Herb Reed, the bass singer of the Platters, the best selling rhythm and blues vocal group of the '50s, died of pulmonary disease in a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts. He was 83. Here's an obituary.
The Platters were a prototype of the West Coast R&B vocal group style. They were known primarily for their romantic ballads. Their arrangements emphasized their lead tenor, the magnificent Tony Williams, with the other members usually crooning quietly in the background. They had 21 songs on the R&B charts between 1955 and 1967, with four of them, “Only You,” “The Great Pretender,” “My Prayer,” and “Twilight Time,” reaching #1. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998, its first year.
Of the five Platters during their best-selling years—Reed, Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi and Zola Taylor—only Reed was a founding member of the group, and was the last survivor. The group was formed in 1953 by five current and former students at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles. The original lead singer was Cornell Gunter, later of the Flairs and the Coasters. They first recorded for Federal Records in 1953 and 1954. At that time, Alex Hodge occupied Robi's chair and Taylor was not yet a member of the group. During their time with Federal, veteran songwriter Buck Ram became their manager. He wrote several of their biggest hits.
Using his connections in the music business, Ram got them a contract with Mercury, a major label at the time. They re-recorded Ram's song “Only You,” first done for Federal, and it was an immediate success. During their time with Mercury, their sound gradually changed. They moved away from R&B, crossed over to the Pop charts, and were soon accompanied by lush stringed orchestras.
Williams was the first to leave the group in 1961. The others followed suit. Herb Reed was the last to leave in 1969. For the rest of his life, he led various Platters groups, usually billed as “Herb Reed's Platters,” since the right to use the name “The Platters” belonged to the Buck Ram estate. Herb Reed's Platters performed recently in Pittsburgh at Henry DeLuca's Roots of Rock and Roll shows and on one of T. J. Lubinsky's “Doo-Wop” specials for WQED. Reed was one of several original members of vocal groups who went to court to keep various counterfeit groups from performing under their name, and he finally won the exclusive right to use the name “The Platters” in 2011.
Many vocal group fans prefer the Platters' Federal recordings. These 24 sides are available on an import CD from Ace Records in the U. K. For their Mercury hits, I recommend the 2-CD set, The Magic Touch: An Anthology. There are lots of “Platters” CDs out there, including multiple rerecordings of their hits. I advise you to stay away from anything recorded after 1961.
Fortunately, a recent 30-minute interview with Herb Reed is available (in three 10-minute segments). The interviewer is fairly clueless, but Herb deals with him patiently.
Below is a clip of the Platters lip-syncing “You'll Never, Never Know” from the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It, with Tom Ewell and Jayne Mansfield. The song, which features a nice interplay between Reed and Williams, is joined in progress, since the first few bars were obscured by dialogue.
Williams was the lead singer on all the Platters' hits, but the other members had opportunities to sing lead on album cuts. Here's Herb Reed doing a 1957 remake of “Sixteen Tons,” a song he frequently performed at shows.
Bobby Thomas (1935-2012)
Bobby Thomas, lead singer of the Vibranaires, died on May 3 in Neptune, NJ, of complications from diabetes. Bobby grew up in Asbury Park. His singing was influenced by Sonny Til, lead singer of the Orioles. In 1948, when he was 13, Bobby formed his first group, the Crooners. That group eventually morphed into the Vibranaires, who recorded "Doll Face" on the After Hours label in 1954.
“Doll Face” was recorded on a low-budget, in a low-tech Harlem studio. The lyrics are unimpressive, and 19-year-old Bobby's voice occasionally wanders off-key. The record didn't sell and is extremely rare. In short, it had all the qualities needed to make it a collector's classic, a favorite among hard core vocal group fans. The same four men also recorded “Stop Torturing Me” on the Chariot label as the Vibes. After a few years in the Army, Bobby sang on three releases by the V-Eights on the Vibro label.
In 1966, Sonny Til invited Bobby to join the Orioles, by now an oldies act. He remained with them until 1974. After Sonny's death in 1981, Bobby formed an Orioles tribute group, which continued to perform until recently under the name “The Bobby Thomas Orioles.” They appeared in Pittsburgh under the sponsorship of the now-defunct Pittsburgh Old Record Collector's Club (P. O. R. C. C.). Technically, this was one of those counterfeit groups that Herb Reed disliked, but because Bobby was so well respected by vocal group fans and never tried to deceive anyone about his connection to the Orioles, nobody seemed to mind.
Here are the Bobby Thomas Orioles singing “I Cover the Waterfront” at a 2003 show.
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