Buck Ram

This site is dedicated to the memory of Buck Ram, one of the most successful songwriters of the last hunderd years.  Few people outside the music industry know his name.  Everyone knows his music - even if it's only "I'll Be Home for Christmas," or "Only You."

Buck Ram once said that if his parents had allowed him to concentrate on music the way he wanted to instead of insisting that he go to law school, he could have been as great as George Gershwin.  Gershwin didn't write "Only You," the most financially successful song of BMI's first 50 years.  Ram did.  Gershwin wasn't one of the top five songwriter's of BMIs first 50 years.  Ram was.  But that was how Buck saw things.  It was never about himself.  It was always about the music, and it was never enough. 

Ram wrote under several psydonyms including:  Ande Rand, Jean Miles, Lynn Paul, Dusty Miles and Clay Hicks, and he wrote with some great songwriter's as well as some who may not have been so great but had familiar names like Alan Freed and Morton Downey, Jr. 

"Only You," was his most successful song.  "I'll Be Home for Christmas," his most recognizable.  There are three hundred others copywritten and hundreds more that were not.  Some languish in the publishers files.  Others, like "The Great Pretender," and "The Magic Touch," air daily on easy listening and oldies radio stations around the country.

Songwriting was not Ram's only accomplishment.  He was an arranger, a producer and the man who took The Platters to the top of the charts.  He played clarinet, saxaphone and enough piano to play on The Platters hit recording of "Only You." 

It has been said that the history of Rock & Roll could not be written without including Ram.  He managed, wrote, produced or arranged for most of the top acts of the '50's and early '60's, including:  The Coasters, The Drifters, The Flares, The Cadillacs, and The Penguins.  He also managed Ike and Tina Turner, Ike Clanton and Ike Cole, Nat "King" Cole's brother.  Buck Ram was a man of many talents, and he was all about music.