The Very Best of the Drifters

by The Drifters

Product Description:

The Drifters: Bobby Hendricks, Ben E. King, Johnny Lee Willimas, Rudy Lewis, Johnny Moore, Charles Thomas, Doc Green, Eugene Pearson, Elesbeary Hobbs, Tommy Evans (vocals).

Additional personnel includes: Billy Davis, Phil Spector (guitar); Dee Dee Warwick, Dionne Warwick, Doris Troy, Cissy Houston (background vocals).

Producers: Mike Stoller, Jerry Leiber, Tom Dowd, Bert Burns

Compilation producer: Gary Stewart.

THE VERY BEST OF THE DRIFTERS features 16 tracks recorded between 1959 and 1964. Includes historic black and white photographs and liner notes by Steve Propes.

THE VERY BEST is a definitive anthology of the Drifters' most fertile and commercially successful period (1959-64), after their initial early '50s rock hits with lead vocalist Clyde McPhatter. During this period, the group was essentially the mouthpiece for the boundless imagination of the greatest of the Brill Building songwriters.

As a result, what you'll find here are such classics as " Up on the Roof", Gerry Goffin and Carole King's gorgeously romantic ode to working class escape and freedom, along with a virtual embarrassment of riches. These include timeless, often-covered songs by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill ("On Broadway" "Saturday Night at the Movies"), Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman ("Sweets for My Sweet," "This Magic Moment," "Save the Last Dance for Me", "I Count the Tears"), and Burt Bacharach ("Please Stay").