THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,139) The Dramatics — “Bingo”
“Whew”! Detroit’s Dramatics’ first A-side is a clear winner. “So glad I’ve got a winner Every day she loves me more and more”!
Richard writes of “Bingo”:
The song “Bingo” (b/w “Somewhere”) was issued twice on Wingate as by both the Dynamics and the Dramatics . . . . Due credit to the man Ron Banks himself and to Soulful Detroit for the background: Their first 45 [Dramatics] 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…”
https://www.soul-source.co.uk/forums/topic/84695-dramaticsdynamics-bingo/
Wikipedia tells the Dramatics’s tale:
The Dramatics . . . formed in Detroit . . . in 1964 [with] Ron Banks . . . Larry Demps, Rod Davis, Elbert Wilkins and Larry Reed[. They] were originally known as the Sensations, but changed their billing to the Dramatics in 1965. Their first release in 1965 entitled “Bingo” was recorded for Wingate, a division of Golden World Records in Detroit . . . . By 1967, Motown had absorbed the entire Golden World Records operation. The Dramatics then moved to another local Detroit label, Sport Records, where they garnered their first minor hit single, “All Because of You”. After becoming victims in the July 1967 Algiers Motel incident, including the police killing of the group’s valet Fred Temple, Reed and Davis eventually left the group, and were replaced by William “Wee Gee” Howard and Willie Ford . . . in 1969. The Dramatics signed with Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee in 1968, but moved on after one unsuccessful release . . . . [P]roducer Don Davis re-signed them to Volt, a Stax subsidiary, in 1971 after the group teamed up with Detroit writer-producer, Tony Hester. They broke through with their first release recorded with Hester, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get”, which Hester offered them after seeing the group perform in a Detroit nightclub. The song went into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 9 and climbing to number 3 in the R&B chart. . . . Their members at this time were Ron Banks, William “Wee Gee” Howard, Elbert Wilkins, Willie Ford, and Larry Demps. . . . This quintet are the five singers that the general public first got to know as The Dramatics. Shortly after the success of their first album, Howard and Wilkins left the group, and formed their own version of the Dramatics, recording the single “No Rebate On Love” on Mainstream Records. They were replaced by Larry James “L.J.” Reynolds and Leonard “Lenny” Mayes . . . . At the urging of Don Davis and Stax Records, the original group changed its billing to “Ron Banks and the Dramatics”. These two groups toured the concert circuit for four years before Banks’ group won a court battle, when they bought Howard and Wilkins out and gained full access to the name. Howard and Wilkins were forced to change the name of their group to “A Dramatic Experience”. Banks, Demps and Ford then had the trademark rights to the name, and then extended that right to Mayes and Reynolds. Through the 1970s, the group continued to have successful songs, including the Top 10 Pop, number 1 R&B hit, “In the Rain” in 1972, “Hey You! Get Off My Mountain” (number 5 R&B), “Me and Mrs Jones” (number 4 R&B), originally recorded by Billy Paul three years earlier, “Be My Girl” (number 3 R&B), and “Shake It Well” (number 4 R&B). “In the Rain” also reached number 5 on the Hot 100 pop chart and was their second million-seller. . . . The group moved from Volt in 1974 after three albums . . . . The group then signed for ABC in 1975 and transferred five years later to MCA, after ABC closed following its buy-out by MCA. Many of the Dramatics’ songs initially were written and produced by Tony Hester, including all the tracks on the first two Volt albums. Davis, then Banks and Reynolds took over production later in the 1970s and the early 1980s.
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