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"Dance With Me" was the second big hit the Drifters got in their modern incarnation, after they were reassembled in the late 1950s with Ben E. King as lead singer ("There Goes My Baby" was the first). Most of the Drifters' hits from the end of the 1950s and 1960s had a Latin dance rhythm putting emphasis on the latter parts of the beat pattern, and "Dance With Me" was firmly in that tradition. While it's not among the very most famous Drifters hits, it's very good, benefiting from a nice attractive intro in which the group harmonizes the title in gently ascending melody. King delivers a confident and sexy vocal, buoyed by a string arrangement that adds drama without being melodramatic, swooping in response to his lines in the verses. The other Drifters make august contributions too, weaving with and counterpointing King's vocal much in the way graceful dancers might dovetail with each other. And, again as with numerous Drifters songs, the strings are the soloists in the instrumental break and do a very nice job indeed, soaring with majesty. Another part of the Drifters' semi-formula was sometimes employing a fadeout on which the lead singer would vocalize in an extemporized and emotional fashion, and that's what King does here. "Dance with Me" was in a sense a prototype for several Drifters hits that followed in its lyrical frame of lovers falling in love to Latin rhythms set to a soul-pop song -- "This Magic Moment" and "Save the Last Dance for Me" have those elements as well. "Dance With Me," oddly, was a B-side when originally released. Its A-side, "(If You Cry) True Love, True Love," did well in its own right, making the pop Top Forty and #5 on the R&B charts. But "Dance With Me" outdid it, reaching #15 pop and #2 R&B, and is the side that's remembered and played on oldies radio, while its flip has been virtually forgotten.
CONDITION: NEW
TRACK LISTING
1 There Goes My Baby 2:07
2 Dance With Me 2:22
3 Ruby Baby 2:21
4 Fools Fall In Love 2:29
5 Such A Night 2:27
6 This Magic Moment 2:25
7 Save The Last Dance For Me 2:31
8 Some Kind Of Wonderful 2:16
9 I Count The Tears 2:06
10 Sweets For My Sweet 2:33
11 When My Little Girl Is Smiling 2:32
12 Please Stay 2:14
13 Up On The Roof 2:34
14 I'll Take You Home 2:38
15 I Don't Want To Go On Without You 2:55
16 I've Got Sand In My Shoes 2:46
17 At The Club 2:52
18 Memories Are Made Of This 2:28
19 Chains Of Love 2:42
20 Come On Over To My Place 2:27
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