The Dramatics had
started out as the Sensations at Pershing High School.
One of their
earliest line-ups was Roderick Davis, Larry Reed, Larry
Demps, Elbert Wilkins and Ron Banks.
They were approached
as early as 1964 by JoAnne Bratton after an appearance at Mr. Kelley's
on Chene. She gave them an invitation to audition at Golden World the following weekend.
Their first 45 did
not appear on Wingate until August 1966 however. The song,
"Bingo" was also erroneously credited to the
Dynamics.
Heikki uncovered the
background in an interview with Ron Banks. "There was a
group already here called the Dynamics. When they
delivered the label copy and stuff to the record plant here
in Detroit, they just thought it was a misprint and went
ahead and put the Dynamics. So the first five hundred
of that box came with the name Dynamics. We were upset
about that. This was our first record..."
The follow-up was
released in December 1966 on
Wingate022. "Inky Dinky Wang Dang Do" has the
distinction of being the final release on the Wingate label.
Their next release,
"All Because of You", came out on the Sport label
and did well locally.
Under the management
of Don Davis, the Dramatics signed for Stax Records
subsidiary Volt, in Memphis in 1969.
After a couple of
lean years they hit the big time with Tony Hestor's
classic "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get" which peaked at
Pop#9, R&B#3.
There were several Holidays
groups in the record industry in the sixties and this is not
the Detroit group which featured the Holland Brothers and
recorded on Master. This
particular version featured at Golden World in 1966, and their Edwin Starr
led "I'll love you forever" scored highly. The flip side was an
excellent instrumental called "Makin' Up
Time". It
took another eight months to release a follow-up in "Watch Out
Girl". Perhaps this was due to Edwin's
complaints that his voice had been over-dubbed on the
previous release without consultation. "Watch
Out Girl" c/w "No Greater Love" was Golden
World's final release.
|