You Bet Your Reindeer Sweater
Frank Mastropolo
Most know the Drifters as the smooth and soulful group of the early 1960s that featured singers like Ben E. King, Charlie Thomas, Johnny Moore, and Rudy Lewis. “This Magic Moment,” “Under the Boardwalk,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “On Broadway” and “Up on the Roof” were all Top 10 hits by the group.
But an entirely different band of singers, led by tenor Clyde McPhatter, formed as the Drifters in 1953. Backed by Bill Pinkney, Willie Ferbee and brothers Gerhart and Andrew Thrasher, the Drifters topped the R&B charts with songs like “Money Honey,” “Ruby Baby” and “Honey Love.” For many, the songs went unnoticed; the racism of the era meant that pop stations, which catered to white audiences, wouldn’t play R&B records.
In all, the Drifters would place nine records in the R&B Top 10, including the greatest holiday song ever put on vinyl: “White Christmas.”
In 1942, Bing Crosby was the first to record the Irving Berlin classic for the movie Holiday Inn. As American soldiers shipped out to fight overseas, the song’s story of wishing to be home for Christmas touched millions; “White Christmas” would become the best-selling record in history. More than 100 artists, from Elvis to Twisted Sister, would go on to record the classic.
While on tour in 1953, McPhatter asked Pinkney to write an arrangement of “White Christmas” for the Drifters. Pinkney looked to the 1948 version by the Ravens, a pioneering R&B group that featured bass vocalist Jimmy Ricks as the first lead, followed by falsetto tenor Maithe Marshall. Pinkney said he “jazzed up the vocals” and opened the song with his deep baritone. “Clyde took the high part, the top tenor part,” said Pinkney, “and I came back in after that.”
In February 1954, the Drifters recorded “White Christmas,” which was released that November. While the song became a №5 R&B hit in 1954, its popularity remained in the black community.
That changed in 1990, when young Macauley Culkin, singing into a comb, lip-synched the Drifters’ version in the hit movie Home Alone. An appearance in 1994’s The Santa Clause followed and an Internet cartoon by animator Joshua Held of Santa and his reindeer voicing the track has been viewed more than eight million times. All this has made the Drifters’ “White Christmas” a welcome radio staple each holiday season.
Clyde McPhatter was inducted into the Army in late 1954; when his tour was up, he embarked on a solo career that produced hits like “A Lover’s Question” and “Lover Please.” McPhatter was just 39 when he died in 1972.
The Drifters continued recording until the entire group was famously fired one night in 1958 at the Apollo Theater and replaced by the Five Crowns; that lineup, fronted by Ben E. King, would represent what many consider the golden age of the group.
Undaunted, Bill Pinkney renamed his group the Original Drifters and continued to perform until 2007, when he died at the age of 81. Pinkney was the last founding member of the Original Drifters.
There’s more on the history and music of the Original Drifters on their website.
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 100 Greatest Soul Songs. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.