{"id":2178,"date":"2021-05-16T21:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T21:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2021-05-16T21:56:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T21:56:20","slug":"ftv-americas-heartbeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2178","title":{"rendered":"FTV: America’s Heartbeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Vaults:\u00a0 America\u2019s Heartbeat<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mental music quiz time:\u00a0 Who is the connecting thread between the following hit songs?\u00a0 <\/span>Good Vibrations<\/span><\/i> (The Beach Boys);\u00a0 <\/span>Be My Baby <\/span><\/i>(The Ronettes);\u00a0 <\/span>Return to Sender<\/span><\/i> (Elvis);\u00a0 <\/span>Strangers in the Night <\/span><\/i>(Frank Sinatra);\u00a0 <\/span>Mr. Tambourine Man<\/span><\/i> (The Byrds);\u00a0 <\/span>Mary, Mary <\/span><\/i>(The Monkees); and <\/span>The Way We Were <\/span><\/i>(Barbra Steisand)?\u00a0 The title may have given you a clue as the answer is \u2018drummer Hal Blaine\u2019.\u00a0 The list could have been significantly longer as Blaine has been credited with playing on more than six thousand songs in his storied career, but the short list presented is just an attention grabber.\u00a0 Imagine what <\/span>Be My Baby<\/span><\/i> would have sounded like without the\u00a0 \u2018Boom, ba-boom BOP, Boom, ba-boom BOP\u2019 intro Blaine provided.\u00a0 I can\u2019t because it is so iconic, it is literally burned into my brain.\u00a0 The riff has been used by so many other drummers and in so many songs, Blaine should have copyrighted it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having spent more than a few FTV segments on drummers, I had bookmarked Amanda Petrusich\u2019s article <\/span>The Drummer Hal Blaine Provided the Beat for American Music<\/span><\/i> a while ago.\u00a0 It was published in <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i> magazine after he died at age 90 on March 11, 2019.\u00a0 Only recently did I find it on the bottom of my cache of reference materials.\u00a0 Born Harold Simon Belsky on February 5, 1929 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, he was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. \u00a0 By age seven, the family was living in Hartford, Connecticut and young Harold was already exploring his drummer chops playing along with songs using dowels (removed from a kitchen chair) for sticks.\u00a0 By age eleven, he joined a drum and bugle corp sponsored by the Catholic parish across the street from his Hebrew school.\u00a0 Hal\u2019s sister Marcia gifted him with his first drum set when he turned thirteen.\u00a0 A pretty typical beginning for a young drummer, but this drummer would go on to play on more than 35,000 recording sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hal\u2019s father worked across the street from The State Theater in Hartford so every Saturday, he would give his son a quarter to keep him occupied.\u00a0 Hal would spend his time attending stage shows, movies, cartoons, and big band concerts by the likes of Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Gene Krupa.\u00a0 Blaine later recalled, \u201cI had no idea what an impact they all would have on my later years.\u00a0 I was a 13- and 14-year old kid during those years, and they were probably the happiest of my teenage life – sitting transfixed, glued all day long every Saturday, watching my favorite bands and taking special note of the drummers.\u00a0 When I got home, I couldn\u2019t wait to get a hold of my sticks and run the arrangements I had just heard.\u00a0 I just knew that one day the drummer would get sick or fall off the stage and I\u2019d jump up and save the show.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A move to Los Angeles followed when he was fourteen.\u00a0 Hal dropped out of school at sixteen and joined the Army.\u00a0 After basic training, Blaine was assigned to the band and transferred to Korea.\u00a0 There PFC Belsky became the drummer in a band made up of officers.\u00a0 After his 1948 discharge from the Army, Hal spent a year playing in Alaska and the Northwest U.S. with the Stan Moore Trio.\u00a0 A buddy convinced him to move to Chicago where he used his G.I. Bill money to enroll in the Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion.\u00a0 The curriculum kept Hal busy during the day while he spent his nights at various clubs.\u00a0 From 8:00 in the evening to 4:00 in the morning Blaine played what were known as \u2018casual\u2019 gigs; dates usually in support of a musician or to provide rhythm for the \u2018dancers\u2019 at strip clubs.\u00a0 Graduation took him back to California for another round of gigs including road work that took him across the country and back again.\u00a0 His time with singer Tommy Sands saw Hal fulfill his \u2018sick drummer\u2019 dream when he provided Count Basie\u2019s Band with their beat at New York City\u2019s Waldorf Hotel.\u00a0 Blaine was offered the Basie gig full time, but turned it down to stay with Sands.\u00a0 Some may question the move, but recording with Sands would prove to be his big break and serve as his training ground for later studio work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Sands retired to Hawaii, Blaine hooked up with Patti Page, a connection leading to a friendship with arranger\/composer H.B.Barnum.\u00a0 The studio work he did for Barnum introduced Hal to session drummer Earl Palmer.\u00a0 Palmer began recommending Hal for other studio work.\u00a0 Blaine\u2019s work with Herb Alpert\u2019s Tijuana Brass on <\/span>A Taste of Honey<\/span><\/i> produced the first \u2018Record of the Year\u2019 he would play on.\u00a0 Can the drummer make a difference in an arrangement?\u00a0 Blaine explained how the one-bar drum solo introduction to <\/span>A Taste of Honey <\/span><\/i>came about:\u00a0 \u201cAfter the little intro, the band was not coming in together, so I just did \u2018boom-boom-boom-boom diddly-diddly-diddly\u2019 and everyone came in perfectly. [The producer and] Herb loved it, so it sort of became the hook of the song.\u201d\u00a0 It would not be the first or last \u2018hook\u2019 Hal Blaine would add to a record.\u00a0 We played a few of Alpert\u2019s hits in high school pep band and my only regret is we never took a crack at <\/span>A Taste of Honey<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Kicking it off with Blaine\u2019s intro would have been a drummers\u2019s dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blaine can also be credited for improving the way music was recorded for movie soundtracks.\u00a0 He was asked by Paramount Studios to be the drummer for a \u2018youth\u2019 movie that was going to be filmed in Hawaii.\u00a0 It turned out\u00a0 to be <\/span>Blue Hawaii<\/span><\/i> featuring Elvis Presley.\u00a0 The first session ended when the engineer came into the studio to complain that the track being recorded sounded nothing like songs he was hearing on the radio.\u00a0 Blaine explained why;\u00a0 they were doing it old school with only one overhead mic on the drums.\u00a0 He convinced them they needed two overhead mics and separate mics on each drum, and the hi-hat.\u00a0 The engineer thought, \u201cI was nuts because they didn\u2019t have inputs to mic the whole set like that, but the next take came out perfect.\u201d\u00a0 Saving the day opened the door for even more soundtrack sessions for Blaine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hal picked up more and more work as a first-call drummer for rock sessions because he was the best. \u00a0 Working with the mercurial Phil Spector would become a big part of Blaine\u2019s studio history.\u00a0 The aforementioned \u2018Boom, ba-boom BOP\u2019 intro to <\/span>Be My Baby<\/span><\/i> (produced by Spector) was actually a mistake:\u00a0 \u201cAs I recall,\u201d he said later, \u201cwe rehearsed it with a regular backbeat on the 2 and 4.\u00a0 But then when we did the first take, I dropped my stick and missed the 2.\u00a0 So being the faker that I am, I just played the 4, and one of the things you learn is that when you make a mistake, if you do it every four bars it becomes part of the song.\u201d\u00a0 Working with Spector found Hal recording with a regular core of musicians that became known as \u2018The Wrecking Crew.\u201d\u00a0 Blaine takes credit for the nickname:\u00a0 \u201cSome of the older studio musicians, who were raised on jazz and showed up to sessions in jackets and ties, complained that these young rock and roll musicians who showed up for sessions in jeans and T-shirts were wrecking the music business.\u201d\u00a0 Work with The Wrecking Crew was so abundant that Blaine refused many offers to tour so he wouldn\u2019t jeopardize his studio work.\u00a0 He made an exception for Nancy Sinatra.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blaine recalled why he agreed to go to Las Vegas with her: \u00a0 \u201cShe made me an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse.\u00a0 She left room for me to commute back to the studios to keep my name in the running for good sessions.\u201d\u00a0 The <\/span>These Boots are Made for Walkin\u2019 <\/span><\/i>sessions led directly to Hal working with \u2018Old Blue Eyes\u2019 himself, Frank Sinatra:\u00a0 \u201cIf you listen closely, I played th<\/span>e<\/span><\/i> same beat on <\/span>Strangers in the Night<\/span><\/i> that I played on <\/span>Be My Baby<\/span><\/i>, just slower and softer.\u201d\u00a0 Blaine was never flashy and it was that \u2018heartbeat steadiness\u2019 and adaptability that kept him working.\u00a0 Blaine told <\/span>Modern Drummer <\/span><\/i>magazine, \u201c I was never a soloist, I was an accompanist.\u00a0 That was my forte.\u00a0 I never had Buddy Rich chops.\u00a0 Blaine joked that drummer Bruce Gary (of the Michigan band The Knack) once said that he was disappointed to find out that, \u201cA dozen of his favorite drummers were [Blaine].\u201d\u00a0 As for me, after copping drum licks from the top forty stuff we played in my various bands over the years, I was actually thrilled to learn that I was lifting parts from the fabled Hal Blaine.\u00a0 And yes, I have used the \u2018Boom, ba-boom BOP\u2019 on more than one occasion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Working for a perfectionist like Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys may have been even more difficult than working with Spector, but Hal said Wilson let him experiment.\u00a0 Blaine recalled, \u201cBrian loved sounds.\u00a0 One time I took three empty, plastic orange juice bottles, and I cut them down to three different sizes so they had three pitches.\u00a0 I taped them together and hit them with a xylophone mallet, and it sounded somewhat like a bongo.\u00a0 I used that sound on <\/span>Caroline, No.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Name your favorite Beach Boys sound and you are probably remembering Hal Blaine\u2019s work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other innovation he brought to recording drum sounds had to do with tuning:\u00a0 \u201cI came along at a time when drummers tuned their drums real high in pitch – real tight.\u00a0 A lot of that was for technique so they could get a lot of \u2018bounce to the ounce\u2019 so to speak.\u201d\u00a0 Hal worked for a lot of singers who liked his tuned down drum sound so it carried over into his studio work.<\/span><\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cMy set had 12 drums (not the regular four or five), which no one had ever heard of.\u00a0 It really was a major change, which makes me proud.\u00a0 I wanted a full, bigger spectrum of sound to be able to do more with drums.\u201d\u00a0 Paul Revere & the Raiders hit <\/span>Cherokee People<\/span><\/i> is perhaps the best illustration of how he worked his multiple toms into a song\u2019s arrangement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Studio musicians were rarely credited for their work on the record jackets.\u00a0 When word leaked\u00a0 the Monkees (or the Pre-Fab Four as some called them to distinguish them from a \u2018real\u2019 band) were singing over tracks recorded by The Wrecking Crew, some bands backed off using studio musicians.\u00a0 This turning point in record labeling became known as \u2018The Monkees\u2019 Scandal\u2019.\u00a0 Some labels began giving credit where credit was due by listing the studio players who appeared on the records.\u00a0 For a comprehensive list of Blaine\u2019s recordings, there is an actual web site out there in cyberspace listing them alphabetically.\u00a0 Be forewarned, it takes a long time to get through the list because you will find yourself humming a lot of your favorite songs before you can move along.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another example of Blaine\u2019s approach to session work can be found in Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s song <\/span>The Boxer<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Blaine decided that the \u2018<\/span>lie-la-lie\u2019 <\/span><\/i>section needed a little more punch to the drum accents.\u00a0 He and producer Roy Halee set his drums up in an empty elevator shaft and when the time came, he used what he called \u201ca cannonball-like sound;\u00a0 I hit the drums as hard as I could,\u201d adding a distinctive texture to what started out sounding more like a sweet lullaby.\u201d\u00a0 When I hear <\/span>The Boxer<\/span><\/i> now and it gets to the \u2018<\/span>I am leaving, but the fighter still remains, lie-la-lie BOOM\u2019 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0I get a mental image of Blaine wailing away in an elevator shaft to produce those whomping drum sounds<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the 1980s, things began to change in the music industry on both the creative and consumer ends.\u00a0 Recording technology advanced to the point where more artists were choosing to use artificial drum sounds or loops in the studio.\u00a0 In some cases, the practice migrated to live performances.\u00a0 With a decrease in studio work (fall out from electronic drums and looping), Blaine found himself doing more commercial jingles.\u00a0 When that type of work also began to disappear, he retired from playing.\u00a0 He would occasionally do clinics and some promotional work for a movie about The Wrecking Crew.\u00a0 Blaine didn\u2019t say much about record sales tanking due to other advances in technology other than the obvious:\u00a0 recording albums hardly pays when music is downloaded or traded with no compensation to the artists.\u00a0 Having a zillion downloads of a single on the internet does not have the same financial wallop it did when those numbers represented the sale of real, physical records or CDs.\u00a0 Blaine lost most of his wealth in a messy divorce and at one point worked as a security guard in Arizona during his semi-retirement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hal Blaine\u2019s career became kind of a Classic Rock footnote, but he did not sound bitter about any of his life:\u00a0 \u201cWhen I started out, I was a jazz drummer, but I always say that when I came to California, I fell into a vat of chocolate because so many guys refused to play that dirty word:\u00a0 \u2018rock and roll\u2019.\u00a0 I got to record on so many labels and work with so many wonderful musicians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When he was still doing clinics for Zildjian (cymbals) or Taye or whoever, Blaine said, \u201c I always told the kids that a song is a story, and if you\u2019re just smashing the hell out of the drums, no one can hear the words of that story.\u201d\u00a0 When he passed away in 2019 in Palm Desert, California, his family released a statement that simply said, \u201cMay he rest forever on 2 and 4.\u201d\u00a0 A drummer to the end, right up to his epitaph.\u00a0 It is a given that <\/span>Rock and Roll Heaven<\/span><\/i> got a little louder when Hal got there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 You can’t see Hal Blaine on this clip, but you can hear his classic beat on this 1963 hit for the Ronettes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Vaults:\u00a0 America\u2019s Heartbeat   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mental music quiz time:\u00a0 Who is the connecting thread between the following hit songs?\u00a0 Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys);\u00a0 Be My Baby (The Ronettes);\u00a0 Return to Sender (Elvis);\u00a0 Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra);\u00a0 Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds);\u00a0 Mary, Mary (The Monkees); and The Way We Were (Barbra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2182,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}