The Drifters were originally formed in 1953 by Clyde McPhatter, one of the most influential of ‘50s R&B vocalists. By 1958 the group had been replaced by another group by their manager and this group featured Ben E King as lead singer for a short time. Lead singers on the ‘Soul Years’ sessions are mainly Rudy Lewis or Johnny Moore.

Stars singen die schönsten Weihnachtslieder stands as a massive, beautifully heartwarming, and sweeping four-disc archival masterclass that captures the timeless spirit of international holiday music. Released in 1995 by the specialized label Jingle Bells, this monumental anthology brings together over two and a half hours of immaculate high-fidelity winter classics, blending mid-century vocal pop royalty, deep-fried rhythm and blues, and traditional symphonic arrangements. The 56-track landscape operates with a joyful, comforting kinetic rhythm, shifting fluidly through decades of legendary seasonal anthems. The tracklist flows beautifully across its four movements, moving from early milestones like Bing Crosby's definitive White Christmas, Gene Autry's legendary cowboy holiday tales, and Louis Armstrong's hot jazz charisma to the sweeping gospel presence of Mahalia Jackson and the burning rock & roll guitar drive of Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run. Punctuated by traditional carols delivered with pristine choral harmonies by The Cranberry Singers, this unadulterated holiday archive remains an indispensable, time-tested treasure for serious pop collectors and holiday music purists worldwide.

For the first time on one 2CD set both sides of all The Drifters single releases between 1953 and 1958 and includes seminal recordings from two of the groups most important lead singers, Clyde McPhatter and Johnny Moore.
Features such influential and much covered original hits as 'Such A Night', 'Money Honey', 'Ruby Baby' and their definitive R & B version of 'White Christmas'. Plus bonus tracks including the groups harmony back-up vocals on two singles by Ruth Brown and the rare Flyers single, which featured the drifters line up.Extensive booklet notes explain the complex history of the group, which still exists in 2009.

2012 two CD set. This comprehensive 50 track collection includes their earliest and best known hits from the '50s, through to their string of '70s hits. Charismatic lead singer Ben E. King's successful solo recordings are also included. Music Club Deluxe.

The Drifters are an American pop and R&B/soul vocal group. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in 1959 and led by Ben E. King, were originally an up-and-coming group named the Five Crowns. After 1965, members swapped in and out of both groups and many of these formed other groups of Drifters as well. Over the succeeding decades, several different bands, all called the Drifters, can trace roots back to these original groups, but contain few—if any—original members.

If Rhino's Very Best of the Drifters is a fine R&B snack, then All-Time Greatest Hits & More: 1959-1965 is a three-course gourmet meal with dessert built on the same ingredients. Forget about the higher price and the fact that 40 songs might seem to be more Drifters than most casual listeners would want – All-Time Greatest Hits & More: 1959-1965 is a towering and magnificent collection of some of the best popular R&B ever done this side of Sam Cooke. And, as with Sam Cooke, the beautiful part of the Drifters' work during this period is that any look beyond and behind their hits reveals a lot more songs that were every bit as good as those hits. There's not even a slightly weak track anywhere on All-Time Greatest Hits & More, which contains the biggest hits Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis, and Johnny Moore sang for the group. "There Goes My Baby," "This Magic Moment," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "Sweets for My Sweet," "I Count the Tears," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Up on the Roof," "On Broadway," and "Under the Boardwalk" are all here, mastered in surprisingly good sound for the late '80s.

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 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 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. 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.

The Drifters 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. 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. 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 - Original Album Series" is a well-regarded collection that includes five of the band's classic albums from their peak years. This box set is praised for its sound quality and packaging, offering the original album artwork in a compact form. Fans appreciate the value of having these albums together, capturing the essence of The Drifters' contributions to soul and R&B music. The set provides a comprehensive look at their career, including hits and deep cuts from the 50s and 60s​.

A short history of The Drifters would actually be an impossibility as well over 60 performers have been “Drifting” at one point or another! For brevity’s sake let’s just say the original Drifters were formed as a back up band for Clyde McPhatter and released one album in 1956 aptly titled “Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters”. Fast forward to 1959 and we find the second band emerging from a group called The Five Crowns, led by one, Benjamin Earl Nelson, better known professionally as Ben E King. Along with three other Crowns, Charlie Thomas, Dock Green and Elsbeary Hobbs they became a four piece dropping an alcohol troubled fifth member James “Poppa” Clark along the way. This line up became arguably the classic Drifters group produced mainly by The Coasters producers, Leiber & Stoller. The dynamic “wunderkinds “of the fifties music scene would of course write many classic songs of the era, many included here on our set alongside another dynamic writing duo Pomus & Shuman. This era became known as “the true golden age of the group” but sadly was to last only a couple of years. Due to financial problems (all the group were certainly never paid what they were worth) rather than the other classic rock n roll break up reason “musical differences”, Ben E King left the group for a solo career in 1960 and here we include three classic albums by the great man. Ben scored his first hit the following year, 1961, with the stone classic “Spanish Harlem” followed by yet another “Stand By Me” not a bad start at all, we say! Many hit singles and albums would follow but arguably he never had a hit as big at these two all time classics! And as we know they would both re-appear on the charts down the years. In 1982 Ben E King returned to The Drifters for a British tour and stayed until 1986.

This triple-disc 79-song compilation looks pretty impressive, and in some ways it is, representing most of the best work of each incarnation of the Drifters from 1953 through 1976. There's a lot of classic music here, including all of the big hits and many interesting (even musically glorious) flops and B-sides, but the limitations of three CDs make this less than ideal. Atlantic had already released a pair of two-CD sets, Let the Boogie Woogie Roll: Greatest Hits 1953-58 and All-Time Greatest Hits & More: 1959-1965, eight years earlier, each of which covers those major periods in question far more generously than does this box – although it must be conceded that the sound on the cuts included on Rockin' & Driftin' is improved over those late-'80s digital transfers, good as they seemed at the time…

20 Super Oldies is a 1994 compilation honoring some of the best songs of the rock & roll nation and beyond. The front cover says these songs are "Too Good To Be Forgotten" and you gotta believe it because it's true. This is a Companion presentation.