Hal Blaine, a member of the Los Angeles-based Wrecking Crew of studio musicians who played drums on thousands of songs during the 1960s and ’70s, died Monday. He was 90.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member played on albums by Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Carpenters, Partridge Family, John Denver and the Supremes, just to name a few.
By his estimation, he played drums on more than 6,000 songs during his career, including 38 No. 1 singles.
During the 2008 Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, California, organizers bestowed Blaine with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival’s Cruisin’ Hall of Fame. Blaine grew up in San Bernardino. He told a local newspaper at the time:
“My first work was in San Bernardino in a nightclub called the Magic Carpet, a wonderful dinner club,” he said. One of the people he worked with in San Bernardino was Bobby Troup, who wrote the song “Route 66.”
He also did his first recordings in San Bernardino with disc jockey Bill Bellman at radio station KFXM. “That’s where I got my first real studio work, where I had to find out what studio work was all about. We did some wonderful records there,” Blaine said.
As for the highway, he said, “Of course, I got to drive Route 66 many, many times from Chicago to LA and back when I was on the road and things like that.”
Like his Wrecking Crew colleague and Tulsa legend Leon Russell, you could make a massive CD collection or Spotify playlist of songs Blaine played on while cruising down the Mother Road. Here are a few suggestions from a partial list:
- “I Get Around,” Beach Boys
- “Surf City,” Jan & Dean
- “America,” Simon & Garfunkel
- “California Dreamin’,” The Mamas & The Papas
- “Dead Man’s Curve,” Jan & Dean
- “Fun, Fun, Fun,” Beach Boys
- “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” Beach Boys
- “Poor Side of Town,” Johnny Rivers
- “Surf City,” Beach Boys
- “Ventura Highway,” America
(Image of Hal Blaine at work in 1995 by ht via Flickr)
Stats vary from story to story some times, not surprising with a career this long. MLive,com had a story saying…
“Blaine performed on 40 No. 1 singles, 150 Top 10 hits and played on, by his own count, more than 35,000 recorded tracks. A member of the fabled Wrecking Crew team of session musicians, he has backed such stars as Dean Martin, John Lennon, Simon & Garfunkel, Steely Dan, The Byrds and many others.
He had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was a 2018 recipient of the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.”
But they made no mention of his time in San Bernardino, not his ties with Route 66. It’s always nice to get those extra details here. Thanks Ron!
RIP Mr. Blaine.
The great Hal Blaine has passed, but what an extraordinary career he had and he left us a wonderful legacy of music. I especially loved his work with The Beach Boys. The “Pet Sounds” sessions 4-CD box set reveals some interesting moments where the conversations between Hal (and other members of the Wrecking Crew) and Brian Wilson are captured and you begin to understand how “God Only Knows” was still a work in progress and you feel like you are witness to the masterpiece in the making. Great stuff. R.I.P. Mister Hal Blaine, master musician in the history of American music.