Song of the Day 2/7: The Dramatics, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get”
Turns out a lot of people who either voted for Trump or skipped voting altogether are surprised that he’s doing all the things he said he would do, including things that victimize them and theirs. I guess they figured that because Trump is such a blatant and obvious bullshitter, then everything he said must be bullshit. Now they see that a con artist works by mixing lies and truth, and they’ve been conned. Let me check my sympathy meter: Yep, still at zero.
The Dramatics had these people pegged.
Some people are made of plastic
And you know some people are made of wood
Some people have hearts of stone
Some people are up to no good
I should say that songwriter and producer Tony Hester had them pegged. He wrote all the songs for the first two albums by the Dramatics, a Detroit R&B outfit that formed in 1964 but had only regional success before Hester caught their act and gave them “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get.” The tune hit No. 9 on the Hot 100 and No. 3 on the R&B chart in 1971.
The group had an even bigger hit the next year when the slow ballad “In the Rain” hit No. 1 on the R&B chart, but the success prompted two of the five members to quit and start a competing quintet called the Dramatics. That led to years of court battles and low-charting singles. Even that level of success ended when Hester was killed in 1980, also the year of their last appearance among the R&B Top 40.
They reached the charts one last time in 1994 by guesting on Snoop Dogg’s debut album, “Doggy Style.” I’ll spare you the track, “Doggy Dogg World,” because like most West Coast rap of the era it’s as nastily misogynistic as anything you’ll hear from any MAGAt.
