Encore Of Golden Hits
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Album Summary
"Encore Of Golden Hits" came rolling out of Mercury Records in 1960, arriving like a warm Sunday evening broadcast straight into the living rooms of America. This was The Platters at the height of their powers — Tony Williams out front with that velvet tenor, the group harmonizing like they were born to do nothing else in this world. The album gathered some of the most beloved recordings the group had laid down during their extraordinary run in the late 1950s, presenting them as a unified collection for fans who had been there from the beginning and those just now catching up to what all the fuss was about. Produced during a golden chapter for the Mercury roster, this compilation stood as a testament to what The Platters had built — a sound so smooth, so emotionally true, that it crossed every boundary the music industry tried to put in front of it.
Reception
- The album connected deeply with The Platters' established fanbase, drawing on the goodwill and genuine love audiences had developed for the group throughout their dominant late-1950s commercial run.
- The collection's radio-friendly presentation of the group's signature orchestral ballad style made it a natural fit for the airwaves, where these songs had already proven their power to stop a listener cold.
Significance
- This album stands as one of the defining documents of The Platters' crossover mastery — a group that moved between R&B and mainstream pop not by compromising their sound, but by being so undeniably great that the walls simply came down around them.
- The record captures a pivotal cultural moment, the turn from the 1950s into the 1960s, when smooth vocal harmony groups like The Platters were laying the emotional foundation that soul and pop would build upon for decades to come.
- With tracks like 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,' 'Only You (And You Alone),' and 'The Great Pretender' living together on a single album, 'Encore Of Golden Hits' made the case in one sitting that The Platters belonged in any serious conversation about the greatest vocal groups America ever produced.
Samples
- Only You (And You Alone) — one of the most recognizable ballads in the Platters catalog, this track has been interpolated and referenced across R&B and pop productions over the decades, with its melody and emotional core proving irresistible to subsequent generations of artists.
- Smoke Gets In Your Eyes — a standard that crossed deep into pop consciousness through the Platters' recording, this version has carried a long legacy of reuse and interpolation in film, television, and recorded music.
- The Great Pretender — the group's landmark recording has been sampled and interpolated across multiple genres, reflecting its status as one of the signature vocal performances of the entire rock and roll era.
Tracklist
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A1 The Great Pretender 115
2:38
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A2 Twilight Time 115
2:47
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A3 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 171
2:40
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A4 (You've Got) The Magic Touch —
2:23
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A5 Enchanted —
2:50
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A6 One In A Million 121
2:51
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B1 My Prayer 71
2:45
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B2 Only You (And You Alone) —
2:33
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B3 Remember When 81
2:49
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B4 My Dream 96
2:36
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B5 Heaven On Earth 112
2:33
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B6 I'm Sorry 109
2:53
Artist Details
The Platters were one of the most silky-smooth vocal groups to ever grace this earth, born out of Los Angeles in the early 1950s under the guidance of manager Buck Ram, blending doo-wop and rhythm and blues into a lush, romantic sound that crossed racial lines at a time when that was no small thing. Their heavenly harmonies on classics like "Only You" and "The Great Pretender" made them one of the first Black acts to dominate the mainstream pop charts in the rock and roll era, proving that soul had no color barrier when the music was that pure. The Platters left fingerprints all over the American songbook and stand as true pioneers who helped open doors that too many folks take for granted today.
