Twilight Time - The Platters

#1: April 26 - May 2, 1958

The Platters were one of the top vocal groups of the 1950's, selling 53 million records and being among the first doo-wop groups to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

The original members were; Tony Williams, the lead vocalist (Tony died in 1992), David Lynch, tenor (David died in 1981), Alex Hodge, baritone, who was soon replaced by Paul Robi (Paul died in 1989), Herb Reed, bass,and Zola Taylor. Their manager and producer Buck Ram (Buck died in 1991). Here is their story:

The group was formed in Los Angeles in 1953. The original members were lead singer Tony Williams, bass Herb Reed, tenor David Lynch, and Alex Hodge. They were under the direction of music entrepreneur Ralph Bass for a time before management of the group was taken over by Buck Ram. Buck Ram had been born Samuel Ram in Chicago in 1907. Although he had graduated from law school, he never practiced law and instead went into the music and entertainment business.

Buck worked as an arranger for Mills Music. He wrote songs, gave voice lessons, toured with some bands, and managed his own group, the Three Suns. In 1954 he formed a talent agency in Los Angeles and began to work with a group of high school students who called themselves the Penguins. Early in 1955 the Penguins became one of the first black acts to crack the top ten on the pop charts with Earth Angel [Will You Be Mine]. Buck took over the Platters from Ralph Bass and made some changes to the group, replacing Hodge with baritone Paul Robi.

He also moved a female singer from another act that he was promoting, Shirley Gunther and the Queens, into the Platters. She was Los Angeles native Zola Taylor. Ram then took a song that he had written called Only You [And You Alone] and had the revised lineup record it on the Mercury label. It was a song that the old group had recorded on Federal, but Federal had chosen not to use it.

Buck also brought the Penguins to Mercury. Although the Penguins had already had a major hit on DooTone with Earth Angel, they would never again place a song in the top forty.

For the Platters, however, it was a different story. The recording of Only You made by the revised group on the Mercury label entered the charts in October, 1955. This was an era in which it was a common occurrence for R&B songs to be covered by white acts, and the cover would usually be the one that got air time by disc jockeys. Only You was quickly covered by such a group, the Hilltoppers, which had been formed at Western Kentucky College. The Hilltoppers' version on Dot entered the charts about six weeks after the version done by the Platters for Mercury, and it went to number eight. But the Platters did even better ... their recording shot up to number one on the R&B chart and crossed over to the pop chart, where it reached number five.

The Platters followed it up almost immediately with another song that had been written by Buck Ram, this time with even more success. The Great Pretender was the first number one pop song for the Platters. A very popular song in 1956, it was satirized by Stan Freberg. In the 80's it was covered by Lester Bowie and by Freddie Mercury and Queen...read more