This Magic Moment

"This Magic Moment" by The Drifters

Imagine a radio in 1960, the dial warm to the touch, and a string section swelling out of the speaker like a curtain rising. Then a voice arrives, urgent and tender at once, describing the exact instant a kiss changes everything. That voice belonged to a new lead singer in one of vocal music's most storied groups, and the record he fronted would become one of the most beloved love songs of its century.

A Group Reborn

By 1960, The Drifters were not the same outfit that had formed years earlier. The name had passed through several rosters, and this incarnation featured Ben E. King on lead vocals during one of the most fruitful periods in the group's history. King's voice carried a yearning ache that gave the group a fresh emotional depth. The Drifters of this era were redefining what a vocal group could sound like, blending rhythm and blues with lush orchestration to create something entirely new.

Written By Pomus And Shuman

The song came from the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, one of the most reliable hit-making partnerships of the Brill Building era. The pair had a gift for marrying everyday emotion to memorable melody, and this composition is a prime example. The arrangement wraps King's vocal in sweeping strings, a sound that would soon become a Drifters signature on their run of early-1960s classics. The combination of sophisticated orchestration and raw vocal feeling was relatively novel for a rhythm and blues group, and it helped expand what the genre could be.

Climbing The Hot 100

The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 22, 1960, entering at number 67. It moved up briskly, reaching the 40s within two weeks and then surging into the low 20s as listeners embraced it. The record peaked at number 16 on March 28, 1960, and spent 11 weeks on the chart. Those numbers, strong as they are, undersell the song's true reach. Its real legacy would unfold over the decades that followed, as it became a standard covered and rediscovered by generation after generation.

An Enduring Standard

Few records from 1960 have aged as gracefully. The song has been covered many times across the years, most famously in a hit version by Jay and the Americans later in the decade, and it has appeared in films and on countless compilations of classic love songs. Its melody and sentiment proved timeless, the kind of composition that feels eternal rather than tied to any single moment. For The Drifters and for Ben E. King, who would soon launch a celebrated solo career, the track stands as a high point in a catalog full of them.

The Brill Building Sound

The song belongs to one of the most fertile chapters in American songwriting, the era when professional teams in New York's Brill Building and the offices around it churned out the soundtrack of a generation. These were craftsmen who treated songwriting as a profession, sitting at pianos in small rooms and turning out compositions of remarkable durability. Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were among the very best of that world, and their work for The Drifters represents the partnership at its peak. The system they worked within paired great songs with great voices and great productions, an assembly line of quality that defined early-1960s pop. The lush, string-laden arrangements that became a Drifters signature emerged from this environment, where producers were beginning to treat the studio itself as an instrument. The result was a sound both sophisticated and emotionally direct, accessible to teenagers yet rich enough to satisfy adults.

A New Direction For The Vocal Group

This era of The Drifters helped redefine what a rhythm and blues vocal group could be. Earlier groups had often relied on simpler arrangements, but the addition of sweeping orchestration brought a cinematic grandeur to the form. The combination of a soulful lead vocal with lush strings opened a path that countless groups would follow. It blurred the lines between rhythm and blues, pop, and the emerging sound of soul, expanding the audience for Black vocal groups at a moment when American music was slowly integrating. The Drifters of this period stood at the forefront of that change, and this song is a prime example of their pioneering blend.

Let It Sweep You Away

Put this on and listen for the way the strings and the voice rise together, capturing the sensation the title describes. It is a record built to make ordinary moments feel extraordinary, and more than sixty years on, it still does exactly that.

"This Magic Moment" — The Drifters's singular moment on the 1960s charts.