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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Ray Pollard's "The Drifter" was one of the most beloved records of all time to the entire Northern Soul scene, even though it wasn't strictly speaking true Northern Soul, being more of a Sixties beat ballad. It was all because the late lamented Les Cokell always claimed it was his all time favourite record, so much so that, rather morbidly, his copy of it was buried with his ashes, when he died in 1996. Ray Pollard started out with The Wanderers on Savoy, then on Decca, Onyx, Cub, MGM, and finally on United Artists, where Ray then went solo and recorded "The Drifter" and "Its a Sad Thing". He then signed to Eddie Singleton's Shrine Label, and released one single "No More Like Me". He then signed to Decca for two singles, and then joined the Joe Cuba Sextet in 1972, and also had one last solo single, on the Omnipotent label, in 1973. He became aware of his Northern Soul following, and made a couple of visits to England. In 1999, my dear friend Ralph Tee went to Las Vegas, and we rerecorded him doing "The Drifter", and filmed it in a huge trucking area, with Ray even dressed as a Drifter. I needed it for my mega-documentary, "The Strange World Of Northern Soul" as a tribute to Les Cokell, who had been the main DJ who first pioneered the Northern Soul Scene as we know it today. Ray had lost one arm, and had a prosthetic, so as an actor, he became very prolific in film and TV, any time they needed a one armed man, including Harrison Ford's remake of The Fugitive. Sadly he died of cancer in early 2005. A really lovely man, and a true gentleman, who would do anything for anyone at any time.
always did and always will bring a lump to my throat.. the best northern tune ever..
Absolutely delightful!
I had the honour of seeing Ray perform
at Great Yarmouth a night i'll never forget.
Ray has always had legendary status in Stoke
RIP Big Man.
Soul music at it's best Ray RIP thanks for those memories, Ian please keep doin what you doin spread the word superb music- thank you.
That is so beautiful.
Awesome Vid!!! Love the piano line during the pause, da da da da da! Beautiful line. Great song and fantastic artist. RIP!
googo
A valuable piece of soul music history! Fantastic video! So many thanks for postin' it!!!!
Van B. (Greece)
R.I.P. mr. Pollard...
Oh yes Mr pollard what a soul guy ! ! !
Love, one of my all time hits, I just start to cry when I first see this video, thanks Ian.
wonderful song.
fantastic song love dancing to this
This is one of my all time favorite tracks.Big thanks to Ian Levine .
superb
good one!
great song, thankx BoB
Sheer Class.
class.....
class
this guy stood in a class all his own. you should check out some of his stuff done w. the wanderers, namely "thinking of you" "please" and my all time favorite "two hearts on a window pane"-fantastic!
❤️
I did say that in my blurb to the right of the video. Unfortunately, TH-cam, unlike MySpace, only show the first line of the blurb, and you actually have to go to the trouble of clicking on it to read the rest.
Probably because they're my own legal copyrights and my own personal work, not just sharing some old videos that anyone can pick up on the web. "The Drifter" was of course originally a 45 in 1965, but not this later 1999 version that I produced.
So I guess you tracked him down and made this video? Great. Nice tribute.
Is this a remix? Sounds different to all the other versions on youtube
Ian Levine does not own the original recording and re-recorded this to capture Ray Pollard singing this on video.
It says in the text that he joined the Joe Cuba Sextet. Does anyone know in what capacity? A vocalist? or did he play an instrument too?
"What are the chances of you getting the video of his 100 club performance up here Ian?" - Absolutely ZERO. I only post videos up here which I have produced myself. This is the Ian Levine TH-cam Channel, of MY videos. Sorry - end of story.