Clyde Lensley McPhatter was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1932. He was raised in a religious Baptist family, where his father was a preacher and formed a gospel group in 1945 after his family moved to New Jersey. They soon relocated to New York City, and McPhatter joined the Mount Lebanon Singers, a popular gospel group. Originally a soprano, when Clyde's became a tenor, he joined with another soprano turned tenor Billy Ward and his band The Dominoes. They had a hit in 1951 with "Sixty Minute Man" which was one of the earliest rock and roll records and the first record by a black rock and roll group to cross over to pop. After several more hits, McPhatter quit the group in 1953 because he made little money and gained virtually no fame, in spite of his voice being the lead on most of the group's songs. Upon hearing about Clyde's departure from The Dominoes, Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun tracked down McPhatter in Harlem and encouraged him to form a new group. This new group, called The Drifters were signed to Atlantic Records. "Money Honey", "Such a Night", "Honey Love", "White Christmas" and "Whatcha Gonna Do" became huge hits.

In 1954, McPhatter was drafted in 1954 but was assigned in the US, allowing him to continue recording. He soon left The Drifters and launched a solo career. His first solo hit occurred after being discharged from the country "Love Has Joined Us Together" with Ruth Brown. He released several R&B hits in the next few years but was unable to make a serious dent in the pop charts, largely because white groups covered his best compositions and achieved widespread mainstream success. In spite of this, McPhatter became one of the most popular black musicians among white listeners, even joining Bill Haley on a national tour upon his release from the Army.

McPhatter soon signed to MGM Records, and released several more hits. "I Told Myself a Lie" and "Think Me a Kiss" (1960) became minor pop hits, as was "Ta Ta", his first single for Mercury Records. "I Never Knew" and the Billy Swan written-in-class tune "Lover Please" (1962) became even bigger pop hits, but his career started suffering due to rampant alcoholism. Other black artists were following McPhatter's blueprint into pop audiences, including Jackie Wilson, Rudy Lewis, Johnny Moore, Sam Cooke and an all-new line-up of The Drifters. McPhatter's unreliability kept him from maintaining his career in the face of this competition. As the 1960s wore on, McPhatter's career kept falling in spite of a few minor hits. In the 1966, McPhatter spent the next four years living in England, where he still had a significant audience, but this was short-lived due to Clyde's alcohol abuse. A 1970 album on Decca Records called Welcome Home, was Clyde's last recording. He died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 39. Clyde was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987.