Hal Blaine: Rock 'N' Roll Drummer

From Holyoke to Hollywood, New England native has backed up the biggest names in music

By Mike Briotta, PRIME Editor If you've ever grooved to the sounds of rock 'n' roll music, you've already heard the rhythms of Holyoke native Hal Blaine. With thousands of recordings to his credit, it's easier to ask what hits he hasn't drummed up. He's the pulse of "A Little Less Conversation," "California Girls," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Secret Agent Man," "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'" and countless other tunes. Blaine, now 81, is enshrined in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame. Watched television at some point in the last half-century? Then you've also felt the legendary drummer's tempos propelling such TV theme songs as "Batman," "The Partridge Family," "The Brady Bunch" and yes, "Three's Company" too. His resume is staggering; a list of the hits the drummer has played on takes up at least four printed pages. Hal Blaine is a legend who's recorded more than 5,000 different tracks for hundreds of different musicians. Coming full circle, back to his roots in New England, his blue sparkle Ludwig drum set was on display in West Springfield this fall with the Musicians Hall of Fame tour at the Big E. These days, Blaine himself doesn't get many chances to return to his old stomping grounds of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, but he does hold fond memories of New England, where he spent his formative years. Blaine lived in Holyoke through age 7, and then moved to Hartford where he lived through age 14. "In Hartford, I played a little bit with a marching band," he recalled in a phone interview with PRIME from his home in California. "We had just been through the [1944] Ringling Brothers circus fire. I was shoveling you-know-what, and pulling wagons. I was very fortunate to work as a roustabout, which is funny because many years later I would wind up working with roustabouts once again." Blaine quipped about working with Jerry Lee Lewis: "He had the reputation of being an animal, but when he came out here to California, he was a gentleman." He said of the Mamas and the Papas: "I did all their records. Those people were living on Crown Royal booze." His personal liner notes on some of the greatest singers of a generation are fascinating. "I was playing with Elvis [Presley] for about five years. He had a lot of respect for us," Blaine recalled. "I did all his recordings once he got out of the Army. It was an amazing time for us. I was actually on film with him in the movie 'Girls, Girls, Girls.' I guess you can say that put me on the map." But before making it big in Hollywood, he would have to pay his dues on the strip club circuit in Chicago. "We were lucky that all the strip clubs had live music and we were a trio," he said of his fledgling experiences as a professional musician. "I lived at the Majestic Hotel in Chicago, and we played music every night, seven days a week from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. It was nothing but hookers, strippers and gangsters. I was lucky to survive."

Beat of a Generation

It's almost impossible to listen to a classic rock radio station for more than a few minutes without hearing Hal Blaine on drums. It would also be hard to find anyone else whose personal narrative is so tightly interwoven into the fabric of popular culture. Remember when rock was young? Blaine was there, backing up the hit-makers on his small jazz-influenced drum set. He made some of the most memorable beats in history. When rock sold out to large arenas in the 1970s and later, Blaine was there too, helping to usher in that era's trend of grand-scale performances. His buoyant spirit is why Blaine was always in demand as a session drummer. Without giving away his e-mail address, let's just say it appropriately features the words "happy" and "drums." When others fail to embrace this spirit of sharing for the greater good, it leaves Blaine confounded. He's among the stars of an upcoming movie about his band of musical brothers. Problem is, various copyrights have tied up the release of the film, which has been 15 years in the making. "A lot if it is attitude," he said of his first successes doing studio demo work in California. "I learned quickly how to make people laugh. The recording industry was different in those days. It was a lot like the motion picture studios." Blaine was the studio drummer for the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, the Mamas and the Papas, the Byrds, the Monkees, and many more. He provided the pulse for rat pack icons Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. His gigs included backing up John Denver, Neil Diamond and Steely Dan. It was his flexibility and willingness to play this new style of music called rock 'n' roll that helped him land a few pivotal gigs. He could certainly play other styles such as Latin and jazz music- in fact Blaine gave up a steady career as a jazz sideman to try his hand at rock. "It all started around '58 with a young kid named Tommy Sands," Blaine said. "A manager came to me and said, 'We need a drummer to do a demo.' I was a jazz guy in Hollywood. Every night [in the audience] in front of me were stars like Clark Gable. I was playing with Count Basie at the time. I could have chosen any band I wanted. But this manager said, "I'll pay you 75 bucks and it will take you 10 minutes.' I said, "I'll be there!'" He continued, "We played three or four songs and I had the job if I wanted it. So I went on tour with Tommy Sands." He added, "We were a handful of guys who did not refuse to play rock 'n' roll, which at the time was considered garbage, a dirty word. Some of us were lucky enough to say, 'Who cares? It's paying us money.'" Blaine would come to call his group of studio musicians "The Wrecking Crew" because together they demolished what was once a jazz-only establishment in Hollywood studios. "There was no messing around," Blaine said. "We would do an album in one day, recording eight to 12 songs. And they were perfect." Years later, the drummer was later tapped to help record a retrospective Nat King Cole album after that famous singer had passed. The studio musicians played to previously recorded vocal tracks. "That was a very sad time," he said. "I came into Capitol Records after Nat had passed away. They wanted to put out some of his former hits with rock beats to them. It was just two to three days of overdubbing." "There was not a dry eye in the house. These were uncut tapes of Nat talking, joking and lighting cigarettes."

Ghost Notes

The situation of a musician "subbing" in the studio for another performer might seem to foster conflict. One person lays down track after track of hit songs in the recording studio by day - and then his on-stage counterpart gets all the glory, fame and a paycheck each night. But there isn't a jealous bone in Blaine's body, as he joyfully talked about so many of the famous musicians he ghost-drummed for. "Dennis [Wilson] was a true Beach Boy," Blaine said. "He was the only one in the group to actually be a surfer and he had a great time with it. I always say that when I was making $35 in the afternoon, he was making $3,500 onstage every night. They came along at the right time, with the right stuff." While Wilson may have provided the surfer-boy attitude, it was Blaine's cleverness on records like the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" that established his innovative approach to recording. He wasn't afraid to grab any object at hand to make music. Blaine clinked tiny, plastic orange juice bottles for one song, then clanged away at overturned ashtrays on another. He would shake castanets in the middle of a rock record, which was an unheard-of accompaniment for the genre. "I did just about all their records from day one," Blaine said of the Beach Boys. "Brian [Wilson] loved little songs, with all their clicks, bangs and ticks. You learn real soon the saying that less is more. 'Be My Baby' was strictly an accident. The opening to that record, I just played it the way I felt it. That's the way I played records." He continued, "I always wanted to hear what the song was about. If it was a beautiful little love ballad, I didn't want to be bashing the drums." With the success of the Beach Boys and other studio efforts came what some might call his 'salad days.' The drummer, however, offers a more delicious description. "It was at that time that I say we fell into a vat of chocolate," Blaine explained. "We started making $1,000 a day. We were making an awful lot of money." Blaine continued his free-spirited and creative ways with the Simon and Garfunkel recording of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a song in which he emphasized the backbeat with snow tire chains. "When Paul Simon played 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' for me, I saw the image of a black man in a chain gang," Blaine said. "I told him, 'Let me go out to the car and get something to overdub. So I'm slamming these tire chains on the '2' and '4' and I'm shaking them on the '1' and '3.' Paul Simon would later say in an interview that he was inspired to write the song by chain gangs down South. It's a great coincidence that I felt the same thing." Looking back at his incredible series of hit song accompaniments from the '60s and '70s, he realizes his feats will probably never be matched by modern drummers. In the current age of electronic sampling, no "sidemen" will probably ever again reach his prolific milestones. "It was a Golden Era," he said, reflecting on the times. "Every time I went to work, it was another notch on my drumstick. The more hits we made, the more stars came out to play with us." The city of Holyoke declared Hal Blaine Day in October of 1991, which is an event that he recalls fondly to this day. "Some of my relatives were there. I hadn't seen them in many years. It was great fun," Blaine said. He added, "Give my love to everyone back there. I do miss Massachusetts, especially around the holidays. It will always be in my memories."