| Relationships | Original Members:
Clyde McPhatter
David "Little Dave" Baughan
William "Chick" Anderson
David Baldwin
James "Wrinkle" Johnson
Arthur Hamm
Current Members:
Charlie Thomas
Louis Bailey
Stephen Brown
Jerome Manning
Jeff Hall
Past Members
Gerhart Thrasher, Andrew Thrasher, Charlie White, Bill Pinkney, Willie Ferbee, Walter Adams, Ben E. King, Doc Green, Derek Ventura, Bernard Jones, Lloyd Butch Phillips, Elsbeary Hobbs, Rudy Lewis, Tommy Evans, Johnny Lee Williams, Eugene Pearson, Johnny Terry, Harrell Dixon, J.T. Carter, Johnny Stewart, Terry King, Johnny Moore, Bobby Hendricks, Butch Leake, Rudy Ivan, Jimmy Lewis, Ray Lewis, Bill Fredericks, Louis Price, Maurice Cannon, Glenn Dodd, Michael Williams, Jason Leigh, Phil Watson, Michael Raysor, Dave Revels |
| Biography | The Drifters are an American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953.
According to Rolling Stone, the Drifters were the least stable of the great vocal groups, as they were low-paid musicians[hired by George Treadwell, who owned the Drifters' name from 1955, after McPhatter left. The Treadwell Drifters line has had 60 musicians,] including several splinter groups by former Drifters members (not under Treadwell's management). These groups are usually identified with a possessive credit such as "Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters", "Charlie Thomas' Drifters".
The three golden eras of the Drifters were the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s. From these, the first Drifters, formed by Clyde McPhatter, were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as "The Drifters". The second Drifters, featuring Ben E. King, were separately inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as "Ben E. King and the Drifters". In their induction, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selected four members from the first Drifters, two from the second Drifters, and one from the post-Atlantic Drifters. |