The
Drifters Featuring Charlie Thomas
In
1953, when Clyde McPhatter left The Dominoes after such hits as
"Have Mercy Baby" and "Sixty Minute Man" he
got together with a gospel group known as "The Civitones"
and asked members Gerhart and Andrew Thrasher to join him and
Bill Pinkney to form a new singing group. They called themselves
The Drifters because each member drifted from one singing group
to another. They signed with Atlantic records in New York and
in September, 1953 had their first hit with a Jesse Stone song
called "Money Honey". This song was followed with hits
like "Honey Love" (which Clyde wrote),"Bip Man"
and the Irving Berlin classic,"White Christmas."
In April,
1954, Clyde went into the Army and was replaced for a while by
David Baughan, who sounded almost like Clyde. In 1955 Johnny Moore
became the lead on such hits as "Adorable, Ruby Baby, Soldier
of Fortune, Gotta Get Myself A Woman" and "Was Tears".
In 1957, Johnny
was drafted into the army and was replaced by Bobby Hendricks
(who later had solo hits with "Itchy Twichy Feeling"
and "Psycho"). Bobby sang lead on "Moonlight Bay"
and "Drip Drop" in 1958. During the summer of 1958 the
original Drifters disbanded. George Treadwell, the group's original
manager, wanted to keep the name going, so in late 1958, he signed
a group that he saw perform at New York's Apollo Theater called
"The Five Crowns" (of "Kiss and Make Up" of
fame). The group consisted of Benny Nelson (Ben E. King), Doc
Green, "CHARLIE THOMAS" and Elsberry Hobbs. With Benny
as the new lead of "THE DRIFTERS", they recorded their
initial hit for Atlantic in the summer of 1959 (which Benny and
George Treadwell had written) called "There Goes My Baby".
It was the first rock recording to incorporate strings. After
that came hits like "Dance With Me, This Magic Moment, Lonely
Winds, Save The Last Dance For Me" and "I Count The
Tears" which was the last song Benny recorded with the group.
In 1960, Ben
E. King went on his own as a single artist with the song, "Spanish
Harlem". He was replaced on the next Drifters hit "Some
Kind Of Wonderful", by Rudy Lewis. Rudy became lead on all
the Drifter's hits from 1960 until 1963, except for "Sweets
For My Sweet" and "When My Little Girl Is Smiling"
on which "CHARLIE THOMAS" sang lead. "Vaya Con
Dios" was the last song Rudy recorded with the group.
Johnny Moore
again joined the group and became the lead voice on "One
Way Love, Under The Boardwalk, I've Got Sand In My Shoes"
and "Saturday Night At The Movies." Of all the hits
the group had, only one record made it to the number one spot
on the pop music charts. That was in the fall of 1960 when Ben
E. King sand lead on "Save The Last Dance For Me." The
group's manager, George Treadwell died in 1967. Bill Pinkney has
a group called "The Original Drifters." Ben E. King
continues to perform as a solo artist. Rudy Lewis died in 1963
and Clyde McPhatter died in 1972. CHARLIE THOMAS actively continues
"THE DRIFTERS" tradition as "CHARLIE THOMAS, formerly
of THE DRIFTERS" and his three back up singers; Jerome Manning
- tenor, Steve Brown - baritone, and Lou Bailey - bass (nephew
of Pearl Bailey) perform today all over the world. They perform
all of "THE DRIFTERS" hits at various venues and are
concentrating on releasing some new singles soon.
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