The Platters were a relatively unknown band before Samuel “Buck” Ram discovered them. The Platters first few songs flopped, until Buck took the group under his wing as both manager and producer. Buck had a strong and successful history in songwriting before he began producing. He wrote the song “The Great Pretender”for The Platter’s in only twenty minutes without realizing that the song would become such a huge hit. Its original purpose was to be a follow up song to “Only you (and you Alone)” which was The Platters first hit from Buck. The Great Pretender climbed the charts passing “Only You” and clenching the number one position on both the R&B and pop charts in 1956. The song has been adapted and recognized by many modern-day artists. Most notably, Freddie Mercury who took a liking to the song and performed his own rendition.
Joe is a senior writing arts and psychology student at Rowan University. He enjoys music of all genre but tends to favor classic rock. The best show he has ever seen was AC-DC.