The Drifters – The Drifters' Greatest Hits

This album, released in June 1960, is an odd duck. First, the line-up pictured on the cover – that exact line-up not only didn’t perform on any song on this album, they never recorded anything together at all. Pictured are Elsbeary Hobbs, Rudy Lewis, Charlie Thomas and Dock Green, but by the time Lewis recorded with the group Hobbs had been drafted into the Army and been replaced by Tommy Evans. So although these four performed live for five months or so in late1960 they never recorded together.

Next, only eight of the twelve tracks here were by the current Drifters line-up and only five of those were hits. Three more were b-sides, but the oddest thing is that four of these tracks not only were not hits but had never been released before at all, and moreover were recorded by three different pre-Crowns line-ups, that is, no Ben E King, no Charlie Thomas, etc. Sadie My Lady and Honky Tonky were recorded in June 1956 by Johnny Moore, Bill Pinkney, and the Thrasher bothers (Johnny singing lead on Sadie and Bill on Honky Tonky); while Souvenirs was recorded in April 1957 by Johnny Moore (lead), Gerhart Thrasher, Carnation Charlie Hughes and Tommy Evans; and Suddenly There’s a Valley dates from April 1958 and features Bobby Hendricks and Tommy Evans sharing the lead, backed by Gerhart Thrasher and Jimmy Milner. Ironically Tommy Evans would soon join the ‘new’ Drifters by Feb 1961 and stay for two years, while Johnny Moore also joined them by April 1963 and stayed (more or less) until his death in 1998.

This album, released in June 1960, is an odd duck. First, the line-up pictured on the cover – that exact line-up not only didn’t perform on any song on this album, they never recorded anything together at all. Pictured are Elsbeary Hobbs, Rudy Lewis, Charlie Thomas and Dock Green, but by the time Lewis recorded with the group Hobbs had been drafted into the Army and been replaced by Tommy Evans. So although these four performed live for five months or so in late1960 they never recorded together.

Next, only eight of the twelve tracks here were by the current Drifters line-up and only five of those were hits. Three more were b-sides, but the oddest thing is that four of these tracks not only were not hits but had never been released before at all, and moreover were recorded by three different pre-Crowns line-ups, that is, no Ben E King, no Charlie Thomas, etc. Sadie My Lady and Honky Tonky were recorded in June 1956 by Johnny Moore, Bill Pinkney, and the Thrasher bothers (Johnny singing lead on Sadie and Bill on Honky Tonky); while Souvenirs was recorded in April 1957 by Johnny Moore (lead), Gerhart Thrasher, Carnation Charlie Hughes and Tommy Evans; and Suddenly There’s a Valley dates from April 1958 and features Bobby Hendricks and Tommy Evans sharing the lead, backed by Gerhart Thrasher and Jimmy Milner. Ironically Tommy Evans would soon join the ‘new’ Drifters by Feb 1961 and stay for two years, while Johnny Moore also joined them by April 1963 and stayed (more or less) until his death in 1998.