Customer Reviews

Ultimate Collection

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4 star:		(1)
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If you were like me and all you heard of The Dramatics was "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get," you have a real treat in store for yourself with this album. Yes, the phenomenal hit "Whatcha See..." leads off this CD of great tunes, but there's much more to this group than that hit. Actually, their biggest hit is the gritty ballad "In the Rain," and yes, it's on this CD, too.

Don't miss out on many, many of the other great tunes on this CD. The group possesses great talent, harmonization, and cohesiveness: practically all of them share leads throughout the CD.

Clearly it's one of the best CDs I've purchased in a long, long time. I'm trying to figure out why this group is so underrated, so left out when talking about legendary performers.

The Dramatics are clearly one of the greatest soul groups of all time. Get this CD to find out why!

The Dramatics are one of my favorite soul groups, they really can emaote much soul. My two personal favorite songs by them are "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" and "In The Rain". The other songs are very good, also. I must say that I wasn't overly impressed with their version of Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs. Jones", I think that song fits Billy Paul like a glove and no one else can do it justice. But, this is a great CD and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good 70's soul.

i always dug the Dramatics."Be my Girl" the great cut that Michael Henderson did for them is timeles. 'whatcha see,is whatcha get" is also a jam. dig there Harmony&soulful presentation."In the rain" which later Keith Sweat re-made is a timeless jam as well.

I really am glad that I bought this CD. I play it over and over again more than any other CD that I have. My favorite songs are Door to Your Heart, I Think I'm Falling, Me and Mrs. Jones, Hey You Get Off My Mountain, I Want To Go Outside In The Rain and I Can't Get Over You. I like all of the songs but these are my favorite ones. The background music is wonderful. The Dramatics voices are wonderful too. Those guys can really sing. A lot of recording artists today are not very good singers with a few exceptions. The falsetto voice is amazing and the voices compliment one another with perfect timing and pitch. I strongly recommend this CD.

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.

This is music for lovers of 70/80s soul music,the Dramatics have two lead vocalists who compliment each other,one a typical fallseto voice and the other in a more teddy P groove.
Very few fillers,each track has a real voice and real instruments backing.
Takes you back to when music actually ment something.

This is a classic especially Ocean of Thoughts and Dreams - when you hear "Destiny's Child with their Hey Girl - you start signing the "Dramatics immediately.

A SELECTION OF ENJOYABLE MUSIC. THE DRAMATICS IS DOING WHAT THEY DO BEST SWEET HARMONY IN MOTION.A JOB WELL DONE.

If you love the sound of the 70 and 80 YOU MUST GET THIS CD. Perfect quality, song selections also. Good price

People consider this old school but if you listen most all these songs have been remade or parts of them used in modern hip hop, rap, and R and B music. What is old is what the new takes from to make theres instead of creating there own like these Fabulous Dramatics do.