The Drifters

The Drifters are a Japanese musical and comedy group. They were active as a music band until 1969. Afterward, they were mainly active as a comedy group. Their television program called Hachijidayo, Zen'inshugo was very popular and was watched by many people from a large demographic.

Members

Current members

• Cha Kato: joined 1962, the fourth leader, lead guitar
• Koji Nakamoto: joined 1962, main vocals and guitar
• Boo Takagi: joined 1964, drum and vocals

Past members

• Chosuke Ikariya: joined in 1962, the third leader, base, died due to lymph node cancer in 2004
• Chu Arai: joined in 1964, piano, left the group in 1973, died due to liver failure in 2000
• Kyu Sakamoto: joined in 1958, vocals, left the group in 1958
• Ken Shimura: joined in 1974, guitar, died due to COVID-19
• Kiyoshi Kishibe: joined in 1956, the first leader, left the group in 1957
• Teruo Sakurai: joined in 1958, the second leader, left the group in 1965

History

The Drifters are primarily known as a comedy group. Currently, the members of the group are Cha Kato, Koji Nakamoto, and Boo Takagi. However, it was originally a music band and far from owarai. It was formed as a band in 1956. The first leader was Kiyoshi Kishibe and the second leader was Teruo Sakurai. Teruo was active as a leader, but he wanted to change the band to a comic band that entertains the audience with funny lyrics and gestures rather than playing music, therefore he recommended Ikariya who was active in the other band at that time and was also focusing on owarai as the third leader. The early band members had a lot of rapid changes because there was a band transfer culture at that time. Even Ikariya didn’t understand who the early members were. Since he became the third leader, the group changed into a comic band. Additionally, he was a perfectionist, and too strict, so four members withdrew from The Drifters because they detested his teaching and comic band. After that, only Ikariya and Kato remained, and he gathered Arai, Takagi, and Nakamoto from the other band hurriedly. A new version of The Drifters was formed with them in 1964. Subsequently, the activities of the group centered on owarai. However, Arai left the group, and Shimura joined in 1974 instead of him. After becoming new members of The Drifters, there were now five total members of the group. They gained popularity on a TV program called Hachiji dayo, Zen'in shugo.

Musical and comedy styles

Musical style

The Drifters were a comic band, and they sang mainly cover versions and parodies of songs that had been sung in Japan. They played a forty-second-long opening act for the concert of The Beatles, which was popular with people all over the world. They got people’s attention because they performed not on stage for the opening act, but on the main stage. After their rise to fame, The Drifters mainly acted as comedians, but the music activities continued.

Comedy style

The Drifters created many patterns and made use of the group. There were many vulgar skits such as script-wasting food such as watermelon and milk. There were also many musical scripts. Takagi was the center of laughter in the group, but Kato became the center of comedy skits after a few months. Although the others improvised on TV, The Drifters created a completely calculated story without improvising. After Shimura joined, it changed into a comic style in which Ikaria was swayed by members of indecent roles. Shimura sometimes improvised on the stage, ignoring Ikariya’s teaching.

Television

Hachijidayo, Zen'inshugo was broadcasted on TBS from 1969 to 1985 with a total of 803 episodes. The Drifters did comedy skits and sang songs including cover versions and parodies in front of audiences. It became a hit and recorded an average audience rating of over 40% and the highest audience rating of 50.5%.

Awards

They won the 12th Japan Record Awards Mass Award in 1970, Japan Music Awards, Comedy Honor Award in 2012, and the top 10 in the record chart, and sold 1.15 million albums.