Dramatics - Ultimate Collection
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Music CD Cover
Artist: DramaticsEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-09-19
Music Label: Hip-O Records
Soundtracks:
- Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get
- Get up and Get Down
- In the Rain
- Hey You! Get off My Mountain
- Fell for You
- Me and Mrs. Jones
- Choosing up on You
- Door to Your Heart
- You're Fooling You
- Be My Girl
- (I'm Going by) The Stars in Your Eyes
- Finger Fever
- Shake It Well
- I Can't Get over You
- Stop Your Weeping
- I Just Wanna Dance With You
- Ocean of Thoughts and Dreams
- Welcome Back Home
- That's My Favorite Song
- You're the Best Thing in My Life
Free Music Notes for Ultimate Collection
Free Music Review: Not Quite Ultimate - But A Pretty Good Compilation Even So
Hit: 5 Stars
You're at a party and someone says "name me the greatest male vocal groups of the 1970s to come out of Detroit." The first responses will be predictable - The Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Spinners. I would wager that few would come up with The Dramatics, and yet, when you look at their record closely you will see that, from 1971 to 1989, they had 34 selections make the Billboard R&B charts, with 12 crossing over to the Pop Hot 100 [and two more which "bubbled under]."
After starting out in high school as The Dynamics, they became The Dramatics in 1965, undergoing several changes in personnel by the time they cut their first record for the tiny Wingate label, Inky Dinky Wang Dan Doo, which, predictably considering the small label curse, went nowhere on a national scale.
In 1967, now consisting of Ron Banks, Larry Demps, Elbert Wilkins, Willie Ford, and William Howard, the group scored their initial national hit for the equally-small Sport label when All Because Of You reached # 43 R&B b/w If You Haven't Got Love. In 1968, however, they flopped again with Toy Soldier b/w Hello Summer which was released by both Bell and Crackerjack.
In 1969 they joined the larger Stax/Volt operation where their first Volt release, Your Love Has Changed b/w Since I've Been Gone also failed. In fact, it wasn't until the summer of 1971 that they really hit it big with Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get [based upon a Flip Wilson TV schtick], which rose to # 3 R&B and # 9 on the Billboard Pop Hot 100.
After that, although their pop success was modest at best, they were rarely off the R&B charts for the next nine years. This collection, in addition to the hit just mentioned, offers up 20 of their biggest hits, five of the seven they had for Volt from 1971 to 1974, two of the five with the Cadet label in 1974/75 [two records there were double-sided hits], nine of the eleven registered for ABC Records from 1975 to 1978, and four of the six with MCA in 1979/80.
They also had one minor R&B hit hit with Mainstream in 1975 [No Rebate On Love - # 26], two for Capitol in 1982 [Live It Up - # 40, and Treat Me Right - # 62], one for Fantasy in 1986 [One Love Ago - # 61], one for Volt again in 1989 [a cover of the Simon & Garfunkel hit, Bridge Over Troubled Water, which reached # 93 R&B], and, finally, their last in 1996 for Hyped Int'l, Try Love Again [# 82].
In 1973 Howard [who would record solo as Wee Gee in 1978] and Wilkins had been replaced by L.J. Reynolds [formerly with Chocolate Syrup] and Lenny Mayes, and in 1981 Reynolds left to pursue a solo career, followed by Banks in 1983.
As mentioned above, their pop success was nowhere near as good as the other Detroit groups, with only two making the Top 40 - their first for Volt mentioned above and In The Rain, their best hit ever which reached # 1 R&B [and stayed there for four weeks] and # 5 Hot 100. After that their best pop entries were Hey You! Get Off My Mountain [# 5 R&B/# 43 Hot 100 in late spring 1973], Fell For You [# 12 R&B and # 45 Hot 100 in the fall of 1973], and their cover of the Billy Paul 1972 smash, Me And Mrs. Jones [# 4 R&B/# 47 Hot 100].
As for this being the "ultimate" Dramatics collection, it certainly comes close, although by omitting Toast To The Fool [# 18 R&B/# 67 Hot 100 in 1972] and the Mainstream entry mentioned earlier, they overlooked two that were bigger hits than [or just as good as] tracks 7, 8, 12, 16, and 19.
However, that's a minor quibble. This is ultimate enough.
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