jackson a fomer
member of Booker T. And The MGs. These spells were punctuated by a two-year
stay in Britain (1972-74), during which Lance recorded for Contempo and
Warner Brothers. Convicted of selling cocaine in 1978, the singer emerged
from prison to find his OKeh recordings in demand as part of America's 'beach
music' craze, where aficionados in Virginia and the Carolinas maintain a love
of vintage soul.