THIS OLD WORLD STARTS GETTING HIM DOWN…
Doo-wop legends the Drifters lived up to their name with their frequent rotation of personnel – members kept drifting in and out. Their two best-known incarnations were completely different bands – the “first Drifters” were initially helmed by Clyde McPhatter, then cycled through several frontmen before manager George Treadwell fired the entire lineup after one of the members got into a brawl at a concert. Treadwell recruited a wholly different band, the Five Crowns, as the “second Drifters” or “new Drifters”.
This second incarnation proved the band’s apex, buttressed by material from the great Brill Building songwriting duos (Leiber and Stoller, Pomus and Schuman, Goffin and King). Though the group was typically fronted by Ben E. King (until he split for a solo career), Rudy Lewis (until he joined the 27 Club), or Johnny Moore, tenor Charlie Thomas was one of the group’s pillars and could be heard backing classics like “There Goes My Baby”, “Save the Last Dance for Me”, “Up on the Roof”, and “Under the Boardwalk”. Thomas occasionally took lead vocals, most notably on “Sweets for My Sweet”. In recent decades there have been various Drifters splinter groups with the names typically distinguished by its frontman, and Thomas fronted “Charlie Thomas’ Drifters” until shortly before his death.
The last surviving Drifter to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Charlie Thomas was 85. Last survivors theme team Going Solo counts the points (na na na na na na late at night).
Charlie Thomas
7 April 1937 – 31 January 2023, aged 86
💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 10 POINTS