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Hal Blaine
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Hal Blaine was born in 1929 as Harold Belsky in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the child of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He began drumming at the age of eight. His father worked in a nightclub, and Hal went along to watch the drummers of the jazz bands and orchestras. As a boy he survived the great Hartford circus fire of 1944, where he had gone mainly to see the drummer of the circus band. That same year the family moved to California.
Music and breakthrough
After drum lessons with Roy Knapp, who had also taught Gene Krupa, he played night after night in clubs in Chicago, where he quickly learned to sight-read. He played in Count Basie's big band and then went into the studio. Unlike many jazz musicians, he enjoyed playing rock 'n' roll. In the 1960s he was the regular drummer of the group of session musicians in Los Angeles that he himself called The Wrecking Crew. He played on records by Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Byrds and The Carpenters. His beat on Be My Baby by The Ronettes (1963) came about by accident: he hit the snare drum only on the fourth beat, and Spector let that mistake stand.
Influence
Blaine played, by his own estimate, on more than 35,000 recordings, including 150 American top 10 hits. He gave the hits of the 1960s their rhythmic foundation, while the public hardly knew his name. In the 1980s the work declined because of drum machines. In 2000 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died in 2019.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1967Psychedelic Percussion
- 2019Drums Drums A Go Go
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 12: The Hit FactoryNL Reader