Herb Reed

Singer and Kansas City (MO) native Herb Reed founded The Platters in Los Angeles in 1953. Then a quartet, the group won amateur talent shows and performed nights and weekends up and down the California coast while the members worked days at a car wash and at other odd jobs. Reed came up with the group's name, inspired by disc jockeys who called their records "platters". The group signed their first major recording contract in 1955. Reed sang bass on the group's four #1 hits, "The Great Pretender," "My Prayer," "Twilight Time" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". The Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. Their recordings are in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Reed credited his survival in the music industry to the poverty he experienced as a child in Kansas City. While other members of the group spent frivolously, he used his first big royalty check to buy a house. Reed also waged long legal battles with other artists who performed and recorded under the name The Platters. He finally won a court decision in Nevada that gave him rights to the name. Reed had homes in Atlanta and Miami but had called the Boston area home since the 1970s. He was the only member of the group to appear on all of their nearly 400 recordings. He continued touring, performing up to 200 shows per year, often performing with younger singers under the name Herb Reed and The Platters or Herb Reed's Platters.