The Drifters

The Drifters were born in New York City in 1953 as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, who had just come from singing lead tenor in Billy Ward and his Dominoes, and their records for Atlantic Records mixed doo-wop harmony with a sly R&B swing. "Money Honey" in 1953, "Honey Love" in 1954 and "Adorable" in 1955 all went to number one on the R&B charts, with Bill Pinkney, Gerhart Thrasher and Johnny Moore among the voices behind them.

After McPhatter left, George Treadwell owned the name from 1955, and the Drifters became less a group than a franchise: low-paid hired singers, some 60 of them over the years, plus splinter groups run by former members. In 1959 an entirely new set of Drifters, previously a group called the Five Crowns and led by Ben E. King, picked up where the old one left off, and the sound got lusher, with three more R&B number ones: "There Goes My Baby", "Save the Last Dance for Me" and, in 1964, "Under the Boardwalk".

Britain later gave them a second wind with a mix of old and new material, and "Kissin' in the Back Row of the Movies" climbed to number two there. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1988, honoring singers from across their different lineups, and the Grammy Hall of Fame has kept adding their records since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.