Pittsburgh has been a very special town for the Dramatics and they were happy to headline New Horizon Theater’s 18th annual special event to highlight its 24th production season.
“We haven’t played Pittsburgh in about six or seven years,” said Willie Ford, the last surviving original member of the Dramatics who has been a member of the group since 1969. “The last time we were in Pittsburgh, Ron (original member Ron Banks who passed away in 2010) was still alive”
Pittsburgh fans enjoyed a dramatic show. The group sang their old hits and some new stuff that they recorded.
New Horizon Theater puts on three main-stage productions throughout the season in an effort to bring high-quality African American themed entertainment to Pittsburgh. New Horizon’s first annual event took place in 1998 when the group brought in the late greats Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.
“We wanted to keep going on with what we do, which is put on plays, but we noticed that the first year we had music it worked well,” said Joyce Meggerson-Moore, New Horizon Theater chairperson. “The Dramatics fit into the kind of music our audience likes like the Chi-Lites, the Stylistics, Blue Magic and all of them. We were going to bring them in years ago but they were tied up and we went on to other groups but now we’ve come back to them. The group was really excited about coming here and we were glad they said yes about coming to town. We were able to see a nice polished performance and hear songs that we haven’t heard on stage in a long time. It was a great evening.”
A lot of the older groups have leaders and things that are passing on and we wanted to get them while they can still perform and are still going,” Moore said. “When they used to sing music you could understand the lyrics and they had a meaning to them. You could dance to the songs and the songs had meaning and you can understand what they are saying.”
New Horizon Theater’s audience is largely female and many of its patrons were around when the Dramatics and many of the balladeers of that time period were in their heyday. The company also brings young people to the event in an effort to teach youngsters about the history of the older musical groups.
The Dramatics were formed in 1964 in Detroit, recording as the Dynamics in 1965. The group’s first recording “Bingo,” was recorded for the Wingate record label, a division of Golden World Records in Detroit. Due to a misprint, Wingate changed the group’s name from the Dynamics to the Dramatics for the group’s second release in 1966 ”Inky, Dinky Wang Dang Doo.”
By 1967 Golden World Records had been absorbed by Motown and the group moved to Sport Records and had their first minor hit “All Because of You. In 1971 the group signed with Volt Records and scored its first major hit with “Whatcha See is Whatcha Get,” which received gold disc status in December of that year. Members of the group at that time were Banks, William “Wee Gee” Howard (who died of a heart attack at age 39 in 2000), Elbert Wilkins (who died of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 45), Ford, Larry Demps and Keyboardist James Mack Brown who died in 2008 at the age of 58.
After the success of their first album, Howard and Wilkins left the Dramatics and formed their own version of the group releasing the single, “No Rebate on Love” on Mainstream Records. They were replaced by Larry James “L.J.” Reynolds and Leonard “Lenny” Mayes (who died of lung cancer on November 8, 2004, at the age of 53).
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, giving them full access to the name. Through the 1970s, the group continued to have successful songs, including the Top 10 Pop, #1 R&B hit, “In the Rain” in 1972, “Hey You! Get Off My Mountain” (#5 R&B), “Me and Mrs Jones” (#4 R&B), originally recorded by Billy Paul three years earlier, “Be My Girl” (#3 R&B), and “Shake It Well” (#4 R&B). “In the Rain” also reached #5 on the Hot 100 pop chart and was their second million-seller.
The group recorded for Don Davis’ Groovesville and later Great Lakes music production companies during the 1970s, although the recordings appeared on several labels. The group moved from Volt in 1974 after three albums, releasing one releasing one album on Chess Records’ subsidiary, Cadet sharing tracks with the Dells, who were also being produced by Davis at the time. 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 In 1982, the group moved to Capitol Records and made their first album without Don Davis, Banks acting as producer. Only Banks, Ford and Mayes remained in the group. L.J. Reynolds left to go solo in 1981 and Larry Demps decided to go into teaching and spend more time with his family, after having joined the group’s original line-up in 1964 with Banks. When Ron Banks also decided to try a solo career, the group disbanded for a few years, but re-formed in the mid-1980s, with Howard returning to join Reynolds, Mayes, Ford and Banks to record for Fantasy Records.
The Dramatics were officially inducted into the R&B Music Hall of Fame at Cleveland State University’s Waetejen Auditorium on Saturday August 17, 2013.
Current members of The Dramatics featuring Willie Ford are: Ford, Douglas Gaddy, Michael Brock and Ricky Littlejohn.
When asked what he contributed the Dramatics’ longevity to, Ford’s answer was simple:
“We have a love of the craft. We loved what we did and we love what we do. We were able to sustain the challenges of drugs and other Devil-sent things,” said Ford who has been with the group for 46 years and who enjoys spending time with friends and family—including 7 children and 17 granchildren—when he isn’t in the recording studio or on the road performing. “We kept perfecting things until we sounded like the record when we performed live. We like to give people a show and we make crowd participation a part of each show. We sing love songs—baby making music still lives on. We recently did a song with Snoop Dog (whose Mother is a big Dramatics fan and she was the catalyst for the pairing) so now we have a new fan base.
Ford’s advice for aspiring singer is also grounded in common sense.
“Put your heart and soul into your music. Make sure you love it enough to endure the hard times. The hardest part for us was staying together. I went to high school with Melvin Franklin of the Temptations and I used to follow the Temptations. Melvin gave me the greatest advice: ‘Never break up.’
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