![]() ![]() The new edition of the group cut five numbers on August 9, 1953, one of which was "Money Honey," written by arranger/pianist Jesse Stone. From the beginning, the group was unusual among R&B vocal ensembles in that a guitarist was part of their core lineup and the electric guitar central to their arrangements Jimmy Oliver, who would soon take that spot as his own, also proved to be an important songwriter for the Drifters, especially for tenor Gerhart Thrasher. In August, a second Drifters lineup was put together, with Gerhart Thrasher, Andrew Thrasher, two very experienced gospel singers on tenor and baritone, respectively, bass singer Willie Ferbee, and Walter Adams on the guitar. The initial, unsuccessful lineup, featuring William Anderson, David Baughn, Dave Baldwin (the brother of author James Baldwin), and James Johnson, recorded four songs on June 28, 1953, of which only "Lucille," a McPhatter-authored song, was ever released. He went through several attempts at assembling a group that would be acceptable to Ertegun and producer Jerry Wexler, going through as many as a dozen friends and acquaintances, a handful of whom actually made it to formal recording sessions. The main source for McPhatter's backing singers was among the ranks of former members of the Mount Lebanon Singers, the gospel group with which McPhatter had sung in the '40s. The origins of the name and credit for thinking of it are obscure, although no one at Atlantic liked the name at first, thinking it sounded too country & western - the explanation sometimes offered by those present was that the members simply drifted in from other groups. It was Ertegun who gave McPhatter the impetus, as part of his contract, to start a group of his own, which came to be called the Drifters. That fan was Ahmet Ertegun, a one-time record collector who had started Atlantic Records in the late '40s as soon as he learned of McPhatter's having left the Dominoes, he contacted the singer and signed him to Atlantic. The Dominoes were playing a scheduled gig at the New York club Birdland, one of their first performances without McPhatter, when one of the audience members present asked after the singer backstage. Their story began in early 1953, when Clyde McPhatter, the soaring high-tenor lead singer in the Dominoes, a vocal quintet formed by Billy Ward three years earlier, quit that group. The Drifters can also claim a unique place in popular music history, as a major R&B group founded at the instigation of a record-label chief. Their place in history is as complex as their role in it, by virtue of the fact that there are two distinct phases to their music and the continuity of their membership, and their extraordinary longevity - only the Platters could claim as great a span of years as an active recording unit, though the latter group, due to major differences in the way they were organized, were far more stable in their membership and output. The Drifters are part of an even more exclusive fraternity, as a group that managed to carve out a place for themselves in the R&B firmament and also define that music, not only at its inception as a national chart phenomenon in the early '50s but also in the decade that followed. Retrieved January 26, 2018.The history of rhythm & blues is filled with vocal groups whose names - the Orioles, the Cadillacs, the Crows, the Flamingos, the Moonglows, the Coasters, the Penguins - are held in reverence by fanatics and devotees. ^ "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 27, 1969".: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. ^ a b " Young Adult", RPM Weekly, Volume 11, No.^ a b Jay & the Americans – Chart History – Adult Contemporary,.^ Jay & the Americans – Chart History – The Hot 100,. ![]() ![]() ^ The Drifters – Chart History – The Hot 100,."Show 14 – Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. The single earned gold record status from the Recording Industry Association of America. 4 in the first issue of RPM's "Young Adult" adult contemporary chart. Their version spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. In 1968, Jay and the Americans released a version of the song, which became the song's most widely successful release. The Drifters version spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. King and the Drifters, at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. It was first recorded by The Drifters, with Ben E. " This Magic Moment" is a song composed by lyricist Doc Pomus and pianist Mort Shuman. " (If You Cry) True Love, True Love"/" Dance with Me" For other uses, see This Magic Moment (disambiguation). ![]()
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