The great pretender sam cooke biography

1955 song recorded by The Platters

For other uses, see The Great Pretender (disambiguation).

"The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by the Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single in November 1955.

The words and music were written by Buck Ram,^[1] the Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving into producing and management. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top 100, and No.

5 on the UK charts.

The great pretender sam cooke biography

The song has been covered by a number of singers, most notably by Freddie Mercury, whose version reached No. 4 on the UK charts. Sam Cooke's cover of the song is believed to have inspired Chrissie Hynde to name her band the Pretenders.^[2]

Platters' original

Buck Ram, the manager of the Platters, said that he wrote the song in about 20 minutes in the washroom of the Flamingo Hotel in order to have a follow-up to the success of "Only You (And You Alone)".

Ram had