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The Platters
The Platters became one of the most commercially successful vocal groups of the 1950s, and their 1955 hit "Only You (And You Alone)" helped establish doo-wop's crossover appeal into mainstream pop radio at a time when the genre had primarily circulated within Black American vocal group traditions. Their 1958 song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," originally a 1933 show tune, demonstrated the group's ability to reinterpret older popular standards through doo-wop's characteristic vocal harmony style, broadening the genre's material beyond newly written songs. Lead vocalist Tony Williams's distinctive tenor voice became the group's signature sound, and The Platters' combination of polished vocal harmony and their crossover pop success made them one of the first doo-wop groups to achieve sustained mainstream commercial dominance across a broad, racially mixed listening audience. The Platters' combination of genuine crossover commercial success and their sustained string of hit singles throughout the mid-to-late 1950s has made them one of the most commercially significant vocal groups of doo-wop's original commercial era.
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The Drifters
The Drifters, despite maintaining a consistent group name across decades, underwent numerous complete lineup changes throughout their history, with different singers rotating through the group under the same brand name managed by producer George Treadwell, an unusual business arrangement even by the music industry's standards. Their 1959 song "There Goes My Baby," featuring orchestral string arrangements unusual for a doo-wop-adjacent R&B recording at the time, helped pioneer a more musically ambitious production style that significantly influenced the subsequent development of soul music. The group's 1960 hit "Save the Last Dance for Me," written by Doc Pomus partly about his own experience watching his wife dance with others due to his own physical disability from polio, became one of the most enduringly popular songs from the doo-wop and early soul era. The Drifters' combination of their genre-expanding orchestral production innovations and their sustained commercial success across multiple different lineups has made them one of the most historically significant and musically influential vocal groups in the transition from doo-wop into soul music.
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