The
Platters are an American
vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of
the early rock and roll era.
Originally, their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre. The
act has gone through several personnel changes, with the most successful
incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David
Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor. The group had 40 charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
between 1955 and 1967, including four number-one hits. The Platters formed in
Los Angeles in 1952 and were initially managed by Federal Records A&R man, Ralph Bass. The original group consisted of founding and
naming member, Herb Reed, Alex Hodge, Cornell Gunter and Joe Jefferson. In
June 1953, Gunter left to join The Flairs and was replaced by lead vocalist Tony Williams. The band
then released two singles with Federal Records, under the management of Bass,
but found little success. Bass then asked his friend, music entrepreneur and
songwriter Buck Ram, to coach the group in hope of getting a hit record.
Ram made some changes to the lineup, most notably the addition of female
vocalist Zola Taylor and, in
autumn 1954, the replacement of Alex Hodge by Paul Robi. Under Ram's guidance,
The Platters recorded eight songs for Federal in the R&B/gospel style,
scoring a few minor regional hits on the West Coast, and backed Williams'
sister, Linda Hayes. One song
recorded during their Federal tenure, "Only You (And You Alone)",
originally written by Ram for the Ink Spots, was deemed unreleasable by the label, though copies
of this early version do exist. Despite their lack of chart success, The
Platters were a profitable touring group, successful enough that the Penguins, coming off their #8 single "Earth Angel",
asked Ram to manage them as well. With the Penguins in hand, Ram was able to
parlay Mercury Records' interest
into a 2-for-1 deal. To sign the Penguins, Ram insisted, Mercury also had to
take The Platters. The Penguins would never have a hit for the label.
The
Coasters are an
American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the
late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood",
their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team
of Leiber and Stoller.
Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop,
their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of
the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s. The Coasters were formed on October 12,
1955 when only two of The Robins, a Los Angeles–based rhythm-and-blues group, were willing to go to Atlantic
Records. Those two were dubbed The Coasters because they went from West to East
coast. The Robins included Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn. The
original Coasters were Gardner, Nunn, Billy Guy, Leon Hughes (who was replaced by Young Jessie on a couple of their early Los Angeles
recordings), and the guitarist Adolph Jacobs. Jacobs left the group in 1959. The songwriting
team of Jerry Leiber and Mike
Stoller started Spark Records and in 1955 produced "Smokey Joe's
Cafe" for the Robins (their sixth single with Leiber and Stoller).
The record was popular enough for Atlantic Records to offer Leiber and Stoller an
independent production contract to produce the Robins for Atlantic. Only two of
the Robins—Gardner and Nunn—were willing to make the move to Atlantic,
recording their first songs in the same studio as the Robins had done (Master
Recorders). In late 1957, Nunn and Hughes moved to New York and joined
with Cornell Gunter and Will "Dub" Jones to
form The Coasters. The new quartet was from then on stationed in New York,
although all had Los Angeles roots. The Coasters' association with Leiber and
Stoller was an immediate success. Together they created a string of good-humored
"storytelling" hits that are some of the most entertaining from the
original era of rock and roll. According to Leiber and Stoller, getting the
humor to come through on the records often required more recording
"takes" than for a typical musical number. Their first
single, "Down in Mexico", was an R&B hit in 1956. The following year, the Coasters
crossed over to the pop chart in a big way with the double-sided "Young Blood"/"Searchin'". "Searchin'" was the group's first
U.S. Top 10 hit and topped the R&B chart for 13 weeks, becoming the biggest
R&B single of 1957 (all were recorded in Los Angeles). "Yakety Yak" (recorded in New York), featuring King Curtis on tenor saxophone, included the famous lineup of Gardner, Guy, Jones,
and Gunter, and became the act's only national number one single, topping the
R&B chart. The next single, "Charlie Brown",
reached number two on both charts. It was followed by "Along Came Jones",
"Poison Ivy" (number 1
for almost two months on the R&B chart), and "Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)".
Changing popular tastes and changes in the group's lineup contributed to a lack
of hits in the 1960s. During this time, Billy Guy was also working on solo projects; the New York
singer Vernon Harrell was
brought in to replace him for stage performances. Later members included Earl "Speedo" Carroll (lead
of the Cadillacs), Ronnie Bright (the bass voice on Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man"), Jimmy Norman, and guitarist Thomas "Curley" Palmer.
The Coasters signed with Columbia
Records' Date label in 1966,
reuniting with Leiber and Stoller (who had parted ways with Atlantic Records in
1963), but never regained their former fame. In 1971, the Coasters had a minor
chart entry with "Love Potion No. 9", a
song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Coasters but instead gave
to the Clovers in 1959. In Britain, a 1994 Volkswagen TV advertisement used the group's "Sorry
But I'm Gonna Have to Pass", which led to a minor chart placement in that
country.In 1987, the Coasters became the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
crediting the members of the 1958 configuration. The Coasters also joined
the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in
1999.The Coasters' recordings produced by Leiber and Stoller for Date/King
(1966–1972) were released on the CD Down Home by Varèse
Vintage (Varèse Sarabande) in 2007. The complete Atco recordings (1954–1966)
were released in a four-CD set, There's a Riot Goin' On: The Coasters
on Atco, by Rhino, also in 2007.
The
Spinners are an
American rhythm and blues vocal group that formed in Ferndale, Michigan, in
1954. They enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums during the 1960s and
1970s, particularly with producer Thom Bell. The group continues to tour, with Henry Fambrough as the only original member. The group is
also listed as the Detroit Spinners and the Motown
Spinners, due to their 1960s recordings with the Motown label. These other names were used in the UK to
avoid confusion with a British folk group also called The Spinners. On June 30,
1976, they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2015, they were nominated for
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Music
critic Robert Christgau has
called the Spinners "a renowned show group whose supersmooth producer
inhibits improvisation". In 1954, Billy Henderson, Henry Fambrough, Pervis Jackson, C. P. Spencer, and James Edwards formed The Domingoes in Ferndale, Michigan a
northern suburb of Detroit. The friends resided in Detroit's Herman Gardens public housing project and came together
to make music. James Edwards remained with the group for a few weeks and was
replaced by Bobby Smith,
who sang lead on most of the Spinners' early records and their biggest Atlantic Records hits. Spencer left the group shortly
after Edwards, and later joined the Voice Masters and the Originals. George
Dixon replaced Spencer, and the group renamed themselves the Spinners in 1961.