Backdated, archival post
[link to original on tumblr]
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I'm listening to a compilation album of the Drifters. I figured I'd better transcribe their "Some Kind of Wonderful" because I noticed something about it last time I did this Collection Audit project, and in doing so, I noticed something else.
In the bridge, there are the lines "There's so much I wanna say / But the right words don't come my way." It reminded me of "I love you / Yes I do, but the words won't come" and "My words should explain / But my words won't come" in the Zombies' "I Love You" (written by Chris White, their bass player). I'll cite the same source I cited two years ago: in the Zombie Heaven liner notes, Paul Atkinson (their guitarist) says, "We hung out in Ben E King and the Drifters' dressing room, and we'd play poker and sing and play guitar." "Some Kind of Wonderful" is from 1961; that Atkinson quote refers to 1964; and "I Love You" is from 1965, so the chronology would allow for that influence.
This also calls into question something I noticed a few years ago. There's a similar line in "Now I Know I'll Never Get over You" from Colin Blunstone's The Ghost of You and Me album. It's "It's alright if the words won't come." Since Blunstone is the leader singer for the Zombies and wrote "Now I Know I'll Never Get over You," I thought that it was likely that he took that line from "I Love You," even if just subconsciously. But now that I found a similar line in a Drifters' song, I'm not so sure. Two years ago, I postulated that this same Drifters' song influenced Blunstone's "Wonderful" from his Journey album.
I feel it worth noting that the Zombies recorded a version of Blunstone's "Now I Know I'll Never Get over You" (titled just "Never Get over You") on their new album Still Got That Hunger, so that Drifters' influence - if it's viable - has caught up with them again.
