WRECKING CREW DRUMMER DIES

HAL BLAINE DEAD AT 90!

Hal Blaine  -  1929-2019 

Now I feel ashamed I didn't know who Hal Blaine was and everyone of us interested in contemporary music of a certain age has undoubtedly heard his work. He was universally admired amongst fellow musicians and especially fellow drummers.
 I found this:

Drummer Hal Blaine     Uncredited and Undated Photograph

Drummer Hal Blaine has died.  His is a name that will only be familiar to music lovers who are somewhat fanatic like me, and who pay attention to such things, as he was a session drummer and not a member of any particular band.  He was part of the legendary Wrecking Crew, the group of session aces in Los Angeles who played on just about everything being recorded in that city during the late ‘50s and then all through the ‘60s.  By the way, the Wrecking Crew got its name when older studio musicians and studio execs complained that the young cats in jeans and tee shirts would “wreck the whole music business” with their rock nonsense.  They obligingly took that to heart, Blaine began referring to the group of  young musicians as the “Wrecking Crew” and the name stuck.  You’ve absolutely heard Blaine’s drumming, even if you were unaware of it.  Just a few of the things Hal Blaine drummed on:  Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends” album; Herb Alpert’s “A Taste of Honey;” Sam Cooke’s “Another Saturday Night;” The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album; the Mamas and Papas’ “California Dreamin’;” Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love;” the Crystal’s “Da Doo Ron Ron;” the Ronette’s “Be My Baby;” Leonard Cohen’s “Death of a Lady’s Man” album; Dean Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody;” Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe;” the Byrds’ version of “Mr Tambourine Man;” the original cast recording of “The Rocky Horror Show;” Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were;” and Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” to name just a few.  The Musicians Union, of which Blaine was a proud member, compiled a list of 4,000 songs he was the drummer on.  Blaine was the drummer on 6 consecutive Grammy Records of the Year (and this has to be a record that will never be matched): Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in 1966 for “A Taste of Honey,” Frank Sinatra in 1967 for “Strangers in the Night,” The 5th Dimension in 1968 for “Up, Up and Away,” Simon & Garfunkel in 1969 for “Mrs. Robinson,” The 5th Dimension in 1970 for “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” and Simon & Garfunkel in 1971 for “”Bridge over Troubled Water.”

“The drummer with The Knack, Bruce Gary, was once asked who his favorite drummer was, and he said he was never so disappointed in his life to find out that a dozen of his favorite drummers were me.“ Hal Blaine