Eddie Platt

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Cleveland, 1950s

Eddie Platt was probably the most popular of several musicians who came from Cleveland's "Nationality" bands and crossed over into the emerging top 40 market. 

Eddie was born Eddie Platakis, and after WWII, he joined Johnny Pecon's band as the saxophonist. Pecon and the band were a polka group first bit like many of these bands that played "Nationality" music - a Cleveland term for polka and other central/eastern European music - they could play popular music as well. 

In 1952 Platt formed his own band, Eddie Platt and the Contrasts, and in various forms kept the band going into the 1960s. This band was more like a general band that could play a style of early rock-n-roll that still had traces of the ethnic sound but did not have the blues foundations for the rawer R&B. There were several of these types of bands and artists in the Cleveland/Northeast Ohio area at the time. They were probably not exactly the band that the bobbysoxers wanted for a teen hop but they played at dance clubs for young and older adults and could take on a high school prom with effective renditions of stuff like "Heartbreak Hotel" and Platters songs. 

Platt and the band recorded three 45s in their style, with "Tequila" on ABC being their biggest hit. "Cha-Hua-Hua" also made the top 40. The band performed with Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, and Bobby Darin in Cleveland. The emergence of authentic teen rock-n-roll bands in the late 1950s and early 1960s made Eddie and the band steer toward the nightclub circuit.

Eddie passed away in 2010.

Discography:

Rock - Em / Chinese Lullabye - Epic 9105 - 1955
Tequila / Popcorn - ABC 9899 - 3/58
Cha-Hua-Hua / Vodka - Gone 5031 - 5/58