Search - The Drifters :: Rock

(CD digipac with 52-page booklet. 32 tracks, playing time: 81:23) The finest black vocal group of all time on a long overdue compilation of their rock 'n' roll classics. The original versions of songs like Money Honey, Such A Night (recorded by Elvis Presley), Ruby Baby and Drip Drop (Top Ten hits for Dion). All told, 32 crucial rock 'n' roll tracks including solo singles by Bill Pinkney and Bobby Hendricks and several rarely heard alternative takes: just the stuff to enthrall collectors. The chunky booklet contains a fresh biography by Bill Dahl and many newly published and amazingly candid photos. Yet another outstanding release in Bear Family's Rocks series.The Drifters are an institution. Very few vocal groups have remained popular for 60 years. In an area notable for its lack of consistency, the Drifters are conspicuous. This collection, compiled by Drifters biographer Bill Millar, gathers up all the Drifters rock 'n' roll tracks between 1953 and 1963. There's a baker's dozen led by Clyde McPhatter, perhaps the greatest tenor voice in the history of R&B, and another 19 tracks featuring important lead singers like Bill Pinkney, Bobby Hendricks and Ben E.King as well as the unmistakably sunny voice of Johnny Moore. Hendricks, the classiest performer to appear at the Hemsby Rock 'n' Roll Festival, has a number of cuts including Drip Drop and his solo Top 30 hit, Itchy Twitchy Feeling.Most of these records were aimed at the R&B market. Although the Drifters would dominate the pop charts they did so with records that often amounted to solo vocals plus session singers following notes off a lead sheet. This collection is different. It's a must for fans of real vocal group music by singers with involvement, imagination, energy and audacity. There's no better showcase for the Drifters at their gospel-harmonised, jump-blues rooted, rockin' and rollin' best.