OLD & NEW MAKES A PERFECT SOUNDTRACK: Utah & The Drifters

The Drifters

About a week ago, I was listening to The Drifters' greatest hits and it brought back memories of the magic moment I was introduced to them. So, as a result, I felt that I had to write about that moment so vibe with me as I take you through that moment.

By now you know, I have gotten my musical taste from my mother. And during our South Carolina days, my mother use to listen to oldies and as soon as she started playing them, I used to run in my room and play Super Nintendo. During that time I didn't want to listen to that. I wanted to listen to Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and some hip-hop. But as I would run away she would tell me "When you get older you are going to love this music, because that's what happened to me". I never wanted to understand what she meant, but today I get it. My friends and family know that oldies are my favorite.

Now this Drifters story starts during my families' South Carolina days when music played a big part of our lives. See my mother was going to college and my father was a truck driver. So sometimes my mother and I would go on trips with him. But this particular time he had this trip going to Utah. At first my mother was little concerned about it because she didn't want me to be out of school too long. But my mother knew I could handle it. As a result, Utah here we come. (Don't want to showoff but I was really smart kid, honor roll all the time. I would have like 25-30 days out of school and still got awesome grades....WELL enough about my grades back to the story....lol)

The journey to Utah begins and my mother puts on a cassette (funny right). And this song comes out of the speakers.

This Magic Moment

Sound so good didn't it? I didn't feel that way then. I wanted my mother to turn it off. Now I couldn't run so I had to deal with it. I looked at my dad and my mother had him so gone with soul music he was vibing to it. Even if he didn't like it, he wouldn't say anything because he didn't want to hear her mouth. But me "mom please turn this old stuff off". But of course she didn't pay me any attention. So, the album continued to play and the more it continued the more I started to like it. Seeing that we had a long trip and my mother wasn't listening to me, I felt I was forced into liking it. As the album kept playing, two songs came on that I actually knew 'On Broadway' & 'Spanish Harlem'. The reason for me knowing these songs because the jazz legend George Benson remade 'On Broadway' and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin remade 'Spanish Harlem' Check out each version

Drifters version of On Broadway

George Benson version of On Broadway

Drifters version of Spanish Harlem

Aretha Franklin version of Spanish Harlem

Epic right?? Aww man the original was great but even the remakes were great too. Aretha and George made those Drifters classics their own. So I asked my mom "so the Drifters made these songs first"? She said "yea George and Aretha were not the first to make those, so many different artists back then remade the Drifters records". With me taking a liking to this, I wanted my mother to continue to keep playing it. By the time we got to Utah, I knew all the words to the songs. Sometimes my mother, dad, and I would sing the songs together. Awesome family moment! The song I can remember us singing together was 'Save The Last Dance For Me'. My mother would always sing lead because OF COURSE she knew all the words and me and pops were the background singers. (Doo wop pop pop in my Tamar Braxton voice)

Save The Last Dance For Me

Aww listening to that brings tears to my eyes because I can feel that moment with me and my family singing this in my pops truck on the way to Utah. What a magical moment!

Fast forwarding to last week, I was on amazon and I was looking for music to buy and I came across "The Very Best of the Drifters" I knew I had to buy it because these guys played a big part of why I love oldies because of that magical ride to Utah.

Here are other Drifters classics

Up On The Roof