Sunday 5 June 2016

Record of the Year 1961: Drifters - I Count the Tears


You could probably tell from my review of 1961 that I wasn't particularly inspired by the hits of that year in general. However there were some good tunes including this, my record of the year.

This was the last UK single for the Drifters with Ben E King as the lead vocalist having left the group in 1960 after being a member for just 2 years.

What I like about the song is how its sad in terms of lyrical content and the key its sang in, but has quite an uplifting beat at the same time. The Drifters have several well know songs and this probably isn't one of them having reached number 28, but sometimes its the lesser known ones which are the better ones.

All further releases by the Drifters in the 60s didn't even get as high as 28 and that included "Under the Boardwalk" which despite being one of their better know songs, failed to reach the top 40 stalling at number 45.

The 70s though brought them their most successful chart period scoring 8 top ten hits. Being the Drifters though, it was a completely different line up by this point.

Whilst they haven't troubled the charts since the 70s, they are still going today and still keep on changing their line up. The current longest serving member joined the band in 2006 and wasn't even born when this record came out in 1961.

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