The Drifters

After learning that McPhatter had left the Dominoes, Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records singed McPhatter to form another group that would blend the gospel sound with the new R&B sound. McPhatter got four members of his old gospel group, The Mount Lebanon Singers to be the first Drifters. They were William "Chick" Anderson (tenor), David "Little Dave" Baughan, (tenor), David Baldwin (baritone), and James "Wrinkle" Johnson (bass). After the first recording, McPhatter saw that the combination wasn't working and changed the lineup. Again McPhatter pulled singers from the gospel ranks. They were Gerhart Thrasher (baritone), Andrew Trasher (tenor), Bill Pinkney (high tenor), Willie Ferbee (bass) and Walter Adams on guitar.

In their second recording session this group came up with group's first major hit, "Money Honey", which was released in September, 1953. A song called Luucille was the "B" side. "Money Honey" was a huge success and pushed The Drifters to immediate fame. Almost immediately the group started making changes in personell. Ferbee was in an accident and left the group, Adams passed away and was replaced by Jimmy Oliver. Ferbee was not replaced so the voice parts were switched around. Gerhart Thrasher moved to first tenor, Andrew Thrasher moved to baritone, and a change that would define the sound of The Drifters, Bill Pinkney moved to bass. "Such A Night" came from this configuration, and the combination of Pinkney, and McPhatter changing leads on an Irvin Berlin song, "White Christmas" created a Christmas standard that has stood the test of time. Since November, 1954, The Drifters version of "White Christmas" has been a best seller for years. The song is included on most gotta have songs for the Christmas season.
McPhatter was drafted in May, 1954, but was stationed Buffalo,NY, which made it possible for him to still record with group. Being in the Army made it impossible for McPhatter, to tour with the group. McPhatter last recording with the group was "What'cha Gonna Do". It was contended that when McPhatter left the Army there was no room for him in The Drifters.
The relationship with Billy Ward not paying the singers in the Dominoes their proper salaries, caused McPhatter to demand a large share of The Drifters profits. When McPhatter left he sold his share of The Drifters to George Tredwell the manager of the group. As a result many of the groups members made very little money. McPhatter did the same thing to The Drifters that Billy Ward had done to him.
McPhatter was replaced by David Baughn, his voice was simular to McPhatter's, but his behavior made him unsuitable for Atlantic Records.
Baughn, formed a new group called The Harps. Baughn would join Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters in 1958.
Johnny More joined the group and almost immediately had a hit "Adorable" which went to number one. The "B" side made it to number five. Two more hits followed, "Ruby Baby" and " I Got To Get Myself A Woman".
Low salaries caused burnouts and friction with the members of the group. Bill Pinkney was fired when he asked for more money. In protest Andrew Thrasher also left. Pinkney formed another group called The Flyers. There were so many people in and out of the group in the next few years that no one knew which was up. "Fools Fall In Love" was the last hit of 1957.
Moore was drafted in 1957 and was replaced by Bobby Hendricks. In 1958 the lineup was Hendricks, Gerhart Thrasher, Jimmy Millender, Tommy Evans, and Jimmy Oliver. This lineup had one ok hit "Drip Drop"
By May of 1958 both Hendricks and Oliver had quit, their replacements and the new lineup had a one week appearance at the Apollo, during the week one of The Drifters got ito a fight with someone at the theater, this pushed George Treadwell over the edge, and he fired the entire group on the spot.
In the mean time McPhatter had started his solo career with a duet with Ruth Brown.
Feeling that they had been messed over many of the ex-Drifters felt that they were the real Drifters and deserved piece of the pie. Bill Pinkney was the fist to make the move. He joined with the Trashers and David Bauhn to tour as The Original Drifters. Somewhere it got lost that they were part of the second Drifters. Pinkney continued to change members of the group often so at times the groups sound was not up to par and in many cases the faithful in the audience noticed, and sometimes there were walkouts during shows. There were too many Drifters to count by this time.
While all of this was going on George Tredwell was moving forward with his version of The Drifters. In the summer of 1958, Tredwell approached Lover Patterson the manager of a new group on the scene call The Five Crowns and hired them as The Drifters. This group included Ben E. Nelson (Ben E. King), Charlie Thomas, Doc Green, Elsbeary Hobbs.
Since the new group had none of the old members, sometime they met hostile audiences. The new group is widely considered the true golden age of the group.
The first release from this group was "There Goes MY Baby", it became an hit, and is considered the first Rock & Roll song to have a string orchestra. This version of The Drifters had six hit in row, also this version of the group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000 as Ben E King and The Drifters.
King, Tredwell and Lover Patterson had many conflicts about money which resulted in King leaving and starting his successful solo career.
Over the years since Kings group, there have been many many versions of the group. At times there have been as many as five groups of Drifters touring at on time. With so many singers in and out of the group, it's hard to pick the singers that did the most for the group. My picks would be Clyde McPhatter, Ben E. King, Johnny Moore, Rudy Lewis, Charlie Thomas.
The Drifters influenced a lot of groups in American music, and for a time in the early sixties had four or five hits in a row.
There is another strange connection to the Drifters, and Ben E. King, Lieber and Stoller produced and wrote many of the songs that became hits for The Drifters and King even after he left the group.
Clyde McPhatter had a modest solo career, his last hit was in 1962, it was "Lover Please". By now Jackie Wilson, McPhatter's replacement in The Dominoes, had started his solo career and seemed to be doing better than McPhatter. McPhatter was bitter about this and complained about it for years.
McPhatter died in 1972 after returning from a long stay in England.

Our next group will be The Five Royals.
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Billy Ward and the Dominoes

In the next few weeks we're going to talk about some of the groups that had long lasting effects on R&B and Rock & Roll.
The groups that we'll talk about are: Billy Ward and the Dominoes, The Five Crowns,the Drifters,The 5 Royals, Nolan and the Diablos, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Swallows, The Flamingos, The Orioles, The Impressions, The Heartbeats, Shep and The Limelites, The Moonglows, The Dells, The Jive Five, The Penguins, THe Platters, and The Spaniels.
Let's start with Billy Ward and the Dominoes. Billy Ward (Robert Williams) was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1921. Ward was a music prodigy and won awards for piano composition at the age of 14. After leaving the military Mr. Ward studied music at the Juilliard Music School in New York. There he met Rose Marks and the two became business and songwriting partners.
Ward's first group was first called the Ques. Clyde McPhatter (lead), along with Charlie White (tenor),Joe Lamont (baritone), and Bill Brown (bass) made up the group.
Ward acted as the groups pianist and arranger. The group had success at the Apollo Theater, and then appeared on the Auther Godfry show in 1950. The group was recommended to Ralph Bass of Federal Records a subsidiary of King Records. They singed with Federal Records and changed their name to the Dominoes, their first release was "Do something for Me". The song climbed to number 16, in 1951. The groups next hit was "Sixty Minute Man". The song was unique in many ways. First the lead on the song was the bass, second the song was about sex and a mans ability to make love for sixty minutes; 15 minutes of kissin, 15 minutes of teasin, 15 minutes of squeezin and 15 minutes of blowing his top. It reached number one on the R&B charts and stayed there for 14 weeks. The song was a cross-over hit and for that reason it was banned in some markets, which made it that even more popular. Some people contend that Sixty Minute Man was the first Rock & Roll record.
Ward was a strict disciplinarian and failed to pay the members of the group well. This caused major conflicts. Ward and Marks owned the Dominoes name and had the right to hire and fire and paid the singers barely enough to live on. The group started to fall apart in 1951 when Brown and White left the group. They were replaced by James Laon, David McNeil.
In 1952 Alan Freed picked the Dominoes to appear at his Moondog Ball. The group had another big hit with "Have Mercy Baby" wich stayed on the charts for 10 weeks.
In 1953 Clyd McPhatter got fedup and left the group and soon formed a new group called The Drifters.
While McPhatter's leaving the Dominoes was not a good thing for the Dominoes, it was great for do-wop and R&B. The Drifters in their many incarnations became a major influence in R&B. And if that wasn't enough Clyde McPhatter's replacement was none other than Jackie Wilson.
The Dominoes continued to tour and record but never got back to their greatness. Their last hit was a pop hit that went number 13 in 1957. This was their only million seller.
The group toured until the mid sixties.
Biiy Ward played small clubs and did arrangements for other groups. Mr Ward died in February 2002.
Tomorrow we'll talk about the many variations of the Drifters. Many singers passed through the Drifters, but with the exception of Clyde McPhatter, and later Ben E. King, there were no standout singers to emerge form the many different groups.