Ben E. King & The Drifters

George Treadwell owned the rights to the name "Drifters", and still had a year's worth of bookings for the Apollo when he fired the group. In the summer of 1958, he approached Lover Patterson, the manager of The Five Crowns featuring lead singer Ben E. Nelson, better known by his later stage name of Ben E. King. The new line-up consisted of King (lead tenor), Charlie Thomas (tenor), Doc Green (baritone), and Elsbeary Hobbs (bass). James "Poppa" Clark was the fifth "crown"; he was not included due to an alcohol problem, which Treadwell had considered to be a problem with the first group.[11] The group went out on the road to tour for almost a year. Since this new group had no connection to the prior Drifters, they often played to hostile audiences.[4] This new lineup, widely considered the "true" golden age of the group, released several singles with King on lead that became chart hits. "There Goes My Baby", the first commercial rock-and-roll recording to include a string orchestra, was a Top 10 hit, and number 193 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "Dance with Me" followed, and then "This Magic Moment" (number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960). "Save the Last Dance for Me" reached # 1 on the U.S. pop charts and #2 in the UK. This was followed by "I Count The Tears." This version of The Drifters was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000 as Ben E. King and the Drifters. The writeup indicates an award primarily as a tribute to Ben E. King with a nod to his time in The Drifters, with only one of five paragraphs exclusively devoted to The Drifters, though Charlie Thomas was also cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame's induction of the original Drifters, which technically was only through 1958). With this brief golden age lasting only two years, personnel changes quickly followed. Lover Patterson (now the Drifters' road manager) got into a fight with George Treadwell. Since Patterson had King under personal contract, he refused to let him tour with the group. Thus King was only able to record with the group for about a year. Johnny Lee Williams, who sang lead on "True Love, True Love", the flipside of "Dance with Me", handled the vocals on tour along with Charlie Thomas. When the group passed through Williams' hometown of Mobile, Alabama, Williams left the group. (Williams died on December 19, 2004, at age 64. When King asked Treadwell for a raise and a fair share of royalties, a request that wasn't honored, he left and began a successful solo career. Williams left at the same time