His strength as an accompanist, unshowy yet unmistakable, brought drummer Hal Blaine, who has died aged 90, a shower of accolades. Indeed, he was recently referred to as the world’s greatest drummer by Brian Wilson, and the New Yorker claimed he was “so unquestionably essential to the last half century of American popular music—to the national condition — that it almost feels as though his face should be on currency”.
Blaine was also considered one of the world’s most recorded musicians. The distinctive sound of Blaine’s expert and imaginative drumming can be heard on countless hits of the 60s and 70s, including 150 US Top Ten hits, 40 Number Ones and many film and television soundtracks.
From Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to the Beach Boys and The Byrds, Blaine (by his own estimation) played on more than 6,000 songs. Notable productions proving Blaine’s percussive skills include The Mamas and Papas’ California Dreamin, The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe, as well as the Grammy award winning singles, Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel), Fifth Dimension’s version of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night.
Despite the fact that he was not a known ‘name’, unlike many of the artists for whom he recorded, it is difficult to underestimate the impact of Blaine’s prolific playing. You didn’t have to see his name in the credits to know his sound and his style.
Blaine was born Harold Simon Belsky to Meyer and Rose Belsky, Jewish Eastern European immigrants, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. When he was eight, he was inspired to learn drumming by watching the fife and drum corps of the Roman Catholic school across the road from his Hebrew school. One of the priests noticed him: he was invited in and soon started playing with them. After serving in the Korean War as an army cartographer, he attended a drum school in Chicago where he was taught by the renowned Roy Knapp. Late night sessions in strip clubs (honing his sight reading skills) led to roles in Count Basie’s big band.
Until the early 60s, Blaine was immersed in the world of jazz. However, unlike some of the highly trained session musicians of the era who had grown up through jazz, Blaine was not one to turn his nose up at more modern musical concepts and he soon welcomed the opportunity to work with different genres, including rock ‘n’ roll and pop. This led to much lucrative session work for the ‘new music’ which was overtaking the old jazz style. Unmatched in his versatility, he transitioned effortlessly from one session to the next, whatever the style. “I was never a soloist, I was an accompanist. That was my forte. I never had Buddy Rich chops,” he told Modern Drummer, in 2005.
In the 1960s he became a key member of Hollywood’s Wrecking Crew (the name was coined by Blaine as a reference to the group’s destructive force in bringing down the old guard of be-suited musicians). This was a collection of LA based session musicians which started out as producer Phil Spector’s house band, helping to create his famous Wall of Sound. Following their success with Spector, they were much in demand, ultimately forming the backbone to hundreds of Top 40 hits.
Blaine’s drumming on Spector’s productions attracted the attention of Brian Wilson. He became a vital element on many Beach Boys’ projects, most notably Pet Sounds, where his creative flair and desire to experiment with an unending variety of percussive sounds seemed to be perfectly matched to Wilson’s artistic vision.
Blaine’s percussive style left an indelible imprint on many other artists’ work. On Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer (1970), Blaine wanted to create a sound that ‘bruised’ the gentleness of the song, giving it a darker edge. His drums were recorded in a lift shaft, creating that unmistakable ‘crash boom’ that pierces the song.
Blaine’s iconic kick-off also famously launched one of Spector’s most memorable productions, The Ronettes’ 1963 hit Be My Baby. This percussive earworm apparently came about accidentally: “I was supposed to play more of a boom-chicky-boom beat, but my stick got stuck and it came out boom, boom-boom chick”, he told the Wall Street Journal in 2011, “I just made sure to make the same mistake every few bars.” His spectrum of beats and fills was a perfect fit for Ronnie Spector’s passionate pleas.
Blaine influenced generations of drummers who came after him and emulated his style on so many hit songs. His playing changed the face of contemporary music of the time: the fills and grooves that he created form the basis of modern pop music. Blaine set the bar so high that it gave other drummers something to reach for.
Blaine may have become less prolific by the late 1980s, when drum machines and sequencers started to take over, but he was always held in high regard by the music industry. He was rewarded by being inducted into the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Blaine was married five times. He is survived by his daughter, Michelle Blaine, and seven grandchildren.
DALIAH SHERRINGTON
Hal Blaine born February 5, 1929. Died March 11, 2019
