Rat Race / If You Don't Come Back

"Rat Race" and "If You Don't Come Back" are New York R&B with doo-wop harmonies: the A-side an uptempo, brass-driven number about the daily grind, written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Van McCoy; the flip a slower Leiber-Stoller ballad. Both were cut in April 1963 with Garry Sherman arranging, and the label credits "A Leiber-Stoller Production" even though Bert Berns was at the helm.

By 1963 the Drifters were in their second great Atlantic phase, with Rudy Lewis on lead and Johnny Moore back in the group, following "On Broadway" (No. 9 US, March 1963). The American single, Atlantic 2191, led with "Rat Race", which reached No. 71 on the Hot 100 in June; in July Atlantic flipped it and told radio to push "If You Don't Come Back", which only bubbled under at 101. Both sides later appeared on the 1964 LP Under the Boardwalk, which AllMusic's Bruce Eder calls "a superb example of pop-oriented soul"; Tim Sendra, reviewing We Gotta Sing, describes the group's early-'60s output as "drama-drenched mini-operas".

The Australian AK-397 came through Festival Records' Atlantic licence, with AK denoting Atlantic and K a single in Festival's numbering, and was issued on 22 July 1963 with "Rat Race" as the A-side. Beyond that, little is documented about this pressing.