Patti Drew delivered the original hit recording of “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing,” which the 5th Dimension later carried into the Top 20 on both the R&B and pop lists in 1969. She launched her career as lead vocalist of the Drew-vels, an ensemble that also featured her sisters Lorraine and Erma together with bass singer Carlton Black. Born December 29, 1944, in Charleston, North Carolina, she spent her early years in Nashville, Tennessee, before the family settled in Evanston, a Chicago suburb. While attending Evanston High during her teens, she performed regularly in church alongside her mother and sisters. Her mother, employed as a domestic worker, introduced her employer Maury Lathowers—regional promoter for Los Angeles-based Capitol Records—to the daughters’ voices during a church service; impressed, Lathowers arranged a home audition that secured the group a contract with the label. The Drew-vels’ debut single “Tell Him” became a major local success throughout the Chicago area and registered at number 90 R&B in early 1964. The group disbanded later that year, prompting Drew to sign with Peter Wright’s Quill imprint in 1966. She moved to a solo deal with Capitol the following year. Her first solo release, a new version of “Tell Him,” climbed to number 22 R&B in fall 1967, and Capitol simultaneously issued the album Tell Him. Twelve months later her interpretation of the Neil Sedaka/Roger Atkins composition “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing” reached number 34 R&B; the label paired it with an album of the same title and followed with two further LPs, I’ve Been Here All the Time (1969) and Wild Is Love (January 1970). Additional singles included “Hundreds of Guys,” “Keep on Movin’,” and “My Lover’s Prayer.” Drew withdrew from the music industry in 1971 yet reappeared on Carl Davis and E. Rodney Jones’ Innovation Records in 1975. During the 1980s she rejoined Carlton Black in Front Line and performed in the Evanston area. The bulk of her Capitol singles later appeared on the Collectables 1994 CD Tell Him: Golden Classics Edition.
