DUMPING TRUMP
- Love is a Many Splendored Thing: The Four Aces
- The Great Pretender: The Platters
- Young Love: Sonny James
- White Sport Coat: Marty Robbins
- In the Still of the Night: The Five Satins
- Rainbow: Russ Hamilton
- 26 Miles: Four Preps
The Great Pretender in 1955 was The Platters first national hit. They were one of the performers in 1956 of the first major rock and roll motion picture, Rock Around the Clock. The song was written by their manager, Buck Ram, in the bathroom of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. While the group ran into innumerable problems and fought each other for decades, The Platters today (well, next year) maintain an active tour schedule. Next, on 20 November 2020 in the Andiomo Celebrity Showroom, Warren, Maine.
Young Love has been released several times since 1956, with the Sonny James' version reaching #1 and Tab Hunter's in 1957. That year also came In the Still of the Night, written by Fred Parris for his Five Satins. You heard this song in The Buddy Holly Story, Dirty Dancing and American Grafitti, and by Boyz II Men. The group, still with lead Parris appeared on PBS in 2017. And, yup, they are still touring.
Marty Robbins wrote A White Sport Coat in 20 minutes while being transported in a car, after noticing some high school students dressed for a prom. He recorded more than 500 songs, most he wrote himself, and was covered by the best...Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc. Incredibly enough, he was a professional NASCAR race driver, finishing in the top 10 six times. He once almost sacrificed himself by ramming his car into a wall rather than a distressed car in front of him.
26 Miles (Santa Catalina) was written by Four Prep's lead singer Bruce Belland mostly because he broke his ankle, tried to learn how to play a uke while in isolation, learned four chords, resulting in this song, which became popular just about the time I was graduating from high school in 1958. You might say this was the first surfing song, for it inspired Brian Wilson of the Beachboys.-
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