The Dramatics ~ Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get 1971 Soul Purrfection Version

The Dramatics were formed in 1964 Detroit with Ron Banks, Wiliam Howard, Larry Demps, Willie Ford and Elbert Wilkins. They were not part of Motown but rather they began their career with a single released by Stax/Volt and then were dumped by the label for a lack of original material.

The Stax/Volt catalog is one of the richest sources of Memphis Soul, a special kind of Southern soul sound that domintated the charts from the late 1960's up until 1974. That label brought The Staple Singers, Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes into the mainstream. Now you can understand why these men did not feel Motown would have been a good fit for them. Their slow burning funk and soul kept a lot of people warm, I'm sure!

After that disappointment the band turned to Tony Hester, a songwriter that they were familiar with and who in turn was very interested in working with them. At this point, the band re-signed with manager Don Davis who knew a good thing when he heard some new songs Hester brought him. The man knew what he was doing, I mean "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" the title track was released on July 3, 1971 and it peaked at #9 on the Hot100 and the group was back with Stax under their Volt label.

I can't always do this but, Im glad to report I could get it done! I got the request today and at 1PM EST the remix was done. I love this song so much, its their very special brand of funky soul with vocals that did not ape the Temptations arrangement, but rather opened them up even more, allowing the vocalists to assert themselves and distinguish themselves with inventive harmonies and using that stereo space to interject the lyrics and maybe just give you a little shudder that starts in the trapeze muscles and ripples up to the back of your head. Ahhh...there it is again. ENJOY WITH HEADPHONES!