Hal Blaine, in an undated photo, played on 40 No. 1 hits for some of the biggest names in pop music. (CNN) — Drummer Hal Blaine, whose smooth backbeat anchored many of the greatest hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s, including the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” has died. He was 90. His death Monday was confirmed by his family through a statement on his official Facebook page. “May he rest forever on 2 and 4,” it said – a reference to the drum beat that’s a foundation of many rock songs. Few people knew his name, but Blaine’s playing can be heard on thousands of recordings by many of the biggest names in popular music. In 2000 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which credited him with playing on more hit records – including 40 No. 1 singles – than any drummer in the rock era. “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever,” said the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson on Twitter. Blaine played on many of the band’s hits, including its landmark “Pet Sounds” – widely regarded as one of the best rock albums of all time. Blaine also was a core member of the Wrecking Crew, a revered group of elite session musicians in Los Angeles who played on songs by many of the top artists of the era, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to Sam Cooke and Sonny & Cher. The collective, which included a young Glen Campbell, gave themselves the nickname after older musicians complained their rock music was “wrecking the business.” Kevork Djansezian/AP "The Wrecking Crew's" Don Randi, from left, Glen Campbell and Blaine are inducted into RockWalk in 2008. Blaine chronicled their unsung contributions to the music industry in a 1990 memoir, “Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew.” A 2008 documentary, “The Wrecking Crew,” brought them some modest fame. He also was known for his work with producer Phil Spector, whose pioneering “Wall of Sound” production style became widely influential. Blaine’s most famous drum riff may have been his “bum-bum-bum BOOM” intro to the Ronettes’$2 1963 hit “Be My Baby,” which Spector produced. By Blaine’s own estimate, he performed on 35,000 recorded tracks over more than 25 years. Among the No. 1 hits he played on: Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”; “Help Me, Rhonda” by the Beach Boys; “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” by Nancy Sinatra; “Monday Monday” by The Mamas & the Papas; “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension; “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel; “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by the Carpenters; “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Neil Diamond; “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand; and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver. Fellow drummer Ringo Starr paid tribute to Blaine on Twitter on Monday, calling him “an incredible musician.” In a 2005 interview with Modern Drummer magazine, Blaine attributed his success in part to hard work. “You’ve got to be the master of your instrument, you’ve got to be dedicated, and you’ve got to do a lot of practicing, especially in the beginning,” he said. “Once you’ve got it, you’ve got it. It will always be with you.” CNN’s Stella Chan contributed to this story.<doc-sep>Hal Blaine, one of pop music’s most prolific and brilliant drummers, who played with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys and more, has died aged 90. The news was announced on his Facebook page, where he was described as a loving father and grandfather, “and inspiration to countless friends, fans and musicians … May he rest forever on 2 and 4. The family appreciates your outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Hal from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning.” Son-in-law Andy Johnson said that Blaine died of natural causes. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson paid tribute, saying Blaine “was such a great musician and friend … Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot.” As a session musician, Blaine played drums on the band’s album Pet Sounds, as well as hits including I Get Around and Good Vibrations. Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees said he was “deeply saddened … Hal played drums on the soundtrack of our lives for many of us”, while country singer Margo Price called him “one of the most talented and prolific drummers to ever live”. Hal Blaine in 1966. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Born in Massachusetts in 1929, Blaine learned drums as a teenager and found work playing big-band jazz with Count Basie. He quickly made the jump to rock’n’roll once the new scene began to flourish, and joined the Wrecking Crew, a collective of session musicians named by Blaine for the way they were seen by older players to be “wrecking” music. Blaine ended up performing on US No 1 songs from a huge range of stars, including Can’t Help Falling in Love With You by Elvis Presley, Something Stupid by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, I Got You Babe by Sonny & Cher, Mr Tambourine Man by the Byrds, and The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand. Of the Byrds, he once said: “I don’t think they even mentioned me on any of the albums. In those days they didn’t do that … It was considered a scandal that the Monkees didn’t make their own records. It broke to the world in all the trades and movie magazines that, not only the Monkees didn’t – nobody did!” Some of his most celebrated performances are with Simon & Garfunkel on songs like Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Boxer and Mrs Robinson. But perhaps his most significant contribution to pop music was on the Ronettes’ song Be My Baby: its opening four-beat drum pattern became one of the iconic sounds of 1960s pop, and ended up appearing on countless other songs by artists including the Jesus and Mary Chain and Manic Street Preachers. It was one of many songs Blaine played for Phil Spector as Spector perfected his maximalist “wall of sound” production style. In a 2015 interview with the Guardian, Blaine admitted the Be My Baby rhythm was a mistake. “I was supposed to play the snare on the second beat as well as the fourth, but I dropped a stick. Being the faker I was in those days, I left the mistake in and it became: ‘Bum-ba-bum-BOOM!’ And soon everyone wanted that beat.” Blaine played on fewer recordings from the 1980s onward and following an acrimonious divorce, he took work as a security guard in Arizona. But in 2000 he, along with the rest of the Wrecking Crew, was inducted in the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. According to the Hall of Fame, Blaine “has certainly played on more hit records than any drummer in the rock era, including 40 No 1 singles and 150 that made the Top 10”. Blaine’s family said he is survived by daughter Michelle and seven grandchildren.<doc-sep>Andrew Dalton and Hillel Italie The Associated Press LOS ANGELES – Hal Blaine, the Hall of Fame session drummer and virtual one-man soundtrack of the 1960s and ’70s who played on the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys and laid down one of music’s most memorable opening riffs on the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” died Monday. Blaine died of natural causes at his home in Palm Desert, California, his son-in-law, Andy Johnson, told The Associated Press. He was 90. On hearing of his death, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson called him “the greatest drummer ever.” The winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award last year, Blaine’s name was known by few outside the music industry, even in his prime. But just about anyone with a turntable, radio or TV heard his drumming on songs that included Presley’s “Return to Sender,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” dozens of hits produced by Phil Spector, and the theme songs to “Batman,” ″The Partridge Family” and dozens of other shows.” “Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words,” Wilson said in a tweet that included an old photo of him and Blaine sitting at the piano. “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success — he was the greatest drummer ever.” As a member of the Los Angeles-based studio band “The Wrecking Crew,” which also featured keyboard player Leon Russell, bassist Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco, Blaine forged a hard-earned virtuosity and versatility that enabled him to adapt quickly to a wide range of popular music. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he played on 40 No. 1 hits, 150 top 10 songs. “Trust me, you loved his work,” comedian J. Elvis Weinstein tweeted Monday. Blaine also played on eight songs that won Grammys for record of the year, including Sinatra’s “Strangers In the Night” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” He may be the only drummer to back Presley, Sinatra and John Lennon. “Godspeed Old Friend,” Sinatra’s daughter Nancy Sinatra said alongside an Instagram picture she posted of Blaine backing her up as she sang. Some accounts have Blaine playing on 35,000 songs, but he believed that around 6,000 was more accurate, still making him a strong contender for the most recorded drummer in history. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. Out of so many notable sessions, his signature moment was the attention-grabbing “on the four” solo — Bum-ba-bum-BOOM — that launched the classic “Be My Baby,” a hit for the Ronettes in 1963 that helped define Spector’s overpowering “Wall of Sound” productions. The song remained a radio staple for decades and got new life in the ’70s when it was used to open Martin Scorcese’s “Mean Streets” and again in the ’80s when it was featured in “Dirty Dancing.” Few drum parts have been so widely imitated, from Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey.” In a 2005 interview with Modern Drummer magazine, Blaine said that he wasn’t quite sure how he came up with the solo. To the best of his memory, he accidentally missed a beat while the song was being recorded and improvised by only playing the beat on the fourth note. “And I continued to do that,” he recalled. “Phil might have said, ‘Do that again.’ Somebody loved it, in any event. It’s just one of those things that sometimes happens.” Blaine nicknamed himself and his peers “The Wrecking Crew,” because they were seen by their more buttoned-down elders as destructive to the industry — an assertion that Kaye and others disputed. Many members of The Wrecking Crew worked nonstop for 20 years, sometimes as many as eight sessions a day, a pace that led to several marriages and divorces for Blaine. As more bands played on their own records and electronic drums arose, business dropped off in the 1980s even as younger musicians, such as Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, cited his influence. His memoir, “Hal Blaine & The Wrecking Crew,” came out in 1990 and he continued to appear at symposiums and workshops into his 80s. Blaine also was seen in the 2008 documentary “The Wrecking Crew” and was played by Johnny Sneed in the Wilson biopic “Love & Mercy.” Many younger drummers counted him as a friend and mentor. “Hal was funny, sweet, and genuine,” Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, drummer for the “Weird Al” Yankovic Band, said in email to the AP. “He made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. His inspiration and influence to drummers everywhere is immeasurable. Hal was a treasure.” The son of Jewish immigrants, Blaine was born Harold Simon Belsky in Holyoke, Massachusetts. By age 8, he was already drumming, using a pair of dowels he removed from a seat in the living room. He was a professional by age 20 and within a few years switched from jazz to rock. The use of session musicians became a scandal in the late 1960s when it was discovered that the Monkees, the million-selling TV foursome, did not play on their songs. Blaine, who, of course, drummed for the Monkees, knew that many top groups depended on him and his peers. He even became friendly with some of the players he sat in for, including Wilson’s brother Dennis Wilson. “He was thrilled that I was making their records because while I was making Beach Boy records, he was out surfing or riding his motorcycle,” Blaine told Modern Drummer. Blaine told the magazine that Bruce Gary, who played drums in the Knack, was once asked who his favorite drummer was. “He was never so disappointed in his life to find out that a dozen of his favorite drummers were me.” Blaine is survived by his daughter Michelle Blaine, and seven grandchildren.<doc-sep>Hal Blaine, the ubiquitous drummer whose work in the 1960s and ’70s with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, the Ronettes and many others established him as one of the top session musicians of all time, died on Monday at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 90. His son-in-law, Andy Johnson, confirmed the death. Mr. Blaine, who played on at least 40 singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, was a reliable and adaptable musician, able to offer delicate brushwork on a ballad or a booming beat on records produced by Phil Spector, who was known for his so-called Wall of Sound. Mr. Blaine brought drama to a song’s transitions, often telegraphing a big moment with a flurry of strokes on a snare drum or tom-tom. If he had a signature moment on a record, it was on the Ronettes’ 1963 hit, “Be My Baby,” produced by Mr. Spector. The song opened cold, with Mr. Blaine playing — and repeating — the percussive earworm “Bum-ba-bum-BOOM!” But the riff came about accidentally.<doc-sep>
LOS ANGELES — Hal Blaine, the Hall of Fame session drummer and virtual one-man soundtrack of the 1960s and '70s who played on the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys and laid down one of music's most memorable opening riffs on the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," died Monday. Blaine died of natural causes at his home in Palm Desert, California, his son-in-law, Andy Johnson, told The Associated Press. He was 90. On hearing of his death, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson called him "the greatest drummer ever." I’m so sad, I don’t know what to say. Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words. Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success - he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot. Love, Brian pic.twitter.com/vLOX3RIKc6 — Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) March 11, 2019 God bless Hal Blaine peace and love to all his family Goodbye Hal an incredible musician. 😎✌️🌟❤️☮️ — #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) March 12, 2019 The winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award last year, Blaine's name was known by few outside the music industry, even in his prime. But just about anyone with a turntable, radio or TV heard his drumming on songs that included Presley's "Return to Sender," the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were," the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," dozens of hits produced by Phil Spector, and the theme songs to "Batman," ''The Partridge Family" and dozens of other shows." "Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can't put it into words," Wilson said in a tweet that included an old photo of him and Blaine sitting at the piano. "Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success — he was the greatest drummer ever." As a member of the Los Angeles-based studio band "The Wrecking Crew," which also featured keyboard player Leon Russell, bassist Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco, Blaine forged a hard-earned virtuosity and versatility that enabled him to adapt quickly to a wide range of popular music. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he played on 40 No. 1 hits, 150 top 10 songs. Blaine also played on eight songs that won Grammys for record of the year, including Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." He may be the only drummer to back Presley, Sinatra and John Lennon. "Godspeed Old Friend," Sinatra's daughter Nancy Sinatra said alongside an Instagram picture she posted of Blaine backing her up as she sang. Some accounts have Blaine playing on 35,000 songs, but he believed that around 6,000 was more accurate, still making him a strong contender for the most recorded drummer in history. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. Out of so many notable sessions, his signature moment was the attention-grabbing "on the four" solo — Bum-ba-bum-BOOM — that launched the classic "Be My Baby," a hit for the Ronettes in 1963 that helped define Spector's overpowering "Wall of Sound" productions. The song remained a radio staple for decades and got new life in the '70s when it was used to open Martin Scorcese's "Mean Streets" and again in the '80s when it was featured in "Dirty Dancing." In a 2005 interview with Modern Drummer magazine, Blaine said that he wasn't quite sure how he came up with the solo. To the best of his memory, he accidentally missed a beat while the song was being recorded and improvised by only playing the beat on the fourth note. "And I continued to do that," he recalled. "Phil might have said, 'Do that again.' Somebody loved it, in any event. It's just one of those things that sometimes happens." Blaine nicknamed himself and his peers "The Wrecking Crew," because they were seen by their more buttoned-down elders as destructive to the industry — an assertion that Kaye and others disputed. Many members of The Wrecking Crew worked nonstop for 20 years, sometimes as many as eight sessions a day, a pace that led to several marriages and divorces for Blaine. As more bands played on their own records and electronic drums arose, business dropped off in the 1980s even as younger musicians, such as Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, cited his influence.