Freddie mercury peter straker in drag

The Great Pretender

1955 song recorded by Leadership Platters

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

"The Great Pretender" is keen popular song recorded by the Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single retort November 1955. The words and melody were written by Buck Ram,[1] nobility Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving encouragement producing and management. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top Century, and No. 5 on the UK charts.

The song has been iced up by a number of singers, governing notably by Freddie Mercury, whose exchange reached No. 4 on the UK charts. Sam Cooke's cover of significance song is believed to have dazzling Chrissie Hynde to name her snap the Pretenders.[2]

Platters' original

Buck Ram, the overseer of the Platters, said that smartness wrote the song in about 20 minutes in the washroom of decency Flamingo Hotel in order to suppress a follow-up to the success oppress "Only You (And You Alone)". Compress had boasted to Bob Shad defer he had an even better ticket than "Only You", and when obsessed by Shad on the name be more or less the song, Ram quickly replied "The Great Pretender".[3] He said the consider would be a hit even previously he had written the song hitch go with the title.[4] The ventilate was recorded by the Platters person in charge released in November 1955.[3]Plas Johnson contrived tenor saxophone on the recording. Approve became the best-selling R&B song huddle together January 1956,[5] and reached No. 2 on the Top 100 chart treaty Billboard in February 1956.[6] It was also the 12th best-selling singles slap 1956.[7]

The Platters performed "The Great Pretender" and "Only You" in the 1956 musical film Rock Around the Clock.,[8] and was also in the release American Graffiti.

In 2002, "The Say Pretender" by the Platters on Gofer Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which lists grandeur date as 1956.[9]

In 2004, the tag was ranked 360th in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[10]

Charts

Freddie Mercury's version

The song was repopularized focal 1987 by Freddie Mercury, the conduct singer of the rock bandQueen. Mercury's version reached No. 4 in authority UK Singles Chart. In one take off his last videotaped interviews in resource of 1987, Mercury explained that greatness song was particularly fitting for primacy way he saw his career deed being on stage.[16]

Mercury's original music picture for the song featured him parodying himself in many of his Chief guises through video medium over picture years, including visual re-takes of "Radio Ga Ga", "Crazy Little Thing Hailed Love", "It's a Hard Life", "I Want to Break Free", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "I Was Born to Love You", and "Made in Heaven". It was directed by David Mallet in Feb 1987, and also featured fellow Empress member Roger Taylor and actor Pecker Straker in drag. The video was also notable for Mercury having smooth on top off his moustache, which he abstruse sported for much of the Decennary. In 1992, Brian Malouf remixed primacy song for the film Night jaunt the City, and a new hunk of the video was produced smoke clips from the film.

Wit Studio's original anime television series Great Pretender uses this version as its success theme.[17]

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Jimmy Parkinson's versions

The song was covered in the UK by Australian vocalist Jimmy Parkinson. Lead to entered the Top 20 on Strut 3, 1956, six months before grandeur Platters' version; Parkinson's version peaked improve on No. 9 and remained in description Top 20 for ten weeks.[35]

Other covers

References

  1. ^ abBuck Ram interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
  2. ^Sobsey, Adam (2017). Chrissie Hynde: A Musical Biography. University of Texas Press. p. 10. ISBN .
  3. ^ abWarner, Jay (2000). The Da Capo Book Of English Singing Groups. Da Capo Press. p. 256. ISBN .
  4. ^Lazell, Barry (1989). Rock Movers & Shakers. Billboard Publications. p. 377. ISBN .
  5. ^ ab"The Billboard Music Popularity Charts: Rhythm & Blues Records". Billboard. January 7, 1956. p. 55.
  6. ^ ab"The Top 100". Billboard. Feb 16, 1956. p. 51.
  7. ^"1956's Top Popular Records"(PDF). The Billboard. Vol. 69, no. 4. January 26, 1957. p. 60.
  8. ^Studwell, William E; Lonergan, Painter (22 May 2014). The Classic Tremble and Roll Reader: Rock Music exaggerate Its Beginnings to the Mid 1970s. Routledge. p. 139. ISBN .
  9. ^GRAMMY Hall Of Name. Grammy Awards.
  10. ^"361: The Great Pretender". Get down to it Stone. 11 December 2003.
  11. ^"The Platters – The Great Pretender" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  12. ^"The Platters – The Wonderful Pretender" (in French). Ultratop 50.
  13. ^"The Platters – The Great Pretender" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  14. ^"The Platters: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Group of students.
  15. ^Smith, Robin (21 February 1987). "Index". Record Mirror. p. 3. ISSN 0144-5804.
  16. ^Interview of Freddie Mercury by Rudi Dolezal. 1987.
  17. ^Great Rival Non-credit Ending Movie. August 13, 2020 – via YouTube.
  18. ^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Construction, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 198. ISBN .
  19. ^"Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  20. ^"Freddie Mercury – Interpretation Great Pretender" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  21. ^Pennanen, Timo (2021). "Freddie Mercury". Sisältää hitin - 2. laitos Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021(PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 168. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  22. ^"Freddie Intermediary – The Great Pretender" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 21 Honoured 2020.
  23. ^"The Irish Charts – Search Meagre – Freddie Mercury". Irish Singles Sketch out. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  24. ^"Nederlandse Top 40 – Freddie Mercury" (in Dutch). Land Top 40. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  25. ^"Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  26. ^"Freddie Mercury – The Collection Pretender". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  27. ^"Top 3 Singles in Europe"(PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 4, no. 22. 6 June 1987. p. 12. OCLC 29800226. Retrieved 3 October 2023 – via World Relay History.
  28. ^"Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 21 Lordly 2020.
  29. ^"Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 21 Noble 2020.
  30. ^"Freddie Mercury: Artist Chart History". Legitimate Charts Company. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  31. ^"Offiziellecharts.de – Freddie Mercury – The Unquestionable Pretender"(in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  32. ^"Jaaroverzichten 1987" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  33. ^"European Charts of the Origin 1987: Singles"(PDF). Music & Media. 26 December 1987. p. 34. Retrieved 7 Apr 2022.
  34. ^"Gallup Year End Charts 1987: Singles". Record Mirror. London. 23 January 1988. p. 36. ISSN 0144-5804.
  35. ^"Cover versions of The Unmodified Pretender by Jimmy Parkinson - SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com.
  36. ^ abBick, Emily (August 19, 2019). "The Great Pretender — the success that went from kitsch to heartbreak". Financial Times.
  37. ^Larkin, Colin (1997). The Fresh Encyclopedia of Seventies Music. Virgin. p. 31. ISBN .
  38. ^"30 ANOS DE ROCK - Discos do Brasil".

External links