SOME DRIFTING NORTHERN SOUL

Artist: THE DRIFTERS; Title: BABY WHAT I MEAN; Label: ATLANTIC; Format: 7"; 

Cat. No.: 584065; Year: 1967; Country: UK

Carrying on with the Northern Soul vibe from the previous post - looking today at this one in the genre from The Drifters.

 Released on UK Atlantic in 1967 "Baby What I Mean" is a good (and here I mean really good) uptempo offering from Johnny Moore and Co.  It's from that period of their career where the big hits of the early 60's were gone - but they were still knockout gems like this that although weren't massive sellers still did the business on the dance floor; especially those in the UK where these semi-obscure 45s suddenly got picked by the DJs in the Northern Soul clubs. And doubtless part of the reason why UK Atlantic reissued this along with a number of their other tracks in the early 70's - resulting in a lot of them getting back in to the UK charts and doing the business very nicely indeed!

The flip side gives you "Aretha", and I'm thinking pretty much one of the last things Bert Berns wrote (here alongside Jeff Barry) and produced for them before dying of a heart attack.  Song-wise it's another fine Drifters tune - more in the mid-tempo range, and although not quite in the same league as the A Side well worth a listen.  It's just a shame that both sides of this single didn't make it on to that excellent double CD compilation 'The Definitive Drifters' that Rhino issued in the early 00's, as their output from the latter half of the 60's is slightly under-represented.  Any plans out there for The Drifters - The Northern Soul Years'?