Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. There Goes My Baby
2. Oh My Love
3. Baltimore
4. Hey Senorita
5. Dance With Me
6. If You Cry True Love True Love
7. This Magic Moment
8. Lonely Winds
9. Nobody But Me
10. Save The Last Dance For Me
11. I Count The Tears
12. Sometimes I Wonder
13. Please Stay
14. Roomfull Of Tears
15. Sweets For My Sweet
16. Some Kind Of Wonderful
17. Loneliness Of Happiness
18. Mexican Divorce
19. Somebody New Dancing With You
20. Jackpot
21. She Never Talked To Me That Way
22. When My Little Girl Is Smiling
23. Stranger On The Shore
24. What To Do
25. Up On The Roof
26. Another Night With The Boys
27. I Feel Good All Over
28. Let The Music Play
29. On Broadway
30. I'll Take You Home
31. If You Don't Come Back
32. Didn't It
33. One Way Love
34. He's Just A Playboy
35. Under The Boardwalk
36. I Don't Want To Go On Without You
37. I've Got Sand In My Shoes
38. Saturday Night At The Movies
39. At The Club
40. Come On Over To My Place

Disc 2:

1. She Never Talked To Me That Way
2. When My Little Girl Is Smiling
3. Stranger On The Shore
4. What To Do
5. Up On The Roof
6. Another Night With The Boys
7. I Feel Good All Over
8. Let The Music Play
9. On Broadway
10. I'll Take You Home
11. If You Don't Come Back
12. Didn't It
13. One Way Love
14. He's Just A Playboy
15. Under The Boardwalk
16. I Don't Want To Go On Without You
17. I've Got Sand In My Shoes
18. Saturday Night At The Movies
19. At The Club
20. Come On Over To My Place

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21632 in Music
• Released on: 1993-07-26
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .37 pounds

CD Description
Between 1953 and 1958, the Drifters were among the biggest acts in R&B. The group's members, however, were an unruly bunch, prone to offending club owners and disc jockeys. The group's manager (owner of the band's name) finally fired the entire group in a desperate act that should have spelled the end of the Drifters. In fact, it turned out to be the beginning of a spectacular run of hits.
Rather than write off his losses, manager George Treadwell found a new group to be the Drifters, this one led by the legendary Ben E. King. Therest, as they say, is history. Over the next seven years, the Drifters hit over and over again with such classics as "There Goes My Baby", "Dance with Me", "This Magic Moment", "Up on the Roof", and "Under the Boardwalk". The group even survived the departure of King, replacing him with two equallygifted frontmen, Rudy Lewis and Johnny Moore. Fans of R&B history will no doubt find the two-disc ALL TIME GREATEST HITS an indispensable addition to their collection. Another two-disc set, LET THE BOOGIE-WOOGIE ROLL, covers the group's early years.

Customer Reviews

EXCELLENT ORIGINAL RECORDINGS THAT SOUND SO FRESH.
THIS IS THE DRIFTERS AT THEIR BEST. IKNOW MOST OF THESE RECORDINGS BECAUSE LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE I HAVE HAD THEM FOR YEARS ON TAPE BUT UPDATING TO CDWAS PRESENTLY SUPRISED WITH SOME TRACKS I HAD NOT HEARD BEFORE LIKE "NOBODY BUT ME" WHICH I BELIEVE WAS THE FLIP SIDE OF 45 "SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME.

absolutely brilliant
First of all, may I say that there is no definitive Drfter's compilation- but this is a great place to start. It has many of the classics- Under the boardwalk, Saturday night at the movies, etc. and has some great gems on there that I had never heard before- this collection is actually a lot better than the Rockin' and driftin' boxset which I found completely disappointing. Put this on. lay back and enjoy- a must.

All the Drifters hits from 1959 to 1965 - and much more
The Drifters were onne of those groups that went through a lot of line-up changes, so let's first clear up any confusion first. There was a group with that name before 1959 - it feautured Clyde McPhatter and recorded some wonderful R+B, some of which is available on other CD's. That group was disbanded, and a totally different group was given the Drifters name. It is that line-up, featuring Ben E King, that opens this collection (which is presented in chronological order). Ben left after Save the last dance for me to pursue a solo career. His solo hits are not included in this collection, which is why Spanish Harlem and Stand by me are missing. You can obtain these recordings on Ben's own albums, although I've also seen Drifters compilations which include Ben's solo hits.

So, what you get here are forty of the finest tracks from their best period, including Save the last dance for me, There goes my baby, Dance with me, On Broadway, Some kind of wonderful, One way love, Up on the roof, Under the boardwalk, Saturday night at the movies, When my little girl is smiling, Sweets for my sweet and others - all huge American hits. Only Save the last dance for me was a big hit in Britain for the Drifters, because record companies at that time often found local singers to cover the songs and they had the hits instead. This shameful practice died out by the end of the sixties.

Even with all their hits included, there is plenty of room to explore their B-sides and album tracks. All the ones included here are excellent, but my favorite is their cover of Stranger on the shore, an extremely sad song which which was a huge instrumental hit for clarinetist Acker Bilk. Many vocal versions of this song exist, but the Drifters sing it as well as anybody.

After 1965 (which marks the end of this compilation), the Drifters didn't have much success in America, but they enjoyed a new wave of popularity in the seventies in Britain, where they had several top ten hits. Even as a Brit, I prefer their sixties music, but for anybody interested in their seventies music (including Kissing in the back row of the movies) there are plenty of other compilations available here.