Band: The Drifters
Album: Golden Hits
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Drifters vocal style was one that stuck in pop music for a long time. The other side of girl groups, the band sand simple romantic songs for nice folks in the late 1950s.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Oldies are not really rock and roll. I understand having this type of music here as a place for early vocal rock vocal styles, but the record is just OK.
Best song: Pick one, they're all perfectly pleasant.
Worst song: Pleasant, but not great.
Is it awesome?: Blah.
I am far too young for this album. It comes from the same place as Dick Biondi and "Jingle Bell Rock."
The songs are pleasant and there's a lot of value in Lieber and Stoller's contributions to music. But, mostly, this is the type of thing Tony Kornheiser hypes up on his local radio show. It's radio for people who remember pop music before guitars.
