Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters - Historical Overview

Clyde McPhatter (top), Bill Pinkney, Gerhardt Thrasher, Willie Ferbie, Andrew Thrasher

Music’s Drifters represent more than the story of a single group’s
success. Changes in personnel and management have led over the
years to the sprouting of many Drifters permutations since organizer
CLYDE MCPHATTER first went to the Atlantic Recording Company.

When Atlantic rejected McPhatter's initial singers (The Mt. Lebanon
Gospel Singers), he recruited versatile gospel singers BILL PINKNEY
from the Southern Knights, and brothers GERHARDT and ANDREW
THRASHER from The Thrasher Wonders to join forces with him. They
signed with the company in 1953, thereby establishing the foundation
upon which a music legacy was subsequently built.

Thirty five years later in 1988, originals McPhatter, Gerhardt Thrasher,
and Pinkney, along with subsequent Drifters Johnny Moore, Ben E. King,
Rudy Lewis, and Charlie Thomas were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. It's staff filmed Pinkney’s oral history for archival inclusion
as a part of its Legends Series in March, 2000.

PINKNEY was the last surviving 1953 member when he passed away in
2007. He had used the name / mark THE ORIGINAL DRIFTERS since
1958, keeping alive the name and the sounds of the fifties for 64 years.

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