May 20, 1964: The Death of The Drifters' Rudy Lewis

May 20, 1964: Rudy Lewis dies of a drug overdose in Harlem. He was 27 years old, an early member of what became rock and roll's "27 Club."

Charles Rudolph Harrell was born on August 23, 1936 in Philadelphia. Like Sam Cooke did with The Soul Stirrers, he switched from gospel music to rock and roll, as 1 of only 2 men ever to sing with the otherwise all-female Clara Ward Singers.

In 1961, he succeeded Ben E. King, who had begun a solo career, as the lead singer of The Drifters. He sang lead on such hits as "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Up On the Roof" and "On Broadway." He didn't sound much like King, but his voice worked well with groupmates Charlie Thomas, Dock Green and Elsbeary Hobbs, and the orchestral backing the group usually had, among the first rock and roll groups to mix with classical music.

In 1962, Hobbs was drafted into the U.S. Army, and Tommy Evans of the original Drifters was brought back. That same year, Dock Green left, and was replaced by Eugene Pearson of The Cleftones. In 1963, Evans left again, replaced by Johnny Terry, who had been one of James Brown's Famous Flames and had, with Brown, written Brown's 1st hit, "Please, Please, Please."

Lewis was found the morning after his death, the day the group was supposed to record a song that was something of a sequel to "Up On the Roof": "Under the Boardwalk." Johnny Moore, who had been in the group in its original version, led by Clyde McPhatter, was brought back to sing lead on that song.

In 1965, The Drifters appeared on a special hosted by New York disc jockey Murray "The K" Kaufman for NET, the predecessor of PBS. They sang "Up On the Roof" on an apartment rooftop in Lower Manhattan. But it was Johnny Moore singing lead for that recording, not Rudy Lewis.

The group had one more notable hit, "Saturday Night at the Movies," later in 1964. George Treadwell, who had managed the group from its 1953 start, died in 1967. Without his control, it got to the point where pretty much every man who had ever been in The Drifters was going around the country with his own group, and calling it "The Drifters," whether it was legal or not.

Clyde McPhatter died in 1972, Tommy Evans in 1984, Dock Green in 1989, Elsbeary Hobbs in 1996, Johnny Moore in 1998, Jimmy Lewis in 2004, Johnny Terry in 2005, Bill Pinkney (last survivor of the original Drifters) in 2007, Ben E. King in 2015, and Bobby Hendricks early in 2022. As of May 20, 2022, Charlie Thomas is the last surviving key member. (UPDATE: He died in 2023.)

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May 20, 1964 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 7-4 at Yankee Stadium. Camilo Pascual outpitched Ralph Terry. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs, and Tony Oliva hit 1. For the Yankees, Johnny Blanchard hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with a walk. Roger Maris went 2-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Nick Willhite outpitched Ron Locke. 

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Athletics, 8-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with 3 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-3 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington. John Kennedy (a black player, and no relation to JFK or RFK) hit 2 home runs. Al Kaline went 2-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Joe Torre hit a home run. Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Frank Robinson hit a home run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Bob Gibson allowed 4 hits and no walks, striking out 12, to outpitch Larry Jackson. 

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Colt .45s, 4-3 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Roberto Clemente did not play. The Colts became the Houston Astros the next season.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Dick Allen, Johnny Callison and Wes Covington hit home runs for the Phillies. For the Giants, Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were not scheduled.

January 14, 1955: Alan Freed Hosts New York's 1st Rock and Roll Concert

January 14, 1955: Alan Freed, disc jockey on WINS, 1010 on the AM dial, hosts New York City's 1st rock and roll concert, at the Saint Nicholas Arena. The demand for tickets is so strong, a 2nd show is booked for the following night.

Freed did not coin the term "rock and roll," but he was the first person to use it to describe the form of music itself, thinking it a better term than "race music," "jump music," or even "rhythm and blues" (R&B).

In 1952, he hosted what's recognized as the 1st rock and roll concert anywhere, at the Cleveland Arena. In 1954, WINS brought him to New York to be the Big Apple's 1st white DJ to play rock and roll.

His critics said he was corrupt, that he took money to play certain records. It was true. It was equally true that, if he didn't like a record, he wouldn't play it no matter how much you offered him. He kept a copy of the Manhattan phone book in the studio, and, if he thought a record had an especially good beat, he would pound his fist on the phone book, to make the beat even better.

Both nights of the show were sold out, and featured Big Joe Turner, the Moonglows, Fats Domino, and the original, Clyde McPhatter-led lineup of the Drifters. Unfortunately, no audio recording, no film, and no photograph of these shows is known to exist.

Despite the all-black concert lineup, and the name reminiscent of St. Nicholas Avenue, the Arena was not in Harlem. It was at 69 West 66th Street, off Columbus Avenue, now across from Lincoln Center. It was built in 1896 and was The City's first major skating rink, and America's premier hockey venue before the 1925-1968 version of Madison Square Garden, what came to be known as "The Old Garden," was built.

It continued to host boxing cards until 1962, when ABC bought it, used it as a production center, and tore it down in the 1980s to build their new studios. WABC-Channel 7's Eyewitness News, and Live (with Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kelly Ripa, and so on) are taped there. So were Good Morning America and The View, before their moves to bigger studios. So were the now defunct The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The Rachael Ray Show.

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January 14, 1955 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA, including a doubleheader at the Boston Garden. In the opener, the New York Knicks beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 97-83. In the nightcap, the Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 100-95.

And the Milwaukee Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 86-84 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. The Hawks couldn't draw in Milwaukee, and, the next season, moved to St. Louis. In 1968, they moved to Atlanta. The Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957, and the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1968.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-2 at the Chicago Stadium. Most likely, if either the Knicks or the Rangers had been playing at The Garden that night, the Freed concert still would have sold out.