WITH A BIT OF LUCK YOU MIGHT HEAR THE CLASSIC TUNES OF THE PRETENDERS ON GOLDEN OLDIE RADIO

Effectively a black version of The Everly Brothers, one of
the most influential and seminal bands to emerge from
the R and R era was The Platters, although a constantly
changing line-up has only served to corrupt the legacy
of the first two line-ups of the band, the ones which
most certainly recorded the definitive output. Maybe
it's drawing a long bow to make the comparison with
the Everly's, but lyrically they were most definitely
cut from the same cloth, the Platters were a bit
more genuinely Tin Pan Alley orientated. Now if
i was going to write a blog covering all the diff-
rent line-ups of the group as well as every sin-
gle franchise wannabe band in the world who's
still trading under the name of The Platters, i
would be writing a 100000 word blog for you.

Of course i dont want to be boring writing anything,
and most of the ad-hoc post 50`s Platters stuff is
crap, at best a mere imitation of their classic 50`s
material and at worst the kind of throwaway soul /
pop that doesn't even make the grade for all the
biddies down at the local bingo hall, no offence
to our older citizens. The mark 2 line-up of The
Platters to me was the best one, the one where
Tony Williams become the lead singer. I dont
often do it, because i like to write indepen-
dently, but i have to admit that i am using
Wikipedia as a reference to write this, be-
cause The Platters had so many personnel
changes they even made Deep Purple look
stable by comparison. Yeah i am joking!

By 1959, whoever was in the band by that stage
was completely up to their necks in controversy,
and legal trouble, especially the arrest of the
four males in the band for being in posses-
sion of weed in 1959 in Cincinatti forever
tarnished the legacy & reputation of the
band and there is no doubt at all from a
musical perspective it was downhill from
there. Legal wrangles in the 1960`s, and
a myriad amount of franchise bands that
call themselves The Platters have perma-
nently make a mockery of the Williams
era Platters in every sense of the word.
Best songs are popular but totally for-
gotten on FM radio - ONLY YOU, THE
GREAT PRETENDER & SMOKE IN YOUR
EYES. If you want to hear these songs
your best bet would be to find out if
your favourite AM radio station has
a golden oldies hour for old farts.