Home Events The Drifters and the Tams (Fire Fighters Concert)

The Drifters and the Tams (Fire Fighters Concert)

Knoxville Coliseum

Dec 7th, 2008

The Drifters
"The Drifters served to link Fifties rhythm & blues with Sixties soul music. They epitomized the vocal group sound of New York City. Theirs was the sweet but streetwise sound of R&B suffused with gospel influences. The material the Drifters recorded came from a variety of sources, including the songwriting teams of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and Gerry Goffin and Carole King. All were New York-based songwriters who wrote evocatively of romance and everyday life in the big city, and the Drifters made an ideal vehicle for the convincing delivery of such scenarios. The records they cut with Leiber and Stoller (who doubled as producers) introduced the sound of strings and Latin-tinged rhythms into the vocabulary of popular music.

Hit songs include:
Save the Last Dance for Me, There Goes My Baby, Money Honey, Up On the Roof, Under the Boardwalk, Some Kind of Wonderful, This Magic Moment, Such a Night, Honey Love, and White Christmas.

The Tams
Well known in The Carolina's for their signature "Beach Music" sound, The "Mighty" Tams have been elected into the Beach Music Hall of Fame, the Georgia Hall of Fame and the Atlanta Music Hall of Fame. They have also been named "Beach Band of the Decade".

THE TAMS are known for such hits as "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy", "What Kind of Fool", "I've Been Hurt" and "Untie Me". "What Kind of Fool" hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and #6 on the R&B charts. While "Be Young, Be Foolish" only hit #26 on the Top 40, the single sold over 1,000,000 copies, sending it to Platinum status. Though their style of music has historically been referred to as Beach Music, it can be also classified as a mixture of Smooth Soul, and R&B. Their show is fun, fresh and exciting and appeals to audiences of all ages and musical tastes.