195 The Platters “The Great Pretender” 1955

“The group’s manager, Buck Ram, had worked as a songwriter and arranger since the 1930s and was in his late forties as rock and roll began to dawn. Yet, unlike so many of his peers who resisted the new music, he was able to write songs with a feel for the musical present using a craft steeped in the past. In the songs he wrote for the Platters, which included 'The Great Pretender' … he managed to marry a straightforward harmonic-phrase design with a melodic elegance and lyrics that appealed to an all-ages romantic sensibility” (Albin Zak, I Don’t Sound Like Nobody, 2010)

The Platters “The Great Pretender”