The lead singer of the Platters "TONY WILLIAMS" was my brother. Thank you, for loving it. I'll share this on social media with the rest of the family. Carolyn Williams-Edison
Your comment to as what you are. You are a patriotic American and should be respected as such. So am I. The color of one's skin is immaterial. Thanks for being here and standing up for all we believe in.
Classic. The Platters. One of the best groups of their era. This song came out in 1958 when I was seven years old and I heard it played countless times for the next 20 years. Classic.
This song came out in 1959, five years before I was born. Growing up in the early '70s, my brother and I used to play my mom's 45s from her teen years on our record player. Before I knew who the Beatles, the Who, the Stones, etc. were, I was wearing out old records of The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Elvis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. To this day, I still get chills when Tony Williams crushes the end of this song.
Great Great! Group of the 50's & 60's. Other great songs: OnlyYou. Twilight Time, The Great Pretender, The Magic Touch.One of many groups of the best eras of music the fabulous 50' & 60" s .
Tony Williams, absolutely amazing voice! As a matter of fact, all Group members had great voices! The 1950s paved the way for all the great Soul, Rock n Roll and other Music Genres which were relatively new back then.
My parents always played “The Platters” Sundays after church on Sunday while making breakfast. It was the greatest hits 8-track and every time I hear this song it takes me back. Too this sound I can still smell the bacon, sausage, and eggs.
Mr. Tai Smith, the Renaissance man, I first heard this song as a grade schooler in the late nineteen fifties. Smoke gets in your eyes is a wonderful love song, written by Lonnie Johnson in 1946. The Platter’s lead singer had a serious set of pipes on him, and his interpretations dripped with emotion. They were wildly popular among all the people of our country and the rest of the world as well.
One of the most beautiful songs ever! I was about 10 when this came out, but I always loved the Platters and their lyrical songs and unforgettable harmony.
Sublime. Those voices are something else. Crying in the Chapel, The Great Pretender, Only You, etc, etc - just astonishingly good stuff. He's Mine - a rare one with Zola's "girl voice" as lead vocal is dead cool!
I am an old man now. I still recall my son, as a young man into Hank jr. etc. I gave him a c.d. of the Platters. Told him I thought they were the greatest group of all times. He was knocked out by their talent. Lead singer could have sang any style he chose.
@@Awf.lately What a voice! I knew a singer up in Edmonton, Alberta, who had been in one of the iterations of the Platters - handsome, suave, West Indian guy, and a real crooner. Kinda looked a bit like an older version of Tony Williams in that photo. I can't remember this guy's name .....
I'm in my seventies and I want to say "thank you" for playing and remembering when America wrote , played and sang real music. Brings back hundreds of memories.
Love seeing a first-time reaction to this angelic music. This is my parents' music and I grew up listening to it with them on vinyl. I still get chills.
In 1975, I was in the US Air Force stationed in Bangkok, Thailand and I was lucky to get to see this awesome group at our NCO Club ... $5/ea! Man, what a memory! This music is timeless.
Tony Williams' voice always gives me the chills in this song. Growing up in the '70s, I used to listen to my mom's 45s from when she was a girl in the '50s. The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. were familiar to me long before the music of the day.
Ty, you're right about how the artist sounds and he does sound white. I've known of white blues singers who sound black. Music crosses all cultural boundaries. The song speaks about a person who for the first time sheds tears over a lost love. He or she never thought it could happen and may feel this is a first love. It's frustrating and painful to love someone you can't be with physically.
With the Platters, their voice was their instrument. During that era black singers were the best harmonizers. The Great Pretender. You don't have to slow down your talking - up north people who speak faster than you are live dubbed in the other official language no problem.
I first heard this in my family's living room on a shellac 78 rpm record when I was 8-10 years old. Both of my parents loved The Platters, so those records were part of the background sound in our house.
1958, one of the great ones! I was about 11, and this was on the radio. There are many other songs that are great like this and The Platters made other great songs. Yes, I'm the Great Pretender, is one of them., My Prayer, Twilight Timed, Only You, and a Million to one are some of my favs from them.
Tony Williams, In my humble opinion, had one of the top 5 Voices of All-Times !!!!! He made you feel his songs Literally with VIBRATO. Also, One of the 5 Best Songs EVER written !!!!!
My dad loved this song and had a Platters album that i heard while i was in my formative years and it has always stuck with me in the best of ways. Great song by a great group.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE The Platters! I listened to them when I was a little girl, loved them then, and still do! That's funny you called yourself "colored". I grew up in Atlanta in the 50 & 60s, not far from MLK Jr. It was a mixed neighborhood, and the term "colored" was used all the time. As a little girl I said I was "colored" because I had pink skin and blue eyes, and those are colors.
No other R&B vocal group had a lead singer like this...not back then and not now. Most of us know his name nowadays, Tony Williams, but we didn't know it when we first heard his voice. It was just "the Platters." And we also didn't know that the music would someday change and singers like him would disappear.
+Kathleen Diaz No autotune, just technical ability. Romantic lyrics, not misogynistic ones. These songs of yesteryear will never be matched unless the industry has a big change. I would have loved to have grown up with that generation's music
Great song!!... I remember my Mother always played this song and sang along to it when I was just a little kid. I really enjoyed this song. Brought back a lot of memories of my Mother who has passed away.
Twilight Time Only You Great Pretender The Platters are a GREAT group! My mom used to blast the Platters and her 50's music while cleaning our apartment! They became my favorite group from that era! Yes..even better than Elvis! Their voices are so natural..no frills..no auto tune. Now that's music!! Thank you for sharing! God Bless✌❤🎶😁
Awwwwww! Preteen and teen yrs! Sock hop dances! Sweet memories! My hubby and I saw them yrs. later and they still were fabulous! The lady singer looked like an angel!!!!❤️🎶
I am 80 years old, grew up in the 50s and early 60s, My friends and I used to get out in my Buddy Dennis's 1952 Studebaker at night, and listen to the radio play the Platters, Skyliners, Coasters and other Greats, I still love those groups and their music will always be in my soul!
This was a monster group -- no 2nd rate singers -- Rock & Roll Hall of Famers -- 40 charting Billboard Hot 100 singles -- 1955 - 1967 -- with 4 number-one hits. The most well-known lead singer was New Jersey's own Tony Williams. "The Great Pretender," spent 11 weeks at #1. They share space alongside the legendary Ink Spots & The Drifters as a great vocal group and a class act. Timeless stuff.
I believe this came out in 1958. It’s my favorite of the Platters. The first time I heard this, I literally had tears in my eyes. They definitely don’t make music like this anymore. I was raised by my Grandmother she listened to oldies almost every weekend, so when it comes to this genre, I’m all over it.
Listen to your elders! We lived through the golden era of rock, soul, R&B, do wop, beach music, British invasion, etc., etc., etc. Music was happier then...nobody was angry on AM radio!
Great Gr8t movie “Always” should be a super classic... one of my fav movies We saw them in Branson Missouri about 12 years ago. The lead singer had a wad of duct tape on the floor to help him map out stage... seemed to be vision impaired. It was a super show.
It took me years to understand the simple meaning of that song that when your heart's on fire Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in other words you're so in love that you don't see things the way they really are sometimes
I'm from Canada, and I went to go on this reaction and I was on your live show but somebody named Susie you were talking about and the video froze. I was saying how blessed I was to be able to see and hear the last remaining singer from The Platters his name is Johnny he would come from Washington state with this woman Marilyn and he would sing in the legion on karaoke night I even videotaped it it was awesome
WOW! What a fantastic trip down memory lane. Little girl (guess who😊) sitting in her chair at the kitchen table while Mom, Dad, Uncle Jack and Aunt Katie were playing dominoes. Big radio playing this as Dad crooned along. What a happy memory you dredged up! Thank you, Shug💋as always...with love from Pam & LoLa❤️🐾❤️
For me this song was immortalised in George Lucas' movie 'American Graffiti' (1973). It was a hit for the Platters in 1958, but is actually a much older standard written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical 'Roberta' which might account for its "whiteness". That said, Nat 'King' Cole and Sarah Vaughan also recorded versions of 'Smoke...'. Love it. It's especially poignant now with the passing of Cindy Williams who dances to this with her boyfriend Steve (Ron Howard) in 'Graffiti'.
I love the vocals, instrumentation and everything else about the song. It was recorded a few years before I came along, but it's one of the best ever made.
😥😥😥- My father's favorite song, and I think of him fondly when I hear it. He and I really appreciate or appreciated the beautiful music and lyrics and the lead singers voice ( Tony Williams) I think was magic. Thank you for this one.
Love the Planters! I’m 66 years old. My daughter tried to get me to go on A Musical TV show because I know music from 1030 and before and I graduated high school early in December of 1973 (I’m a 1974 graduate) I listened to the most excellent music from birth till today. I love great music, but I’ve been told I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket! I would love to be musical!
THE great, Great, Tony Williams , Zola Taylor, Herb Reed, & the rest of the legendary Platters.---------1958, I was 11 y/o, in 6th grade. -------RIP, to The Platters, Forever.
I just lost my mom in January. She was 76. My mom loved the platters. This song came out in the 60s. You should listen to all their songs. BeUtiful. Made me cry. Missing my mama.
Majestic is what these voices are. Nothing less. Listened to this a million times since I was a kid and these voices (all of 'em, listen to the back) knock you to your knees with their beautiful majesty. Yep, Majestey
Just one of many great songs the Platters performed. One of the greats of the 1950's and the doo wop era. Hope to hear your reactions to many more songs of the 50's. I heard this at dances in high school and on the Top 40 played every hour on the radio. That was the music I grew with. Cathy Farrell
I was with The Platters in the early '80s on guitar and bass. At that time, Monroe Powell was the lead singer. He was an original Ink Spot. The original singer in this record was Tony Williams. He was replaced by Sonny Turner in the early '60s and sang on hits like "With This Ring"... I enjoyed working with them...
I saw The Platters live sometime around 1959 in Rochester NY; they were the headliners in one of those Cavalcade of Stars type of touring shows where ten or more currently popular (then) acts would each do a song or two, but the Headliner act came last and did more songs than that. The Platters were very elegant people. They are the only Black group I ever recall being a Headliner. But I got to see many amazing Black performers billed below the headliner in those shows: Bo Diddley, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Isley Bros, Little Eva and the wonderful Coasters whom I loved. I was a big fan of the Platters' music. Great Pretender was one of those songs in my life that stopped me in my tracks and I wanted to hear over and over. I haven't listened to them in years, until I heard this clip - they surely do hold up, unlike a great many 50s groups. Another quite different group I find to have held up well is The Fleetwoods (NOT to be confused with Fleetwood Mac).
My parents had this album and it was my favorite song as a little boy maybe 5 or 6 years old. My other favorite song was Puff the magic dragon and both are still very high on my list to this day at the age of 60! The Platters had some other hits as well I remember another song on the same lp was Twilight Time it was one of my Dads favorites You should react to Mack the Knife
The Platters were probably the first Black group to go mainstream. Prior to the Platters, Black music was called "Race Music". People today don't know what it was like back then. If there was notice that a Black performer was to be on tv, parents would send their kids out to notify the neighbors because it was a rare event. In the 50's radio was more or less segregated until Rock n Roll came out. (damn...I even remember life before rock n roll!). Although I wasn't a big Platters fan, they were historically significant in crossing over to the mainstream and helping change the "hearts and minds" of Americans as the Civil Rights Movement was building. I think when listening to music it helps to understand the social context associated with it.
I was fortunate to grow up with the music of the 50's , 60's 70's. Can listen to it all day. There are other great singers and groups from this time. It you liked this song you will enjoy the others like the Temptations. Some you have reacted to such as the Rightous Bros., Elvis , Charley Pride.
I won this album off of American Bandstand in 1958 or'59 Dick Clark drew my name from a round cage. Smoke Gets In You're Eyes is one of my favorite songs. I'm 69 years old now and I am a singer and sing this song in some of my show's. I love the Platters!!! Keep up the good work, I love your reactions Ty!!!!
this was ballroom time, slow dancing, I danced so many times to that. we loved it back in the 50's and 60's. You are correct we thought a lot of the black singers were white, they just played it on the radio, a lot of people didn't have the money to buy the records or albums!! Jacksonville, Fl. born here and will die here!!!!!!!
Ty, to answer your question, the song was written by famed song writer Jerome Kern in 1933 for a Broadway show. It was a big band staple for a decade. THIS particular recording by The Platters was recorded in November, 1958, and reached the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 chart early in 1959, peaking at #1.
LMAO! Here I thought I was going to get you with the white guy comment! I didn't know that the Platters were black until I seen them live at the Fiesta Dinner Theater in San Diego back in high school. I used to sing some of their songs to my girlfriend at the time, though not nearly as well. Guys, girls still love romance. Sing one of the Platters songs to her and I just about guarantee it. If you think, gee, that's old stuff, keep in mind that I was high school class of '81. These guys came out in the fifties. I loved to see you reacting to the Platters. I hope you do more. They were an amazing vocal group.
The lead singer of the Platters "TONY WILLIAMS" was my brother. Thank you, for loving it. I'll share this on social media with the rest of the family. Carolyn Williams-Edison
Yeslord
One of the best ever Tony Williams!
RIP Tony Williams. One of the greatest voices ever! What a talent!
He was irreplaceable, was always moved by his singing.
His voice was one of the best in recording history. Simply haunting and beautiful..
Your comment to as what you are. You are a patriotic American and should be respected as such. So am I. The color of one's skin is immaterial.
Thanks for being here and standing up for all we believe in.
Came out 1959 during my time. I was 9 yrs old . Fell in love with this beautiful love song. The greatest of all times by the Platters !!!!
Ty your honest sense of humor is solid gold and I would be privileged to know you .
Tony Williams voice was on of the best voices ever. The Platters a great group.
Classic. The Platters. One of the best groups of their era. This song came out in 1958 when I was seven years old and I heard it played countless times for the next 20 years. Classic.
This song came out in 1959, five years before I was born. Growing up in the early '70s, my brother and I used to play my mom's 45s from her teen years on our record player. Before I knew who the Beatles, the Who, the Stones, etc. were, I was wearing out old records of The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Elvis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. To this day, I still get chills when Tony Williams crushes the end of this song.
The Platters were amazing in their time. My music teacher played their music often to show how to enunciate well when singing.
No amount of auto tune can touch this stuff! :)
Agree Laura back in the day it was pure raw talent
Great Great! Group of the 50's & 60's. Other great songs: OnlyYou. Twilight Time, The Great Pretender, The Magic Touch.One of many groups of the best eras of music the fabulous 50' & 60" s .
Yes, and add : My Prayer; Remember When and Harbor Lights.
This was the music I grew up with. Enjoy all their music to this day. Wish we could hear it more often.
Class and talent
Michael Gerena I Was a teenager, early 60's. A great song to slow dance to!
I love The Platters also been jammimg to the Everly Brothers alot and The Drifters
Tony Williams lead vocals are amazing. The Flamingos “I only have Eyes for you” is also great
Tony Williams, absolutely amazing voice! As a matter of fact, all Group members had great voices! The 1950s paved the way for all the great Soul, Rock n Roll and other Music Genres which were relatively new back then.
This brings tears to my eyes. Such amazing vocal performance long before auto-tune. It came out before I was born.
My parents always played “The Platters” Sundays after church on Sunday while making breakfast. It was the greatest hits 8-track and every time I hear this song it takes me back. Too this sound I can still smell the bacon, sausage, and eggs.
My very favorite Platters song. Glad to have lived when as a teen this was popular! Still love it!
Mr. Tai Smith, the Renaissance man, I first heard this song as a grade schooler in the late nineteen fifties. Smoke gets in your eyes is a wonderful love song, written by Lonnie Johnson in 1946. The Platter’s lead singer had a serious set of pipes on him, and his interpretations dripped with emotion. They were wildly popular among all the people of our country
and the rest of the world as well.
I love these old recordings of talented people. Wonderful music.
Wow this song was so beautiful that it made me cry I love the platters I love twilight Time as well thank you so much for your reaction👍
We have such beautiful music back in the day. Love, Love, Love The Platters.
One of the most beautiful songs ever! I was about 10 when this came out, but I always loved the Platters and their lyrical songs and unforgettable harmony.
Beautiful. They sang Harbor Lights that was Awesome also. Loved their voices.
I remember my parents playing the Platter's albums when I was a small child... beautiful voices ..... easy on the ears.
Me too. We must be around the same age. They just don’t make them like this anymore.
Great group from the 1950s. They were just wonderful. This song is a benchmark song from that era. Thanks MRM.
The Platters was my mom's favorite group. Thank you for reacting to a great "oldie but goodie!"
Omy one of the classic Gold sounds of the 50s... there’s been many singers recording this over the years but no one can do it like the Platters! 💕
Great song. My favorite Platters song is The Great Pretender.
YES!!!
Sublime. Those voices are something else. Crying in the Chapel, The Great Pretender, Only You, etc, etc - just astonishingly good stuff. He's Mine - a rare one with Zola's "girl voice" as lead vocal is dead cool!
I am an old man now. I still recall my son, as a young man into Hank jr. etc. I gave him a c.d. of the Platters. Told him I thought they were the greatest group of all times. He was knocked out by their talent. Lead singer could have sang any style he chose.
The guy behind the lady is lead singer Tony Williams. Great voice.😍🎤😍 late 50's.
no lead singer was HERB REED.
@@DoctorChange106 Herb Reed sang background, Tony Williams sang lead on all The Platters songs from 1953 to 1960.
@@bootwhore you are right Tony Williams is the guy, sorry.
No, Tony Williams (My Grandfather) was the lead singer.
@@Awf.lately What a voice! I knew a singer up in Edmonton, Alberta, who had been in one of the iterations of the Platters - handsome, suave, West Indian guy, and a real crooner. Kinda looked a bit like an older version of Tony Williams in that photo. I can't remember this guy's name .....
Love this song. Platters were one of my brother's favorite groups.
I'm in my seventies and I want to say "thank you" for playing and remembering when America wrote , played and sang real music.
Brings back hundreds of memories.
Love seeing a first-time reaction to this angelic music. This is my parents' music and I grew up listening to it with them on vinyl. I still get chills.
In 1975, I was in the US Air Force stationed in Bangkok, Thailand and I was lucky to get to see this awesome group at our NCO Club ... $5/ea! Man, what a memory! This music is timeless.
that was 20 years after the song was made.
Tony Williams' voice always gives me the chills in this song. Growing up in the '70s, I used to listen to my mom's 45s from when she was a girl in the '50s. The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. were familiar to me long before the music of the day.
First time I heard this song was in the early 90’s. I was watching a movie called “Always”. The movie is good. The song is beautiful
Such a powerful voice and harmony is perfect the Platters had such classic music that last till the end of time.
My parents listened to this in high school. Can you imagine? I would turn the clock back in a heartbeat.
This is one of my favorites by The Platters. It's so beautiful! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Ty, you're right about how the artist sounds and he does sound white. I've known of white blues singers who sound black. Music crosses all cultural boundaries. The song speaks about a person who for the first time sheds tears over a lost love. He or she never thought it could happen and may feel this is a first love. It's frustrating and painful to love someone you can't be with physically.
I love music for the memories it can tag in your mind, so that when you hear it you're just transported back to that moment.
With the Platters, their voice was their instrument. During that era black singers were the best harmonizers. The Great Pretender.
You don't have to slow down your talking - up north people who speak faster than you are live dubbed in the other official language no problem.
I just hear slower then I used to!
I first heard this in my family's living room on a shellac 78 rpm record when I was 8-10 years old. Both of my parents loved The Platters, so those records were part of the background sound in our house.
1958, one of the great ones! I was about 11, and this was on the radio. There are many other songs that are great like this and The Platters made other great songs. Yes, I'm the Great Pretender, is one of them., My Prayer, Twilight Timed, Only You, and a Million to one are some of my favs from them.
Tony Williams, In my humble opinion, had one of the top 5 Voices of All-Times !!!!! He made you feel his songs Literally with VIBRATO. Also, One of the 5 Best Songs EVER written !!!!!
My dad loved this song and had a Platters album that i heard while i was in my formative years and it has always stuck with me in the best of ways. Great song by a great group.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE The Platters! I listened to them when I was a little girl, loved them then, and still do! That's funny you called yourself "colored". I grew up in Atlanta in the 50 & 60s, not far from MLK Jr. It was a mixed neighborhood, and the term "colored" was used all the time. As a little girl I said I was "colored" because I had pink skin and blue eyes, and those are colors.
No other R&B vocal group had a lead singer like this...not back then and not now. Most of us know his name nowadays, Tony Williams, but we didn't know it when we first heard his voice. It was just "the Platters." And we also didn't know that the music would someday change and singers like him would disappear.
That recording is definitely a gem The platters were smooth! Everything they recorded was great.
Great song, perfection! Before my day, but the song has always resonated with me; always a few tears.
One of the very best vocal groups of all time. From a time era when singers actually could sing for real.
I've always thought this is one of the most beautiful love songs ever. Timeless and simple
+Kathleen Diaz No autotune, just technical ability. Romantic lyrics, not misogynistic ones. These songs of yesteryear will never be matched unless the industry has a big change.
I would have loved to have grown up with that generation's music
@@callumcowan7047 I fortunately grew up in one of the most fantastic era of music.Besides Elvis there were many great singers and groups.😇
Great song!!... I remember my Mother always played this song and sang along to it when I was just a little kid. I really enjoyed this song. Brought back a lot of memories of my Mother who has passed away.
A great song in the hands of a great group = real artistry
One of my favorites from my childhood. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Stormy Weather were my grandmother's favorites.
Twilight Time
Only You
Great Pretender
The Platters are a GREAT group! My mom used to blast the Platters and her 50's music while cleaning our apartment! They became my favorite group from that era! Yes..even better than Elvis!
Their voices are so natural..no frills..no auto tune. Now that's music!!
Thank you for sharing!
God Bless✌❤🎶😁
Would you play Mel Carters “Hold me Kiss me Thrill me. It’s such a Beautiful song
I love this song and original video. It takes me back.
Great song for sure
Just classic, what a voice, smooth as honey
Awwwwww! Preteen and teen yrs! Sock hop dances! Sweet memories! My hubby and I saw them yrs. later and they still were fabulous! The lady singer looked like an angel!!!!❤️🎶
I am 80 years old, grew up in the 50s and early 60s, My friends and I used to get out in my Buddy Dennis's 1952 Studebaker at night, and listen to the radio play the Platters, Skyliners, Coasters and other Greats, I still love those groups and their music will always be in my soul!
This was a monster group -- no 2nd rate singers -- Rock & Roll Hall of Famers -- 40 charting Billboard Hot 100 singles -- 1955 - 1967 -- with 4 number-one hits. The most well-known lead singer was New Jersey's own Tony Williams. "The Great Pretender," spent 11 weeks at #1. They share space alongside the legendary Ink Spots & The Drifters as a great vocal group and a class act. Timeless stuff.
I believe this came out in 1958. It’s my favorite of the Platters. The first time I heard this, I literally had tears in my eyes. They definitely don’t make music like this anymore. I was raised by my Grandmother she listened to oldies almost every weekend, so when it comes to this genre, I’m all over it.
Listen to your elders! We lived through the golden era of rock, soul, R&B, do wop, beach music, British invasion, etc., etc., etc. Music was happier then...nobody was angry on AM radio!
This is such a beautiful song, I have loved this since I first heard this in a movie starring Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss “Always”.
I LOVE that movie! Did u know it's a remake of an older Spencer Tracy film?
Great Gr8t movie “Always” should be a super classic... one of my fav movies
We saw them in Branson Missouri about 12 years ago. The lead singer had a wad of duct tape on the floor to help him map out stage... seemed to be vision impaired. It was a super show.
Its the first movie I cried in! I was just a 12 or 13 year old!
Who could not ❤️ this song by the platters and how pure is his voice 😲..now for me nothing can beat this era or 60s,Motown,soul classics 😁😘
Love this song and The Platters!
In those days when a man choked up (cried) he would say I just got some smoke in my eyes. (when a lot of people were still smoking)
nailed it!
It took me years to understand the simple meaning of that song that when your heart's on fire Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in other words you're so in love that you don't see things the way they really are sometimes
I'm from Canada, and I went to go on this reaction and I was on your live show but somebody named Susie you were talking about and the video froze. I was saying how blessed I was to be able to see and hear the last remaining singer from The Platters his name is Johnny he would come from Washington state with this woman Marilyn and he would sing in the legion on karaoke night I even videotaped it it was awesome
WOW! What a fantastic trip down memory lane. Little girl (guess who😊) sitting in her chair at the kitchen table while Mom, Dad, Uncle Jack and Aunt Katie were playing dominoes. Big radio playing this as Dad crooned along. What a happy memory you dredged up! Thank you, Shug💋as always...with love from Pam & LoLa❤️🐾❤️
Tony Williams voice is one of the smoothest ever. He is effortlessly smooth through the highs and lows of every song he sings.
For me this song was immortalised in George Lucas' movie 'American Graffiti' (1973). It was a hit for the Platters in 1958, but is actually a much older standard written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical 'Roberta' which might account for its "whiteness". That said, Nat 'King' Cole and Sarah Vaughan also recorded versions of 'Smoke...'. Love it. It's especially poignant now with the passing of Cindy Williams who dances to this with her boyfriend Steve (Ron Howard) in 'Graffiti'.
the Platters
I love the vocals, instrumentation and everything else about the song. It was recorded a few years before I came along, but it's one of the best ever made.
You’ve got to listen to only you (and you alone). That’s one of their best by far!
The Platters are my all time favorite Doo Wop group. I love their music! Favorites are My Prayer, Twilight Time, and The Great Pretender.
I’m old ,and it was an oldie when I was a kid . Great songs are timeless. You made me laugh with you comments after about the singers race.
One of my favorite songs 💛
I played this song at my wedding - love this!!!
😥😥😥- My father's favorite song, and I think of him fondly when I hear it. He and I really appreciate or appreciated the beautiful music and lyrics and the lead singers voice ( Tony Williams) I think was magic. Thank you for this one.
Love the Planters! I’m 66 years old. My daughter tried to get me to go on A Musical TV show because I know music from 1030 and before and I graduated high school early in December of 1973 (I’m a 1974 graduate) I listened to the most excellent music from birth till today. I love great music, but I’ve been told I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket! I would love to be musical!
I love this song but I love watching your face when you listen to these old songs. You are so sweet. :)
THE great, Great, Tony Williams , Zola Taylor, Herb Reed, & the rest of the legendary Platters.---------1958, I was 11 y/o, in 6th grade. -------RIP, to The Platters, Forever.
I just lost my mom in January. She was 76. My mom loved the platters. This song came out in the 60s. You should listen to all their songs. BeUtiful. Made me cry. Missing my mama.
Majestic is what these voices are. Nothing less. Listened to this a million times since I was a kid and these voices (all of 'em, listen to the back) knock you to your knees with their beautiful majesty. Yep, Majestey
The lady in the group was once married to Frankie Lymon from the group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
Loved that song and my dancing partners, those were the days !!
One of the best groupps. Must listen to their other songs. Released in 1958. I was 11 yrs old.
Just one of many great songs the Platters performed. One of the greats of the 1950's and the doo wop era. Hope to hear your reactions to many more songs of the 50's. I heard this at dances in high school and on the Top 40 played every hour on the radio. That was the music I grew with. Cathy Farrell
You're gonna explode if you ever hear Brook Benton!
One of the smooooothest voices in history!
I recommend 'Rainy night in Georgia'!
My dad adored Brook benton x
Seems like it's rainin' all over the world
I was with The Platters in the early '80s on guitar and bass. At that time, Monroe Powell was the lead singer. He was an original Ink Spot.
The original singer in this record was Tony Williams. He was replaced by Sonny Turner in the early '60s and sang on hits like "With This Ring"...
I enjoyed working with them...
I saw The Platters live sometime around 1959 in Rochester NY; they were the headliners in one of those Cavalcade of Stars type of touring shows where ten or more currently popular (then) acts would each do a song or two, but the Headliner act came last and did more songs than that. The Platters were very elegant people. They are the only Black group I ever recall being a Headliner. But I got to see many amazing Black performers billed below the headliner in those shows: Bo Diddley, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Isley Bros, Little Eva and the wonderful Coasters whom I loved. I was a big fan of the Platters' music. Great Pretender was one of those songs in my life that stopped me in my tracks and I wanted to hear over and over. I haven't listened to them in years, until I heard this clip - they surely do hold up, unlike a great many 50s groups. Another quite different group I find to have held up well is The Fleetwoods (NOT to be confused with Fleetwood Mac).
My parents had this album and it was my favorite song as a little boy maybe 5 or 6 years old. My other favorite song was Puff the magic dragon and both are still very high on my list to this day at the age of 60! The Platters had some other hits as well I remember another song on the same lp was Twilight Time it was one of my Dads favorites
You should react to Mack the Knife
Love songs of the 50s and early 60s are so romantic and beautiful. The talent!
The Platters were probably the first Black group to go mainstream. Prior to the Platters, Black music was called "Race Music".
People today don't know what it was like back then. If there was notice that a Black performer was to be on tv, parents would send their kids out to notify the neighbors because it was a rare event. In the 50's radio was more or less segregated until Rock n Roll came out. (damn...I even remember life before rock n roll!).
Although I wasn't a big Platters fan, they were historically significant in crossing over to the mainstream and helping change the "hearts and minds" of Americans as the Civil Rights Movement was building. I think when listening to music it helps to understand the social context associated with it.
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyed" dates all the way back to 1933.
I was fortunate to grow up with the music of the 50's , 60's 70's. Can listen to it all day. There are other great singers and groups from this time. It you liked this song you will enjoy the others like the Temptations. Some you have reacted to such as the Rightous Bros., Elvis , Charley Pride.
I won this album off of American Bandstand in 1958 or'59 Dick Clark drew my name from a round cage. Smoke Gets In You're Eyes is one of my favorite songs. I'm 69 years old now and I am a singer and sing this song in some of my show's. I love the Platters!!! Keep up the good work, I love your reactions Ty!!!!
this was ballroom time, slow dancing, I danced so many times to that. we loved it back in the 50's and 60's. You are correct we thought a lot of the black singers were white, they just played it on the radio, a lot of people didn't have the money to buy the records or albums!! Jacksonville, Fl. born here and will die here!!!!!!!
Back in the ' 60's Smoke gets in your Eyes was a song we ( Black kids) danced to !
Ty, to answer your question, the song was written by famed song writer Jerome Kern in 1933 for a Broadway show. It was a big band staple for a decade. THIS particular recording by The Platters was recorded in November, 1958, and reached the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 chart early in 1959, peaking at #1.
LMAO! Here I thought I was going to get you with the white guy comment! I didn't know that the Platters were black until I seen them live at the Fiesta Dinner Theater in San Diego back in high school. I used to sing some of their songs to my girlfriend at the time, though not nearly as well. Guys, girls still love romance. Sing one of the Platters songs to her and I just about guarantee it. If you think, gee, that's old stuff, keep in mind that I was high school class of '81. These guys came out in the fifties. I loved to see you reacting to the Platters. I hope you do more. They were an amazing vocal group.