Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Bip Bam

In May 1953 Clyde McPhatter left The Dominoes (he either walked out or he was fired depending on who you believe) and started to get a new backing group together. They were signed by Atlantic president Ahmet Ertegun and had their first recording session on June 29th. McPhatter was unhappy with the results (of the 4 tracks recorded only “Lucille” was ever released) and recruited a new Drifters line up, which consisted of Bubba Thrasher, Gerhart Thrasher, Bill Pinkney and Willie Ferbee. This line up entered the recording studio on August 9th, and from the four tracks recorded, “Money Honey” was chosen as the group’s first single. Success came quickly with this first disc climbing to the top of the R&B charts and establishing Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters as the number one R&B vocal group for the rest of their short career together.

The breakup started in May 1954 when McPhatter was drafted into the Armed Forces. Towards the end of 1954 the parting of the ways was formally announced and the last Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters single, “Whatcha’ Gonna Do”/ “Gone” was released in February 1955. The continuing but separate stories of Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters will feature on future posts on this blog. Once more I can highly recommend Unca Marvy’s R&B pages for the Drifters story in detail.

This 1984 UK issued LP on Edsel features informative liner notes by Colin Escott. And once more I am indebted to Joan K for providing the period cover scans and label shots, a folder of which is featured in the download.

Ripped from vinyl at 320kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download link here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/85778020/Bip_Bam.rar

1. Money Honey
2. Let The Boogie Woogie Roll
3. Don't Dog Me
4. Gone
5. Such A Night
6. Lucille
7. Warm Your Heart
8. The Way I Feel
9. Bip Bam
10. Honey Love
11. Whatcha' Gonna Do
12. If I Didn't Love You Like I Do
13. There You Go
14. Try Try Baby
15. Everyone's Laughing
16. Three Thirty Three

A Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters album, “Rock & Roll” (Atlantic 8003) was released by Atlantic in 1956. The tracks were a mixture of McPhatter solo and McPhatter with the Drifters. There is also a cover scan of an EP (Atlantic EP534) from the 1950s (year unknown), plus various label shots from the folder of Joan’s scans.