Hal Blaine

 

What do some of the biggest hits of The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, The Monkees, Jan and Dean, Simon and Garfunkel, The Fifth Dimension, Sam Cooke, Diana Ross, The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, Neil Diamond, The Everly Brothers, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, Roy Orbison, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., The Righteous Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Richard Harris, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Grass Roots, Johnny Rivers, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, The Association, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters, John Denver, and Elvis Presley have in common?

 

Hal Blaine!

 

The first studio musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hal anchored a group of studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew whose exploits are chronicled in his published memoirs Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew. Incredibly, each year from 1966 to 1971, the drummer on the Grammy Record of the Year was, you guessed it, Hal Blaine.

 

With thousands of recordings including some 40 number-one hits and 150 that appeared in the top ten, Hal Blaine is often referred to as “forty of your favorite drummers”.