Buck

While living in New York in his early twenties, Ram hung out at the Apollo Theatre. In 1951 he was
managing several C&W and R&B groups in Los Angeles and needed a new challenge. He had an idea.
He couldn't sing. When he tried, he sounded like a frog. He was only an average piano and saxophone
player, but lyrics and melodies flowed easily from his pen. He would put a group together to sing the
songs he wrote and arranged. That idea would give rise to what would become the #1 group of an
era - The Platters. And later, as imposter groups began to spring up around the world, the group
would become known as The Buck Ram Platters.

Ram only needed two things to get his plan off the ground - a
group and someone to help him with the business end of things..
One evening Jean Bennett stumbled across his his office quite by
accident. She was looking for an agent to represent her as a
singer. She had gone to the wrong office, and the receptionist
there suggest she try the man in the back office. With that
meeting Bennett's singing career fell by the way, and Ram had
the person to help with the business. That day two-thirds of the
team that would take The Platters to the top of the charts was in
place, but it would take a year before he found his group.
Ram wanted the perfect voice to sing his songs. The evening
Tony Williams auditioned for him, he found it, but Williams
wanted to be a solo performer. Ram convinced him that the
trend was groups, and Williams brought Alex Hodge, David
Lynch and Herb Reed to meet him.

The young men had been part of a group called The Platters. They would keep the name. Within
weeks Ram signed them to a management contract, and they went to work. It would take a year
and a half before success would come their way, and Ram would make personnel changes before
that success. Alex Hodge was replaced by Paul Robi, making Hodge the "Pete Best" of The Platters
. Ram chose pixie-like Zola Taylor of Shirley Gunter's Queens to become the "dish.".
Ram's songs, arrangements, production talents and business skills drove The Platters upward.
Bennett's Public Relations skills got the group jobs and kept them in the news. Williams' voice
caught the ear and hearts.of the audience.
Ram was always a songwriter first, but his business skills were responsible for The Platters'
success. He broke down racial barriers in music when he refused to have "Only You" released on
Mercury's purple (race music) label paving the way for future black producers to make their mark.
He is one of the top 5 songwriter's of BMI's first 50 years. His compositions "Only You" and
"Twilight Time" are in the top 25 songs for ariplay. He is recognized around the world for his
music and was responsible for more than 100,000,000 in record sales. His songs have thrilled 7
decades of music lovers, and the top entertainers of each decade have recorded his songs. He wrote
and recorded albums in Mexico and Japan. He was presented to Queen Elizabeth and a guest of
President Pomideaux, and his songs took The Platters from obscurity to the top of the charts, to
the Las Vegas Strip, to a permanent place in the hearts of not only the nation but the world and
made it the most imitated group of all time.

Following is a representative list of artists who have recorded Buck Ram's Songs:
Elvis Presley         Ella Fitzgerald    Little Richard     Mario Lanza        Ringo Starr        The Drifters
Freddie Mercury   Bing Crosby      Bobby Rydell      Abe Lymon         Ike Clanton        Count Basie
Reba McIntire      The Ink Spots    Woody Herman Polly Bergen       The Colts          Cab Calloway
Cozy Cole            Della Reese        Glenn Miller       Duke Ellington    The Righteous Brothers
Les Brown           Lawrence Welk Helen Morgan    The Penguins       Eddie Duchin      B.B. King
Mahalia Jackson   Dick Ebersol      Quintones          The Three Sons Tommy Dorsey   Artie Shaw
Dolly Parton
                                                           and
                                                   The Platters