"Great" and "tragic" are words that are invariably used when pop historians refer to '50s R&B singers Clyde McPhatter and Frankie Lymon.
If such hits as McPhatter's "Money Honey" and Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" point to the glory and influence of these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members, the dark side of their careers is underscored by substance abuse and early deaths.
McPhatter was 39 when he died in 1972 of a heart attack that was believed to have been caused by years of drinking.
Lymon, whose life story was outlined in the recent film "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," was only 25 when he was found dead in 1968 in the bathroom of his grandmother's apartment in New York, a syringe by his side.
Understandably, it's the happier side of McPhatter's and Lymon's lives that are saluted in a pair of just-released CDs.
*** 1/2 Clyde McPhatter, "The Forgotten Angel," 32 Records. From the album title to the passionate liner notes, there's a strong sense of crusade about this album, which was compiled by Grammy-winning record producer Joel Dorn and singer Aaron Neville.
The goal: to draw attention to McPhatter, who has never enjoyed the fame or critical recognition of such peers as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.
"Like a breath of fresh and emancipating air, McPhatter brought his soaring, gospel-drenched vocal approach to a buttoned-down era when such thrilling cross-pollinations were only beginning to be undertaken," Bill Dahl, in his somewhat breathless liner notes, declares of McPhatter's impact on R&B. "When Clyde first surfaced with Billy Ward's Dominoes in 1950, his delivery was fresh, daring and exciting, forever refuting the precise impeccably-modulated lead tenors of the Ink Spots' Bill Kenny and the Orioles's Sonny Til. . . ."
Oddly, given this description of the Dominoes period, the album doesn't pick up McPhatter's career until after he left the group in the early '50s and formed his own group, the Drifters, at Atlantic Records--a gap that costs the collection half a star in the ratings.
Though the Drifters would enjoy their greatest popularity after McPhatter left the group for a solo career, his records with the Drifters were hugely influential.
Elvis Presley recorded two of the group's biggest hits, "Money Honey" and "Such a Night," and the Drifters' recordings of "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "White Christmas" surely helped shape the musical vision that Phil Spector brought to his own legendary Christmas album in the '60s.
