Today
Unfortunately, today there are only two Drifters still living. Ben E. King who like Clyde McPhatter went solo after a short while
with the Drifters and of course the only voice on all the Drifters recordings since 1958, the voice of Charlie Thomas.
Todays's group
includes the following: Charlie Thomas, born April 7, 1937. He has been in show business for fifty years, first singing gospel and
a short stint with the Orioles, joined the Five Crowns and then in 1958 the Drifters. Jerone Manning who Charlie found in a local
club in York, Pa. singing Drifters songs. Steven Brown from York, Pa. who sang with Sunburst before joining the Drifters. And Louis
Bailey also from York, Pa. who is the son of the famous tap dancer Bill Bailey and the nephew of the Great Pearl Bailey.
The group
today tours throughout the world as "Charlie Thomas' Drifters in order to be distinquishable from the many fake groups claiming to
be The Drifters. The only real Drifter still doing The Drifters greatest hits is Charlie Thomas.
Read about the Drifters Beginnings
and how Clyde McPhatter and others
became The Drifters and the members
who came and went from 1953
to 1958!
Read about how The Five Crowns
became The Drifters and what
happened when and why!
Read this interesting story about
how Atlantic was founded and how
they became so huge in the recording
industry!
