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, the only
surviving 1953 member, used the name / mark
THE ORIGINAL
DRIFTERS since the 1950s, committed to keeping alive
the
name and the
sounds of the fifties. He passed away on July 4, 2007.
Your
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