Talking of which, are you familiar with the UK career of The Drifters and their UK hit singles during the 1970's?

These came from when Reincarnation Number 947 of the Drifters, when they were operating out of the UK during the 70's, and recording for Bell Records in London with Johnny Moore as lead singer and Faye Treadwell, who also moved to London, as manager.

Their last hit had been in 1966 in the USA - a song called "Baby What I Mean" and they never charted again.

Atlantic dropped them soon after.

Anyway, they moved over to the UK around 1972, worked Europe, and did a lot of TV work in England and Ireland, so Atlantic cashed in by re-issuing "At The Club", "Saurday Night At The Movies" and "Come On Over To My Place", all of which charted in the Top 10!

So Bell Records in London grabbed the lineup and put them in the studio with pop songwriters like Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and produced a string of Top 10 hits, not one of which even made the US Hot 100 - great songs such as "Like Sister Like Brother" (1973), "Kissin In The Back Row Of The Movies" (1974), "Down On The Beach Tonight" (1974), "Love Games" (1975), "There Goes My First Love" (1975), "Can I Take You Home Little Girl" (1975), "Hello Happiness" (1976), "Every Nite's A Saturday Nite With You" (1976) and their final one which got to Number 5, "You're More Than A Number".

They were touring constantly, and I saw them perhaps six or seven times live in Ireland during the 70's, 80's and 90's - the last time about 1996. Sometimes Johnny Moore was lead singer, other times it was Ben E King, other times it was Ray Lewis.

I think Moore went in and out of the group about four or five times, mainly because he wanted to return home to the USA every so often.

Great stage act, but towards the end, they were including some non-Drifters material as well, which was a bit of a disappointment for me anyway.

Johnny died in London in Devember 1998, and soon after Faye Treadwell went back to the USA, leaving another Drifters lineup to take up the name - none of which as far as I know, had even been in the original group. They actually played for Tony Blair's party the night he retired as Prime Minister.

The Bell singles are great songs - sort of pastiches of the Drifters Atlantic hits, and are really enjoyable.

Never understood wby none of them made it in the USA.

• RE: The Drifters - There Goes My Baby - John 03/18/2010 08:44:04 EDT (1)