R.I.P. Hal Blaine –a true legend…

[elicious]

… and a genuine musical badass;

Summed up by the fact that for six- 6!- years in a row
the Grammy award-winning Record of the year
featured the same drummer on each record -Hal,
(with 4 different artists)

1966 - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass for "A Taste of Honey"

1967 -Frank Sinatra for "Strangers in the Night"

1968 - The 5th Dimension for "Up, Up and Away"

1969 - Simon & Garfunkel for "Mrs. Robinson"

1970 - The 5th Dimension for "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"

1971 - Simon & Garfunkel for "Bridge over Troubled Water"

May he rest forever on 2 and 4...!

[cwsand]

I'd bet he has played on more hit records than anyone! What a great talent and huge loss. RIP

[TOM@METRO]

A true legend, indeed. R.I.P., Hal Blaine.

[Southsidemusic]

It’s always sad when we loose great talent however, how old do you need to be to know who the heck this guy was Never heard of him nor seen the name anywhere ... maybe because I am not even 35 yet hehe (33) for additoonal

[The Weed]

A very small compilation of Mr. Blaine's work.

And to be fair, it's the artist that gets the recognition, not the session player(s).

[elicious]

Besides all the hit records (350 Top Ten)

...did the Batman Theme, and Rocky Horror;

but to Chris' point about never having heard of him,
even many legendary drummers who he influenced didn't know-

Neil Peart -“When I was growing up, I played along to the radio,” Peart said in 2011,
“so I played along to Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, the Association and the Byrds,
and I was really playing along to Hal Blaine.”

[EGS]

First Sideman Inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Here's a cool interview from 2006.
https://coolcleveland.com/2019/03/vi...-hall-of-fame/

[xrekcor]

Yup RIP Hal...... those very tracks listed above were a great influence in my early childhood.