The Drifters were one of those groups that went through a lot of line-up changes, so let's first clear up any confusion first. There was a group with that name before 1959 - it featured Clyde McPhatter and recorded some wonderful R+B, some of which is available on other CD's. That group was disbanded, and a totally different group was given the Drifters name. It is that line-up, featuring Ben E King, which opens this collection (which is presented in chronological order). Ben left after Save the last dance for me to pursue a solo career. His solo hits are not included in this collection, which is why Spanish Harlem and Stand by me are missing. You can obtain these recordings on Ben's own albums, although I've also seen Drifters compilations that include Ben's solo hits.

So, what you get here are sixteen of the finest tracks from their best period, including Save the last dance for me, There goes my baby, Dance with me, On Broadway, Some kind of wonderful, Up on the roof, Under the boardwalk, Saturday night at the movies, When my little girl is smiling, Sweets for my sweet and others - all huge American hits. Only Save the last dance for me was a big hit in Britain for the Drifters, because record companies at that time often found local singers to cover the songs and they had the hits instead. This shameful practice died out by the end of the sixties.

After 1965 (which marks the end of this compilation), the Drifters didn't have much success in America, but they enjoyed a new wave of popularity in the seventies in Britain, where they had several top ten hits. Even as a Brit, I prefer their sixties music, but for anybody interested in their seventies music (including Kissing in the back row of the movies) there are plenty of other compilations available here.

If you just want a single CD of their most famous songs from their best years, this will suit you, but there are several other compilations for those who wish to explore further including a forty-track double CD that includes all the tracks from this CD.

"The Drifters" had four lead singers between 1959-64, in what was the group's second incarnation after its founding in 1953. The name was owned by a manager, not by the members, so singers and musicians were hired and fired at will and did not share in the royalties but were paid for the recording sessions. Today, at rock nostalgia gigs all over the world, various "Drifters" perform the classic hits from this era. This CD offers the original versions, with great sound. If "Up on the Roof" and "On Broadway" and "Under the Boardwalk" and (my favorite) "Save the Last Dance for Me" were the only tracks on the disc, it still would be worth owning. However, the other 12 songs are all pleasant, too...a couple of them even great. No profanity, no overt sexual references, no encouragement to kill cops, no slurs against women...that's why these short songs will be too tame for some of the "rap" generation. For the rest of us, however, these mellow R & B tunes are just right. I bought the 45 rpm of "Last Dance" in the summer of 1960, just before starting 11th grade, and played it over and over and over. I was terminally shy, a bad dancer, destined to remain dateless until my second year of college...but when I listened to "Save the Last Dance for Me" I could pretend to be cool. For that summer of illusion, I owe "The Drifters" a big thank-you.

Cosa sarebbe stato il soul senza le magiche voci dei Drifters? Come sarebbe stata della storia dei gruppi vocali senza l'immortale "Under the Boardwalk"? Difficile dirlo, ma la centralità dei Drifters nello sviluppo del soul e dunque del pop è indubbia. Atlantic pubblica un documento vasto (29 tracce!) e prezioso, che con capolavori come "Kissing in the back rows of the movies", "Save the last dance for me", "There goes my first love" e "Sweets for my sweet" ci aiuta a rispondere ad una domanda ancora irrisolta: che mondo sarebbe senza i Drifters?
Arthur Cravan

You can listen to every song on this album over and over and still love it. When you hear the songs you'll wanna dance and sing along.

This is a pretty good Drifters primer containing all 16 of their Top 40 entries from the '59-'64 period that marked their heyday, presented here in chronological order. Sound quality is uniformly good throughout, in fact quite exceptional considering the age of this material. My one complaint is that everything is in mono. Why? Many of these songs are available in stereo on other CD's. For a more expansive selection of classics (and a lot more stereo) I recommend picking up the 2-disc set "All-Time Greatest Hits & More: 1959-1965" instead.