Thanks so much for the info. Well, that is right, but my ears decide at last. Music isn't only technic and vocal virtuosism. For example, I like Larry williams because he was a 'raw singer'. There are also beautiful melodies and I think Moonlight Bay is a delicious song, and this is a delicious cover for my ears, with delicious instrumentation. Really, I always adore The Drifters.
This was done by the Drifters in a singalong Mitch Miller and the gang style, when the group was trying to reestablish itself. The Original Drifters drifted off into the sunset soon after to be replaced by the Ben E King Drifters. This song as most others by the Drifters however still remains a classic for Drifters fans.
Writers who have written about the Drifters (Chaflie Gillett, Marv Goldberg) think of this song as one of the least Drifters-like songs that they did, a song that had very little in common with rock or R&B, and a song that didn't really show what the group could do vocally.