Chart entered : 18 December 1976
Chart peak : 5
Another group signing out with a biggie, The Drifters' complicated history defies any easy summary.
Their original run of hits seemed to have petered out in the 1960s when "Baby What I Mean" chalked up a single week at number 49 in 1967. They'd already stopped having hits in the US and Atlantic decided to let them go in 1972. Ironically "At The Club/ Saturday Night At The Movies" and " Come On Over To My Place" were huge hits on reissue in the UK later that year and with their contract expired Johnny Moore and Bill Fredericks were free to put a new line up together , sign for Bell and take advantage of the renewed interest. This new Drifters, centred around Johnny's smooth vocals ( Fredericks soon bailed out ) became the primary vehicle for the British songwriting establishment, -Cook and Greenaway, Les Reed, Tony Macaulay etc - and chalked up another nine hits including a number 2 with "Kissing in the Back Row of the Movies" in 1974. Soul snobs always decry this period pointing out that none of these singles were hits in the US but so what ? The Yanks were buying the likes of Foghat, Grand Funk Railroad and Debbie Boone instead.
I think the line up on "You're More Than A Number in My Little Red Book" was Johnny Moore, Clyde Brown, Joe Blunt and Billy Lewis. They had left Bell and this was their first release for Arista. It was written by Macaulay and Greenaway and is an irresistible combination of honey-soaked harmonies , traded leads by Johnny and Clyde, gentlemanly sentiments and an instantly singable chorus. It's very old-fashioned and nostalgic but I think that was their selling point.
That didn't exactly help them to flourish in 1977. Their next single in March 1977, "I'll Know When True Love Really Passes By" written by Reed and Greenaway is a stab at a more contemporary soul sound like Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes but not a successful one. I don't know who did the lead vocal except that it's not Johnny and he's not very good. The song itself is all over the place and its failure is unsurprising. I haven't heard "It Looks Like I'm The Clown Again" , a Macaulay song from July 1977. "Honey You're Heaven To Me" and "Closely Guarded Secret " from 1978, are decent disco pop efforts but their moment had passed.
The group dissipated into a familiar story of frequent line-up changes. Johnny left in 1978 and Joe and Billy left the following year to be replaced by Johnny returning in tandem with former Temptation Louis Price. They signed for Epic and released the Biddu-written disco number "Pour Your Little Heart Out" which featured on the soundtrack to The Bitch. A picture disc re-release of "Save The Last Dance For Me / When My Little Girl Is Smiling" marked their last appearance on the charts reaching number 69.
They crawled into the eighties with "I'm Not That Kind Of Guy " in April 1980 , a decent pop soul effort although their vocal sound was very dated by now. It seems to have been the last new release to bear The Drifters' name. Johnny and Clyde quit in 1982 to be replaced by a returning Ben E King and Bill Fredericks which gave them greater pulling power as a live act. The following year all bar King left and were replaced by the returning Johnny, Clyde and Joe. This line up split in 1986 and really the story should end there but the merry-go-round went on. Johnny, back in the group for the umpteenth time , died in London at the end of 1998 severing the last link with the group's past. Since then there have been competing versions of the group and frequent court battles with the Treadwell family managing to hold on to ownership of the name and push out a completely new line up. This story might go on forever.
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