The Very Best of the Drifters [Rhino] (CD - 1993)

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.

This mid-priced 16-song collection is the successor to the old Atlantic Records Drifters Golden Hits, covering the group's very best songs from "There Goes My Baby" in 1959 on up through 1964 in a more comprehensive way. Very pleasingly remastered and handy on its own terms, The Very Best of the Drifters also provides just a taste of what the post-1958 group had to offer, even in terms of singles. No one will dislike anything about it, but those who have heard even part of the two-CD package All-Time Greatest Hits & More will recognize The Very Best of the Drifters as nothing but a superficial sampler of what the Ben E. King/Rudy Lewis/Johnny Moore version of the group left behind. The Very Best of the Drifters is a great place to start, but the leap from this material to the rest of the Drifters' best is such a short one that, unless time or budgetary limitations dictate otherwise, it can be bypassed in favor of Atlantic's double-disc All-Time Greatest Hits & More. ~ Bruce Eder

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"). minimize