I wrap up “drum week” with a second set of songs featuring the great Hal Blaine.
Yesterday I played thirteen of the forty #1 songs Hal played on. Today I’m doing another thirteen, and trust me, I am very tempted to come back on Monday with the remaining fourteen! 🙂
Why am I so determined to have Blaine (and other session men) get their deserved recognition? You have to remember that radio listeners and record buyers never knew the truth back then, and that was just the way the major labels like Columbia, Liberty, Dunhill, A&M, and Capitol wanted to keep it. Preserving the illusion that famous bands played their own instruments was big business, very big business.
Image was (and is) everything in the music industry. If a band’s image in the 1960s was all about playing some hip jangly 12-string guitar riffs and creating some funky grooves, as in Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds, then you can be sure companies like Columbia Records (the Byrds’ label) discouraged the public from knowing what really went on behind studio doors.
To make certain he got the best possible performance for this all-important first single release, Terry Melcher, the Byrds’ producer, hired the Wrecking Crew to play all the backing instruments on the song. In other words, there was not a Byrd in sight, with the exception of the guitarist Jim (Roger) McGuinn, who was allowed to play his Rickenbacker electric 12-string on the song. But as far as the record-buying public knew, this future gold record featured nothing but all five Byrds in full flight.
I highly recommend watching The Wrecking Crew, a 2008 film produced by the son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco as a tribute to his late father and a core group of studio musicians who played on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s and 1970s.
About That Hal Strikes Again headline … Mike Botts, the late drummer for the soft-rock group Bread, once recalled, “Every studio I went to in the late sixties, there was a rubber stamp imprint on the wall of the drum booth that said, ‘Hal Blaine strikes again.’ Hal was getting so many studio dates he actually had a rubber stamp made. He was everywhere!”
Memories … That’s What We’re All About
Play buttons are on the left … Volume sliders are on the right
Much More of Hal
Johnny Rivers – Carpenters
John Denver – Dean Martin
Byrds – 5th Dimension
Association – Neil Diamond
Paul Revere & The Raiders
Frank & Nancy Sinatra
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Beach Boys
Simon & Garfunkel
Ted & I both agree we would not object if you posted the remaining 14 on Monday. 🙂 🙂 Lee & Ted
Thanks, Lee and Ted 🥰🥰
Let’s call it a plan!
I might agree with you that Hal was the greatest drummer of all time if only on his versatility to play so many styles!
Even drummed for a drummer Karen Carpenter!
Wouldn’t mind hearing the last 14 to complete the set 🎶
Thanks, Mary Helen 🥰
He could (and did) play so many styles!
The final 14 will play on Monday!
Jojo and I really enjoyed your week of Drumming songs. Have a wonderful day/weekend.
Thanks, Nancy and Jojo ❤️
I am so glad you enjoyed the music!
These were all great songs. He was truly a gifted drummer.
I got to know a couple of people in the recording business that retired from NYC to the Catskills. I met them through the radio station that I had my forestry talk show on. They told me a few horror stories from their experiences back then. It was a very tough business.
Thank you for your history lesson as well as the melodies. I am hoping that we can hear some more of them.
Thank you, Jim! 🥰
I’m glad you enjoyed the music and the background stories.
You’ll hear the rest on Monday!
I think we all agree Ray let’s finish with Hal!! The man could play with anybody!! Just plain loved everything today!!
Love ya
And so we shall, Fred! 🥰 No one has to worry that playing mor from Hal will be a hardship for me. I could play im all day, every day!
Love Ya!
I’m catching up. Had company for two weeks.
Nice to have you back, Erron! 🥰
Was sitting here thinking that most of us don’t know that so many performers sound so much better because of great’s like Hal!! In a studio setting you have some of the best helping you!! Some musician’s sound great on a record but hearing them live without the magic of the studio makes a bit of a difference!! I think knowing that some of the best needed people like Hal to sound even better!!
Spot On, Fred!
Fantastic, 40 #1 songs, Hal Blaine is truly amazing! Thanks for the history, also, Ray. I wonder how he was paid.
Thank you, Pat 🥰 Indeed he was! He and his colleagues were paid by the labels of whatever artist they were backing. They received no royalties or credits on the albums but their going rate was very high at the time (60s/70s)
Glad to hear that they were well paid.
Well paid but it came at the expense of having very little family time.