The Platters – The Great Pretender (1955)

This was the first ever Doo Wop #1 in the USA, and it also made The Platters the first R&B vocal group to have a #1 on the Pop charts. The music was not known as “Doo Wop” at the time – it was categorized as Rock or R&B. Around 1970, Gus Gossert, who was an oldies DJ on WCBS in New York City, started using the term “Doo Wopp” to describe this type of music. Gossert didn’t come up with the term however – a record collector named Stan Krause did, who helped produce Gossert’s shows and gave him song information to use on the air.

The Platters - The Great Pretender (1956)

 

That was Alan Freed who introduced them, who was  commonly referred to as the “father of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Alan was the music promoter and DJ who introduced the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll” into common public use.

Before any success or recognition, in 1952, the original group consisted of Alex Hodge, Cornell Gunter, David Lynch, Joe Jefferson, Gaynel Hodge.

By 1953, The Platters original members David Lynch (second tenor) and Alex Hodge (baritone), added Tony Williams (tenor), and Herb Reed (bass), and were signed by manager Buck Ram to Federal Records. Ram made the addition of female vocalist Zola Taylor. Ram had originally met the Platters while they were working as parking lot attendants.

What changed their fortunes boils down to one very important name: their mentor, manager, producer, songwriter, and vocal coach, Buck Ram. Ram took a standard doo wop vocal group and turned them into stars — one of the most enduring and lucrative groups of all time.

After getting them out of a contract with Federal Records, Ram placed them with the burgeoning national independent label Mercury Records (at the same time he brought over the Penguins following their success with “Earth Angel”), automatically getting them into pop markets through the label’s distribution contacts alone. Then Ram started honing in on the group’s strengths and weaknesses. The first thing he did was put the lead-vocal status squarely on the shoulders of lead tenor Tony Williams. Williams’ emoting power was turned up full blast with the group (now augmented with Zola Taylor) working as very well-structured vocal support framing his every note.

The group quickly became a pop and R&B success, eventually earning the distinction of being the first black act of the era to top the pop charts. Considered the most romantic of all the doo wop groups, hit after hit came tumbling forth in a seemingly effortless manner: “Only You”, “My Prayer”, “Twilight Time”,  (Jerome Kern’s)”Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and “Harbor Lights”.

The Platters - Only You (And You Alone) (Original Footage HD)

The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

 

Ram had the Platters record “Only You” during their first session for Mercury. Released in the summer of 1955, it became the group’s first Top Ten hit on the pop charts and topped the R&B charts for seven weeks. The follow-up, “The Great Pretender”, with lyrics written in the washroom of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas by Buck Ram, exceeded the success of their debut and became the Platters’ first national #1 hit. “The Great Pretender” was also the act’s biggest R&B hit, with an 11-week run atop that chart. In 1956, the Platters appeared in the first major motion picture based around rock and roll, Rock Around the Clock, and performed both “Only You” and “The Great Pretender”.

The Platters also differed from most other groups of the era because Ram had the group incorporated in 1956. Each member of the group received a 20% share in the stock, full royalties, and their Social Security was paid. As group members left one by one, Ram and his business partner, Jean Bennett, bought their stock, which they claimed gave them ownership of the “Platters” name. A court later ruled, however, that a sham was used by Mr. Ram to obtain ownership in the name “Platters”, and the issuance of stock to the group members was “illegal and void” because it violated California corporate securities law.

In 1961, Williams struck out on his own. By the decade’s end, the group had disbanded, with various members starting up their own version of the Platters. Decades of competing versions ensued, until original member Herb Reed finally won a series of court cases. Reed, who died in 2012, restarted the group and patterned them on the original, and a version is still touring currently.

The original (successful) group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in its inaugural year of 1998. In 2004, “The Great Pretender” was voted 360th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone.

 

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