From:   "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Fri Aug 15, 2003  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Bill Pinkney

BILL PINKNEY

Born 15 August 1925, Sumter, South Carolina

Though Bill Pinkney likes to advertise himself as "the last surviving
original Drifter", he was not present at the very first recording session
by the Drifters in June 1953 ("Lucille", "Gone"). However, by the time
"Money Honey" was recorded two months later, Pinkney sang second
tenor, alongside Clyde McPhatter. When bass singer Willie Ferbie 
became ill, Pinkney dropped down to bass. He sings on some thirty
recordings made by the Drifters between August 1953 and June 1956.
That's Bill singing lead on the Drifters' version of "White Christmas",
a perennial seller.

In September 1956, Bill was fired from the group by George Treadwell
(the Drifters' manager), after he had the nerve to ask for a raise for the
group. Pinkney, not one to brood, immediately put together a group 
called The Flyers, which included Bobby Hendricks. They signed to
Atlantic's Atco subsidiary for one 45, "My Only Desire". However, after
two Drifters received a letter from Uncle Sam in 1957, Pinkney was in
and out of the group for performances. He rejoined the Drifters in the 
studio for the "Drip Drop" session of May 1958, taking Bobby Hendricks
with him. "Suddenly There's A Valley" (which sounds as if it could have
been recorded ten years earlier) is a duet between Bobby Hendricks 
and Pinkney.

Not long after this session, the entire group was sacked by Treadwell
(who had copyrighted the name The Drifters) and replaced by the Five
Crowns, with Ben E. King as lead singer. They became the new Drifters.
Pinkney, Hendricks and the other ex-Drifters went on as The Original
Drifters, though Bobby Hendricks soon left to pursue a solo career (and
scored a hit with "Itchy Twitchy Feeling"). The amazing thing is that, 45
years later, Pinkney is still fronting a group called The Original Drifters, 
in spite of several name changes and countless personnel changes.

Before Pinkney joined the Drifters in 1953, he had been a member of the
gospel group The Jerusalem Stars, which also included Brook Benton.
Before that, he had sung with the Singing Cousins gospel group from
1946 to 1949.

Rock 'n' roll fans will remember Pinkney for his Phillips International
single (3524), "After The Hop"/"Sally's Got A Sister". These songs were
recorded on February 8, 1958, along with one other unissued track.
By then, Sun was an all-white label, Rosco Gordon excepted, so Bill
was the first black artist to grace a Sun microphone in quite a while.
Label credit went to "Bill Pinky and the Turks". "After The Hop" was 
co-written by Pinkney and Bill Justis, who is in good form on the sax.
Good as the single was, commercially it went nowhere, and there
would not be any further Sun sessions.

Website Original Drifters: http://www.originaldrifters.com/
Bill's autobiography (coming very soon): http://www.drifters1.com/

In May 2003 Warner/Atlantic issued "The Definitive Drifters" (2 CD-set,
58 tracks), probably the best Drifters anthology currently on the market, 
apart from the comprehensive 7-CD set on Sequel.