The lead singer of the Platters "TONY WILLIAMS" was my brother. Thank you, for loving it. I'll share this on social media with the rest of the family. Carolyn Williams-Edison

Tony Williams voice was on of the best voices ever. The Platters a great group.

Your comment to as what you are. You are a patriotic American and should be respected as such. So am I. The color of one's skin is immaterial. Thanks for being here and standing up for all we believe in.

No amount of auto tune can touch this stuff! :)

This song came out in 1959, five years before I was born. Growing up in the early '70s, my brother and I used to play my mom's 45s from her teen years on our record player. Before I knew who the Beatles, the Who, the Stones, etc. were, I was wearing out old records of The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Elvis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. To this day, I still get chills when Tony Williams crushes the end of this song.

The Platters were amazing in their time. My music teacher played their music often to show how to enunciate well when singing.

Tony Williams lead vocals are amazing. The Flamingos “I only have Eyes for you” is also great

Classic. The Platters. One of the best groups of their era. This song came out in 1958 when I was seven years old and I heard it played countless times for the next 20 years. Classic.

My parents always played “The Platters” Sundays after church on Sunday while making breakfast. It was the greatest hits 8-track and every time I hear this song it takes me back. Too this sound I can still smell the bacon, sausage, and eggs.

My very favorite Platters song. Glad to have lived when as a teen this was popular! Still love it!

This brings tears to my eyes. Such amazing vocal performance long before auto-tune. It came out before I was born.

Tony Williams, absolutely amazing voice! As a matter of fact, all Group members had great voices! The 1950s paved the way for all the great Soul, Rock n Roll and other Music Genres which were relatively new back then.

Great Great! Group of the 50's & 60's. Other great songs: OnlyYou. Twilight Time, The Great Pretender, The Magic Touch.One of many groups of the best eras of music the fabulous 50' & 60" s .

Love this song. Platters were one of my brother's favorite groups.

I love these old recordings of talented people. Wonderful music.

The Platters was my mom's favorite group. Thank you for reacting to a great "oldie but goodie!"

My parents listened to this in high school. Can you imagine? I would turn the clock back in a heartbeat.

Wow this song was so beautiful that it made me cry I love the platters I love twilight Time as well thank you so much for your reaction👍

Mr. Tai Smith, the Renaissance man, I first heard this song as a grade schooler in the late nineteen fifties. Smoke gets in your eyes is a wonderful love song, written by Lonnie Johnson in 1946. The Platter’s lead singer had a serious set of pipes on him, and his interpretations dripped with emotion. They were wildly popular among all the people of our country and the rest of the world as well.

I am an old man now. I still recall my son, as a young man into Hank jr. etc. I gave him a c.d. of the Platters. Told him I thought they were the greatest group of all times. He was knocked out by their talent. Lead singer could have sang any style he chose.

Great group from the 1950s. They were just wonderful. This song is a benchmark song from that era. Thanks MRM.

One of the most beautiful songs ever! I was about 10 when this came out, but I always loved the Platters and their lyrical songs and unforgettable harmony.

Beautiful. They sang Harbor Lights that was Awesome also. Loved their voices.

I'm in my seventies and I want to say "thank you" for playing and remembering when America wrote , played and sang real music. Brings back hundreds of memories.

Omy one of the classic Gold sounds of the 50s... there’s been many singers recording this over the years but no one can do it like the Platters! 💕

Great song. My favorite Platters song is The Great Pretender.

Such a powerful voice and harmony is perfect the Platters had such classic music that last till the end of time.

We have such beautiful music back in the day. Love, Love, Love The Platters.

Just classic, what a voice, smooth as honey

A great song in the hands of a great group = real artistry

In 1975, I was in the US Air Force stationed in Bangkok, Thailand and I was lucky to get to see this awesome group at our NCO Club ... $5/ea! Man, what a memory! This music is timeless.

The guy behind the lady is lead singer Tony Williams. Great voice.😍🎤😍 late 50's.

I remember my parents playing the Platter's albums when I was a small child... beautiful voices ..... easy on the ears.

Sublime. Those voices are something else. Crying in the Chapel, The Great Pretender, Only You, etc, etc - just astonishingly good stuff. He's Mine - a rare one with Zola's "girl voice" as lead vocal is dead cool!

Tony Williams' voice always gives me the chills in this song. Growing up in the '70s, I used to listen to my mom's 45s from when she was a girl in the '50s. The Platters, The Crewcuts, The Diamonds, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. were familiar to me long before the music of the day.

Love this song and The Platters!

First time I heard this song was in the early 90’s. I was watching a movie called “Always”. The movie is good. The song is beautiful

This is one of my favorites by The Platters. It's so beautiful! Glad you enjoyed it :)

I've always thought this is one of the most beautiful love songs ever. Timeless and simple

1958, one of the great ones! I was about 11, and this was on the radio. There are many other songs that are great like this and The Platters made other great songs. Yes, I'm the Great Pretender, is one of them., My Prayer, Twilight Timed, Only You, and a Million to one are some of my favs from them.

I love music for the memories it can tag in your mind, so that when you hear it you're just transported back to that moment.

My dad loved this song and had a Platters album that i heard while i was in my formative years and it has always stuck with me in the best of ways. Great song by a great group.

That recording is definitely a gem The platters were smooth! Everything they recorded was great.

Ty your honest sense of humor is solid gold and I would be privileged to know you .

Ty, you're right about how the artist sounds and he does sound white. I've known of white blues singers who sound black. Music crosses all cultural boundaries. The song speaks about a person who for the first time sheds tears over a lost love. He or she never thought it could happen and may feel this is a first love. It's frustrating and painful to love someone you can't be with physically.

I first heard this in my family's living room on a shellac 78 rpm record when I was 8-10 years old. Both of my parents loved The Platters, so those records were part of the background sound in our house.

One of my favorite songs 💛

Love seeing a first-time reaction to this angelic music. This is my parents' music and I grew up listening to it with them on vinyl. I still get chills.

I believe this came out in 1958. It’s my favorite of the Platters. The first time I heard this, I literally had tears in my eyes. They definitely don’t make music like this anymore. I was raised by my Grandmother she listened to oldies almost every weekend, so when it comes to this genre, I’m all over it.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE The Platters! I listened to them when I was a little girl, loved them then, and still do! That's funny you called yourself "colored". I grew up in Atlanta in the 50 & 60s, not far from MLK Jr. It was a mixed neighborhood, and the term "colored" was used all the time. As a little girl I said I was "colored" because I had pink skin and blue eyes, and those are colors.

With the Platters, their voice was their instrument. During that era black singers were the best harmonizers. The Great Pretender. You don't have to slow down your talking - up north people who speak faster than you are live dubbed in the other official language no problem.

One of the very best vocal groups of all time. From a time era when singers actually could sing for real.

Loved that song and my dancing partners, those were the days !!

Tony Williams voice is one of the smoothest ever. He is effortlessly smooth through the highs and lows of every song he sings.

I played this song at my wedding - love this!!!

I am 80 years old, grew up in the 50s and early 60s, My friends and I used to get out in my Buddy Dennis's 1952 Studebaker at night, and listen to the radio play the Platters, Skyliners, Coasters and other Greats, I still love those groups and their music will always be in my soul!

Awwwwww! Preteen and teen yrs! Sock hop dances! Sweet memories! My hubby and I saw them yrs. later and they still were fabulous! The lady singer looked like an angel!!!!❤️🎶

In those days when a man choked up (cried) he would say I just got some smoke in my eyes. (when a lot of people were still smoking)

One of my favorites from my childhood. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Stormy Weather were my grandmother's favorites.

No other R&B vocal group had a lead singer like this...not back then and not now. Most of us know his name nowadays, Tony Williams, but we didn't know it when we first heard his voice. It was just "the Platters." And we also didn't know that the music would someday change and singers like him would disappear.

This was a monster group -- no 2nd rate singers -- Rock & Roll Hall of Famers -- 40 charting Billboard Hot 100 singles -- 1955 - 1967 -- with 4 number-one hits. The most well-known lead singer was New Jersey's own Tony Williams. "The Great Pretender," spent 11 weeks at #1. They share space alongside the legendary Ink Spots & The Drifters as a great vocal group and a class act. Timeless stuff.

I just lost my mom in January. She was 76. My mom loved the platters. This song came out in the 60s. You should listen to all their songs. BeUtiful. Made me cry. Missing my mama.

This is such a beautiful song, I have loved this since I first heard this in a movie starring Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss “Always”.

Love the Planters! I’m 66 years old. My daughter tried to get me to go on A Musical TV show because I know music from 1030 and before and I graduated high school early in December of 1973 (I’m a 1974 graduate) I listened to the most excellent music from birth till today. I love great music, but I’ve been told I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket! I would love to be musical!

Just one of many great songs the Platters performed. One of the greats of the 1950's and the doo wop era. Hope to hear your reactions to many more songs of the 50's. I heard this at dances in high school and on the Top 40 played every hour on the radio. That was the music I grew with. Cathy Farrell

Great song!!... I remember my Mother always played this song and sang along to it when I was just a little kid. I really enjoyed this song. Brought back a lot of memories of my Mother who has passed away.

the Platters

It took me years to understand the simple meaning of that song that when your heart's on fire Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in other words you're so in love that you don't see things the way they really are sometimes

Who could not ❤️ this song by the platters and how pure is his voice 😲..now for me nothing can beat this era or 60s,Motown,soul classics 😁😘

Tony Williams has an unreal voice. (lead singer)

Twilight Time Only You Great Pretender The Platters are a GREAT group! My mom used to blast the Platters and her 50's music while cleaning our apartment! They became my favorite group from that era! Yes..even better than Elvis! Their voices are so natural..no frills..no auto tune. Now that's music!! Thank you for sharing! God Bless✌❤🎶😁

WOW! What a fantastic trip down memory lane. Little girl (guess who😊) sitting in her chair at the kitchen table while Mom, Dad, Uncle Jack and Aunt Katie were playing dominoes. Big radio playing this as Dad crooned along. What a happy memory you dredged up! Thank you, Shug💋as always...with love from Pam & LoLa❤️🐾❤️

I saw The Platters live sometime around 1959 in Rochester NY; they were the headliners in one of those Cavalcade of Stars type of touring shows where ten or more currently popular (then) acts would each do a song or two, but the Headliner act came last and did more songs than that. The Platters were very elegant people. They are the only Black group I ever recall being a Headliner. But I got to see many amazing Black performers billed below the headliner in those shows: Bo Diddley, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Isley Bros, Little Eva and the wonderful Coasters whom I loved. I was a big fan of the Platters' music. Great Pretender was one of those songs in my life that stopped me in my tracks and I wanted to hear over and over. I haven't listened to them in years, until I heard this clip - they surely do hold up, unlike a great many 50s groups. Another quite different group I find to have held up well is The Fleetwoods (NOT to be confused with Fleetwood Mac).

You're gonna explode if you ever hear Brook Benton! One of the smooooothest voices in history! I recommend 'Rainy night in Georgia'!

I was fortunate to grow up with the music of the 50's , 60's 70's. Can listen to it all day. There are other great singers and groups from this time. It you liked this song you will enjoy the others like the Temptations. Some you have reacted to such as the Rightous Bros., Elvis , Charley Pride.

Ty, to answer your question, the song was written by famed song writer Jerome Kern in 1933 for a Broadway show. It was a big band staple for a decade. THIS particular recording by The Platters was recorded in November, 1958, and reached the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 chart early in 1959, peaking at #1.

I'm from Canada, and I went to go on this reaction and I was on your live show but somebody named Susie you were talking about and the video froze. I was saying how blessed I was to be able to see and hear the last remaining singer from The Platters his name is Johnny he would come from Washington state with this woman Marilyn and he would sing in the legion on karaoke night I even videotaped it it was awesome

I won this album off of American Bandstand in 1958 or'59 Dick Clark drew my name from a round cage. Smoke Gets In You're Eyes is one of my favorite songs. I'm 69 years old now and I am a singer and sing this song in some of my show's. I love the Platters!!! Keep up the good work, I love your reactions Ty!!!!

Great song, perfection! Before my day, but the song has always resonated with me; always a few tears.

this was ballroom time, slow dancing, I danced so many times to that. we loved it back in the 50's and 60's. You are correct we thought a lot of the black singers were white, they just played it on the radio, a lot of people didn't have the money to buy the records or albums!! Jacksonville, Fl. born here and will die here!!!!!!!

Majestic is what these voices are. Nothing less. Listened to this a million times since I was a kid and these voices (all of 'em, listen to the back) knock you to your knees with their beautiful majesty. Yep, Majestey

THE great, Great, Tony Williams , Zola Taylor, Herb Reed, & the rest of the legendary Platters.---------1958, I was 11 y/o, in 6th grade. -------RIP, to The Platters, Forever.

I was with The Platters in the early '80s on guitar and bass. At that time, Monroe Powell was the lead singer. He was an original Ink Spot. The original singer in this record was Tony Williams. He was replaced by Sonny Turner in the early '60s and sang on hits like "With This Ring"... I enjoyed working with them...

For me this song was immortalised in George Lucas' movie 'American Graffiti' (1973). It was a hit for the Platters in 1958, but is actually a much older standard written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical 'Roberta' which might account for its "whiteness". That said, Nat 'King' Cole and Sarah Vaughan also recorded versions of 'Smoke...'. Love it. It's especially poignant now with the passing of Cindy Williams who dances to this with her boyfriend Steve (Ron Howard) in 'Graffiti'.

Love the 50's music... so romantic.

One of the smoothest recordings ever made.

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyed" dates all the way back to 1933.

This old lady could listen to the platters all day long 😊😊

Would you play Mel Carters “Hold me Kiss me Thrill me. It’s such a Beautiful song

😥😥😥- My father's favorite song, and I think of him fondly when I hear it. He and I really appreciate or appreciated the beautiful music and lyrics and the lead singers voice ( Tony Williams) I think was magic. Thank you for this one.

So I met a man online several years ago. He went by the nickname Rooster and he performed in a theatre in Branson, Mo.. He left me a ticket at the box office for the show. Turns out he was the last living original Platter. I was never really into their music. They were before my time. But the show was really good. He brought me up onstage and sang a song to me. Super nice guy. We never again after tho. He was just too old for me. He had a very distinctive voice. Whenever I would visit Branson I always would go to the dollar store. While walking around I heard that voice. He was talking to the cashier, which of course knew him. He was buying the "gold" jewelry. Funny thing is is that fake gold jewelry looks 100% real under stage lights.. 😏 I had a good time that day tho. Made for a great memory. He has since passed away. RIP Rooster..

I love the vocals, instrumentation and everything else about the song. It was recorded a few years before I came along, but it's one of the best ever made.

I’m old ,and it was an oldie when I was a kid . Great songs are timeless. You made me laugh with you comments after about the singers race.

I love this song but I love watching your face when you listen to these old songs. You are so sweet. :)

Re: the singer sounding white... You have to remember back then that a lot of of black singers were trained to drop their "blaccent" so as to appeal to white audiences as well as black audiences. Motown actually sent the Supremes and their other girl groups to finishing school. It wasn't just these guys, it was almost all black crooners and Doo-wop singers in the 1950's and 1960's. Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, The Marcels, everybody at Motown, they all sang with "white" accents. Only some of the singers at Stax/Volt, and some of the Philly guys kept their "blaccent".

The lady in the group was once married to Frankie Lymon from the group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

I grew up with The Platters, Simon & Garfunkle and Elvis & Beatles 😍😍😍 My mum loved them and they still affects me, lost her to cancer Greetings from Sweden

The Platters are my all time favorite Doo Wop group. I love their music! Favorites are My Prayer, Twilight Time, and The Great Pretender.

I probably commented before, but this song by the platters and "Stormy Weather" were my Grandmother's favorite songs. I can't listen to either song without tears coming. She died in 1961 at 75 years old and I miss her today.

Loved it and still do! In High School is where I first heard it. A love song.