Saturday, August 04, 2007

This Day In Music History: The Platters and My Prayer



August 4, 1956, on this day in music history the #1 song in the country was My Prayer by the Platters. They traveled a long but successful road to the top of the charts. They were the first black artist to have a #1 single on the pop charts. They had a style like that of the Mills Brothers or the Ink Spots. It was under the guidance of their manager and producer, Buck Ram, that they attained a contract with Mercury Records. He was also the manager of The Penguins and they were the ones that Mercury wanted. Buck said he would sign them to the label but only if they took The Platters also. John Sippel was a west coast label executive and urged Mercury to sign them both.
Over the years they had many hits with songs like Only You and The Great Pretender. It was when Jimmy Kennedy stopped Buck on the street and said he was very impressed with the sound of the Platters. He offered Buck some of his songs. The one he liked was My Prayer. It was originally a French song written by Georges Boulanger as Avant de Mourir. Jim Kennedy wrote the English lyrics in 1939.
Mercury Records didn’t like the song and refused to release it. Then an A&R man heard it was going to be released by the Four Aces. That changed the labels mind and they rushed it into release. The song stayed at #1 for two weeks.

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