By Pepper Parr
November 5, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
I was supposed to get together with a friend but he cancelled –“Can’t make it – when we learned that Platters were going to be in town we couldn’t order our tickets fast enough.
“They were part of what I was raised on: he added – “you don’t get chances like this to take a trip down memory lane. I can see me and the misses getting out for a drink after the show and reminiscing. You should join us?”
The show, which is in town for the one day – Friday – tomorrow – and there are still some decent seats available. I notice the box seats don’t seem to be sold – wonder why? Will look into that.
Meanwhile – the show. The audience will hear both the Platter and the Ink Spots – both were category breaking for their time.
For those of you who lived your lives then – you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve never heard of them – Google the guys and listen to a few tunes on You Tube – you are in for a treat.
The Platters was an American vocal group; one of the most successful groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre. The group had 40 charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1955 and 1967, including four no. 1 hits.
The Platters were one of the first African American groups to be accepted as a major chart group and were, for a period of time, the most successful vocal group in the world.
They were part of that ground breaking, ground shaking era when the segregationist views were being taken apart.
The Ink Spots gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. They preceeded the Platters and had a unique musical style that was more rhythm and blues and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny.
The Ink Spots disbanded in 1954; since then there have been well over 100 vocal groups calling themselves “The Ink Spots” without any right to the name; they have claimed to be “2nd generation” or “3rd generation” Ink Spots.
If there is a good thing going – someone was bound to take up the brand.
In the visuals of the Ink Spot – especially in the album covers the men are portrayed as railway porters because that was the way American then saw what they then called Negros – time have changed and today they are called African Americans in a country led by a black president.
Neither the Platters nor the Ink Spots ever thought such a thing could ever happen.
Seat selection is at: Click here
