Twilight Time by The Platters

Album: Flying Platters (1958)

Charted: 3 1

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Songfacts®:

"Twilight Time" is a song with lyrics by songwriter Buck Ram (the seminal force behind The Platters, who were originally named "The Buck Ram Platters") and music by The Three Suns (Morty Nevins, Al Nevins, and Artie Dunn). The Three Suns also originally recorded the song, which hit for them in 1944 at #8. Al Nevins would later go on to become a music producer together with Don Kirshner, forming Aldon music.
This song was mainly a hit the first time for its timing; in the thick of World War II, it became an anthem for soldiers returning home and starting the American Baby Boom. The Platters' version pushed on to even greater fame.
Your word for the day is "alliteration," which is when the first letter or syllable of the words in a phrase rhyme: "tea time," "Baby Boomer," "hip hop." "Twilight Time," besides having an alliterative title, also has several alliterative phrases in the lyrics: "colored curtains," "beneath the blue," "surrender the setting sun," among others.
Besides being The Platters' third #1 chart on the Billboard Hot 100, "Twilight Time" also hit #1 Best Seller, #1 Jockey, and #1 R&B for three weeks steady.
In Rich Podolsky's book Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear, we learn that this is the song that really opened the doors for Al Nevins and Don Kirshner. Kirshner would introduce Nevins as "my partner, he wrote 'Twilight Time' for The Platters." Suddenly their calls were magically getting returned.
Horror author Stephen King wrote a short story titled Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, a reference to this song's opening line. It appears as the final story in his short story collection Hearts in Atlantis, which was also the basis for a later film. King often weaves songs from this era into his fiction and seems to be a confirmed Brill Building/Doo-Wop/Rockabilly diehard. Music fans would love to be turned onto You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band, a short story from his collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, in which a hapless couple stumble upon a town called "Rock and Roll Heaven" populated and managed by dead rock stars.

Comments: 2

Moanin' Lisa from Chillicothe Mo.This is a very cool love song. What imagery! I learned about this huge hit thru my Dad's record collections from the 50s & 60s. He was a huge Platters & Elvis fan. About ten years ago, I saw one version of The Plattters on a PBS golden oldies concert with stars of the 50s & 60s. All of those Platters members were new. I don't know if they still perform. I seem to recall a big lawsuit over the rights to the name between a few other groups called The Platters too. Never heard of the results of the lawsuit. The original group was a real phenomenon in music.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 15th 1958, the Platters performed "Twilight Time" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
Two months earlier on April 1st it entered Billboard's Top 100 chart; and on April 15th it peaked at #1 (for 1 week)on Billboard's Best Sellers chart and spent 17 weeks on the Top 100...
And on April 22nd it reached #1 (for 2 weeks) on Billboard's R&B Best Selling Singles chart...
Between 1955 and 1967 the quartet had forty Top 100 records; seven made the Top 10 with four reaching #1; their other #1s were "The Great Pretender" for 2 weeks in 1956, "My Prayer" for 5 weeks in 1956, and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for 3 weeks in 1959...
Bass singer Herb Reed, the last surviving member of the group, passed away on June 4th, 2012 at the age of 83...
May all five R.I.P.

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