The Platters

and that record on his master's voice label.

A song recorded, I'm talking about Harba Lights, a multitude of times, but actually made popular again during the rock and roll era when the Platters made Harba Lights a hit in 1960.

We have some time left in the show, so let me play one more from the 30s as I look for it on my playlist that also succeeded as a rock and roll success.

And I have found it.

As a matter of fact, it won the Academy of Country Music Award for Album of the Year, and it also got Favorite Country Album at the American Music Awards.

Singles that were released on November the 3rd include in 1955 when The Platters released The Great Pretender.

This was actually written by the group's manager, Buck Ram.

It was written in a hotel washroom, and it solidified The Platters as being one of the big crossover stars of that decade.

It had harmonies that were paired with Tony Williams' lead vocals, and it was a huge song.

It's a classic song.

Toward its end, I hear the dozen rapid piano chords and the falsetto voice of Tony Williams singing Only You.

That R&B crossover hit by the Platters in the 1950s was a favorite of my mother's.

A strange feeling comes over me, its warmth toward my mother.

At the show's end, I sit still.

Then I tell Carol, hearing that Platters song Only You moved me.

She replied,

Yeah, wasn't the music great?

brag.

Yeah, no, I got, I've been very fortunate to tour with the Drifters, the Platters, Lou Christie, Benny King.

Four seasons, right? Four times, all that stuff.

Goes on and on.

Or if you do, if you are in Pittsburgh at one point in time, I need to get another one-on-one interview in person.

I had... a couple members of the Platters and the Supremes.

You've got to have someone like you in a one-on-one television interview as well, Thomas, especially if you get the whole group back together and come to Pittsburgh.

That's got to be one

So here is a list pretty much by alphabetical order to remind us of some of the black performers that he either introduced to the U.S. or, of course, just gave them entree, more exposure.

the Supremes we talked about, but Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, Brooke Benton, Diane Carroll, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Count Basie, Sammy Davis Jr., Bo Diddley, Duke Ellington, The Fifth Dimension, Ella Fitzgerald, Four Tops, Jackson Five, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Moms Mabley, Johnny Mathis, The Platters, Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Ike and Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Flip Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and out of order, Fats Domino and Sam Cooke.

And so once we heard all these black performers, they became part of the mainstream, already were or became.

And so what did we do, Jim? We had all this music from Ed Sullivan to remind us, and we went right downtown or the Alma Plaza to buy our records.