Buck Ram(1907-1991)

Samuel "Buck" Ram was born in Chicago, Illinois, with music in his soul. His mother wanted him to be a lawyer so after graduating high school at 15, he attended the University of Illinois. He did pass the bar exam but never practiced law. Instead he gave his diploma to his mother and told her he was moving to New York to get into the music business. He studied music arranging with Joseph Schillinger where he met and became fast friends with Duke Ellington. The two hung out at the Apollo Theater where Ram saw Ella Fitzgerald on talent night and dragged Chick Webb to to her. Webb's reaction was, "Buck, she's fat." Ram replied, "But did you hear that voice." Fitzgerald sneaked into Webb's dressing room a few weeks later and soon began singing with his band and took over for him when he passed away. Ram, Webb and Fitzgerald wrote "Chew Chew Chew Your Bubble Gum" together.

Ram worked as a music arranger on Tin Pan Alley, and wrote and/or arranged for Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Cozy Cole, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman. He wrote scores for the Savoy and the Cotton Club, and riding high on success moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s to write for the movies. It was not his forte, and in 1950 he started Personality Productions, a talent management company that at first represented Country and Western performers including Texas Tiny, Jack Hawkins and Mary Rose Bruce. But he was looking for a group that could sing the songs he wrote. He'd heard Tony Williams sing and liked his voice. He represented Tony's sister Linda Hayes, and she asked Ram to audition Tony, who wanted a solo artist. Ram convinced him he needed to work with a group. Williams brought in three fellows he had worked with in a group calling themselves The Platters. At the same time, Ram's friend, Ralph Bass of Federal Records, asked Ram to coach a group he had. It was the same group Williams was working with. Ram signed them. It took a year and a half of coaching, teaching diction and writing the right songs to get The Platters their first paying job and then quickly to the top of the charts. While working with The Platters and other artists, Ram continued to write. His biggest hits for The Platters include "Only You," "The Great Pretender," "Twilight time," and "The Magic Touch." Other hits include "Come Prima (For the First time)" for Mario Lanza's last movie and recorded by a dozen artists, "Foot Stomping" with Aaron Collins recorded The Flares, "Judy's in Love" recorded by Ike Clanton, and "I Complained" recorded by Mahalia Jackson.

While few outside the music business know his name, he is one of BMI's top five songwriters in its first 50 years. The others were Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Jimmie Webb and Kris Kristofferson.