Posted on 01/11/2018 9:47:40 PM PST by nickcarraway
Old songs trigger old memories. "The Great Pretender" did just that for me.
The occasion was a dance party at a classmate's home. I was 16 years old that day. I'd just broken up with a girl who'd been my date for many months. Then at the party I began dancing with a new girl to "Oh yes, I'm the great pretender, pretending that I'm doing well ..."
We danced through that evening and regularly to the next spring.
Be that as it may, the group that recorded "The Great Pretender" was one of the mainstays of 1950s' music.
The Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, although their sound was much closer to the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers than it was to Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis or any of the other early rock 'n' rollers.
In 1953 in Los Angeles, Tony Williams, Alex Hodge, David Lynch and Herb Reed formed the Platters. They met Buck Ram, who had been a writer and arranger for big bands during the 1930s and '40s.
Buck added a female vocalist, Zola Taylor, to change their sound.
Their first attempts with little known King Records included "Only You," but nothing clicked.
Then in the fall of 1955 after Ram maneuvered the group to Mercury Records, they scored a top pop/R&B smash hit with the same "Only You," written by Ram.
A white group, the Hilltoppers, quickly covered the song. However, unlike other white covers, the Platters' issue was more successful.
They followed "Only You" with "The Great Pretender" and they were on their way to stardom.
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"The Great Pretender" became the first R&B ballad to top the pop charts as well as the R&B charts.
Buck Ram knew how to write for this group and their next release "(You've Got) the Magic Touch" doubled on the pop and R&B charts.
They followed with a standard, "My Prayer," and maintained their momentum.
By now rock 'n' roll movies were in the vogue, so the Platters appeared in both "Rock Around the Clock" and "The Girl Can't Help It" in 1956.
In 1958, they released "Twilight Time" (co-authored by Ram) and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" ( their take on another standard).
Rock music was evolving and although one or another edition of the Platters continued on through the 1980s, they never ascended to the level of popularity they achieved in the mid-1950s.
I'll always remember one special hit record.
• Well, here's some cheery news. In a normal lifetime, each of us will grow 899 new layers of skin. Extra credit may be given kids for "skinned knees, etc."
• He may have been smiling when he went down for the third time. The Duke of Clarence drowned in Malmsey wine in 1478.
• George Colman once said he made his fortune out of what people left on the side of their plates. What was George's product? He produced mustard.
• I must have missed it. Following Ian Fleming's death, Kingsley Amis wrote the first James Bond followup, "Colonel Sun."
• Thankfully I'm not there yet. You know you're getting old when you look forward to a dull evening.
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.
You can still go see the Platters. They tour constantly.
I remember The Platters well. I had two older sisters, one who graduated high school in ‘58, and the other that graduated in ‘60. Besides their 45 releases, we had some of their albums too. I graduated in ‘65, but will always remember the great music my sisters introduced me to in the 50’s.
I liked Pat Boone’s ‘A White Sportcoat, and a Pink Carnation’.
I think that was Marty Robbins.
Oh Yes I’m the Great Pretender ooh ooh ah.
Your correct that was Marty Robbins hit.. White Sport Coat. Pat Boone had Love Letters in the Sand.
Answer to Work With Me, Annie, Annie Had a Baby, I'm the Father of Annie's Baby, Annie Pulled a Humbug, Annie Kicked the Bucket, etc.
Great Pretender: Meh
I remember Pat Boone’s laughable covers of blues recordings.
Some of the worst music ever recorded.
“SO I smile and say
She a lovely flame
Smoke comes from your thighs....
Or as we used to sing it, “A White Sportcoat and a Pink Crustacean”.
Back in the days when black music was great . Today rap has taken over and it sucks ,,, awful !!!
I often think about that. I’m more of a 70’s R&B guy than 50’s although I could listen to the Mills Brothers all day.
Black musicians had such a huge legacy with Motown and The Philadelphia Sound.
The soul of Teddy Pendergrass singing lead for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STs1QlyawpY
Marilyn McKay with The Fifth Dimension.
Anything from the Spinners. The Four Tops
Amazingly, a white Canadian woman was probably most responsible for introducing great black music to huge white audiences. Rosalie Trombley was music director at CKLW Radio in Windsor Ontario. It was said that on a summer Friday night, your car didn’t need a radio, you could just listen to everyone else’s. The station had a monster signal that blanketed 38 states and six Provinces, registering number one ratings in many of those.
She was the first to have heavy rotation of black music to a largely white demographic. I suspect it wasn’t under some white privilege virtue signaling, but instead because it was incredible music.
Most music today, black, white, whatever is completely bereft of depth and complete forgettable.
The Pretenders should do a song called “The Great Platter.”
“Harbor Lights” and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” were my favorites.
“You can still go see the Platters. They tour constantly.”
NO, people who call themselves Platters tour constantly, but all the real Platters are dead.I guess they should call themselves The Great Pretenders.
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