Charlie Thomas, who was recognized for R&B hits like “There Goes My Child” and “Below the Boardwalk” with the Drifters, died on Jan. 31 on the age of 85.
His pal, singer Peter Lemongello Jr., mentioned the trigger was liver most cancers, the New York Occasions confirmed Monday.
Thomas was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame and devoted greater than 60 years to holding the group’s music alive for future generations. He stayed with the group, from the model of the Drifters that ushered of their first hits within the late Nineteen Fifties to the model he toured with till the pandemic closed the live performance circuit.
“Save The Final Dance For Me” reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, the Drifter’s solely chart-topper, whereas “There Goes My Child,” “Below The Boardwalk,” and “Up on the Roof” have grow to be beloved R&B classics all through the years. Thomas, a tenor, sang lead on “Sweets for My Candy,” which hit No. 16 on the Sizzling 100 in 1961, and “When My Little Woman Is Smiling,” reaching No. 28 the next yr.
“Concord, Concord, Concord — no band, no nothing,” Thomas as soon as mentioned in Streetlight Harmonies, a doc tracing the historical past of doo-wop.
Charles Nowlin Thomas was born in Lynchburg, Va. on April 7, 1937. His father, Willis, was a minister, and his mom, Lucinda (Nowlin) Thomas, was a homemaker.
Thomas was singing with the 5 Crowns, a doo-wop group, at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in 1958, once they caught the eye of George Treadwell, the unique Drifters’s supervisor. The Drifters had been additionally taking part in that evening and when one of many members obtained drunk and cursed out each the present promoter and Apollo proprietor, music historian Marv Goldberg wrote, Treadwell fired all the unique members and changed them with the 5 Crowns. The reinvigorated Drifters would see the success of their greatest singles, led by Ben E. King on the time.
Thomas is survived by his spouse, Rita Thomas; his daughters, Crystal Thomas Wilson and Victoria Inexperienced; and his sons, Charlie “Completely happy” Thomas Jr., Michael Sidbury and Brian Godfrey.