Some Classic 1960's Drummers

Mitch Mitchell ~ Drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He had previously played with Georgie Fame and briefly The Pretty Things and The Who (prior to Keith Moon).
His style was energetic and complex, full of cascading snare drums and cymbals and was heavily influenced by Jazz and Surf drummers as opposed to the more straight-forward and dance-able Blues and R&B influenced drummers of the British Invasion and would influence later Jazz Fusion and Kraut-Rock drummers.
After Hendrix he played in various short lived supergroups with Jack Bruce, Keith Emerson, Jeff Beck, Billy Cox, Buddy Miles, Junior Brown and even Miles Davis

JIMI HENDRIX;


JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE ~ "HEY JOE";


Eddie Hoh (71) was a notable drummer from the 1960's and 70's. Played with Donovan, Tim Buckley, Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, Stephen Stills, The Monkees, Charlie Musselwhite, Graham Bond, Flying Burrito Bros, Kim Fowley, Mama's & Pappas, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Herman's Hermits, Little Feat, Robert Palmer, Pointer Sisters, Boz Scaggs,

MAMAS & PAPAS ~ "CALIFORNIA DREAMIN";


THE MONKEES ~ "STAR COLLECTORS";


THE MONKEES ~ "GOIN DOWN";


SCREAMIN JAY HAWKINS ~ "I PUT A SPELL ON YOU";


Buddy Harman ~ 79 ~ Nashville session drummer w/ Elvis Presley ("Little Sister"), Johnny Cash (“Ring of Fire"), Roger Miller (“King of the Road”), Tammy Wynette (“Stand by Your Man"), Everly Bro ("Bye Bye Love"), Roy Orbison ("Pretty Woman"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Ray Price, Simon & Garfunkle, and others.

PATSY CLINE ~ "CRAZY";


ROGER MILLER ~ "KING OF THE ROAD";


ROY ORBISON ~ "PRETTY WOMAN";


TAMMY WYNETTE ~ "STAND BY YOUR MAN";


Another session drummer of the 1960's was Scottish session man Andrew "Andy" White (85) best known for replacing Ring on the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You") , also played with Chuck Berry, Billy Fury, Herman's Hermits and Tom Jones

THE BEATLES ~ "LOVE ME DO";


THE BEATLES ~ "PS I LOVE YOU";


Dale Griffin ~ 67 ~ Drummer for British Glam Rock group Mott The Hoople ("All The Young Dudes"

MOTT THE HOOPLE ~ "YOU REALLY GOT ME";


MOTT THE HOOPLE ~ "ALL THE YOUNG DUDES";


MOTT THE HOOPLE ~ "ROLL AWAY THE STONE";


John Garner ~ 63 ~ American rock drummer and vocalist with late 1960's & early 1970's American Proto-Stoner-Metal band Sir Lord Baltimore
SIR LORD BALTIMORE ~ "KINGDOM COME";

Stompin Tom, Reg; The Other Presley, and some other other early Rockers

Reg Presley was the singer for the British Beat group The Troggs who of did the classic hits "Wild Thing", (a massive hit which has since been covered by Jimi Hendrix, X, The Cult, Runaways, Cheap Trick, Divinyls, um...Sam Kinison and lord knows how many other bands), "I Can't Control Myself" and "Love is All Around". He was 71

THE TROGGS ~ "WILD THING";


THE TROGGS ~ "I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF";


George Shadow Morton ~ Songwriter and Producer with 1960's Girl Group The Shangri-La's with classic hits "The Leader of The Pack" & "(Remember) Walking in the Sand" and later Janis Ian, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly and The New York Dolls ~ 72

THE SHANGRI-LA'S ~ "THE LEADER OF THE PACK";


VANILLA FUDGE ~ "YOU KEEP ME HANGING ON";


THE NEW YORK DOLLS ~ "PERSONALITY CRISIS";


THE NEW YORK DOLLS ~ "LOOKING FOR A KISS";


Alvin Lee, singer guitarist for Blues Rock super group Ten Years After, best known for their epic performance at Woodstock ~ 68

TEN YEARS AFTER ~ "I'M GOING HOME";


TEN YEARS AFTER ~ "SPOONFUL";


Rick Huxley ~ English bassist with 1960's Beat Band The Dave Clark Five w/ hits like "Glad All Over", "Bits & Pieces" (later covered by Joan Jett), "I Like it Like That", "Catch us if You can" ~ 72

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE ~ "DO YOU LOVE ME" & "GLAD ALL OVER";


THE DAVE CLARK FIVE ~ "BITS AND PIECES";


THE DAVE CLARK FIVE ~ "I LIKE IT LIKE THAT";


Tony Sheridan ~ British 1960's Skiffle and Mersey Beat singer, had The Beatles as his back-up band and did their first recordings ~ 72

TONY SHERIDAN ~ "SHAKE IT SOME MORE";


John Doyle ~ Singer/Guitarist with 1960's Miami Garage Punk band The Evil ~

THE EVIL ~ "FROM A CURBSTONE";


Cecil Womack was one of the Womack Brothers (including Bobby, Harry, Friendly and Curtis) who started out in Cleveland as a Gospel group and were discovered by Sam Cooke who signed them to his S.A.R. Record label in 1961 renamed as The Valentinos. They recorded the original version of "It's All Over Now" which was later covered by The Rolling Stones. After Cooke's death in 1964 S.A.R Records folded and Bobby Womack left the group and married Cooke's widow which created some outrage from Cooke's fans. The remaining brothers kept the band together and signed to Chess Records and recorded a few singles which failed to chart. They then signed to Jubilee Records with no greater success. The Valentinos broke up when Henry Womack was stabbed to death by his girlfriend. The renaming brothers became backup singers for their by no more successful brother Bobby's solo career.

THE VALENTINOS ~ "IT'S ALL OVER NOW";


Deke Richards ~ Songwriter and Producer for Motown. Wrote hits like "Love Child" for The Supremes and produced songs like "I Want You Back" and "ABC" for The Jackson 5 ~ 68

THE SUPREMES ~ "LOVE CHILD";


Bluesman Magic Slim was a cousin of the great Magic Sam, he would go on to record several respected albums for Alligator Records died at 75

MAGIC SLIM & THE TEARDROPS ~ "LET ME LOVE YOU BABY";


And of course Stompin Tom Connors, the legendary Canadian Folk/Country singer died at 77. It's been a little hard for Canadians to explain to Americans exactly what made Stompin Tom such an icon. Or even to come up with a real comparison. Woody Guthrie? Sort of, both were working man's troubadours and champions of a nationalism that was never right wing or racist. Johnny Cash? Both wore black and both were coolly charismatic. But Connors had a goofy sense of humour that Guthrie and Cash would have found undignified. The closest I can come up with is Guthrie as done by Lonnie Donnegan.

STOMPIN TOM CONNORS ~ "BUD THE SPUD";


STOMPIN TOM CONNORS ~ "MARGO'S GOT THE CARGO";

RIP to Jerry Leiber

Exhibit A;
"Hound Dog" ~ Big Mama Thorton w/ Buddy Guy;




Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the greatest songwriters of the early rock & Roll/R&B era bar none. Their catalog reads like a how-to list for everything Rock & Roll, was, is and always should be. Which it is.

Exhibit B;
"Jail House Rock" ~ Elvis Presley;



How it took a couple of nice Jewish kids from New York to figure out how to take the the raw sounds of blues and doo-wop and modernize them for an new audience of white kids is one of those great unanswerable questions of pop culture history but Leiber and Stoller were there even before Phil Spector, Alan Freed, Bill Haley or Elvis. If not Sam Phillips. But while Phillips was a producer with a fine ear, he was no songwriter Leiber and Stoller were.

Exhibit C;
"Love potion number 9" ~ The Searchers;



The list of songs in their catalog includes no less than a hundred chart hits for a bewildering array of artists including, but not limited to;
The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Walker Bros, Rolling Stones, Ben E King, Drifters, Coasters, Wilbert Harrison, Beach Boys, Dion, Billy Thorpe, Searchers, Little Richard, The Crystals, Drifters, Brenda Lee, Bad Company, Tony Sheridan, The Hollies, Diamonds, Cheers, Freddie Bell, Big Mama Thorton, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Kinks, Lords, Groupies, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr.Feelgood, Otis Redding, Mickey Gilley, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Burnett, Gene Vincent, Albert King, Koko Taylor,Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann, Paramounts, Del Shannon, Animals, Merle Haggard, Link Wray, Frankie Lymon, Carl Perkins, Wayne Fontana, Ventures, Freddie & The Dreamers, Sha Na Na (of course) and ...ummm...Alvin and the Chipmunks, several times.

Exhibit D;
"Poison Ivy" ~ Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs;




The Duo started out in the 1950's as writers with hits for such blues and R&B figures as Big Mama Thorton, Wilbert Harrison and Jimmy Witherspoon before they were surprised to find one of those songs, "Hound Dog", become a hit for a young largely unknown white kid named Elvis. They would write a series of other hit song for him including "Love Me", "Loving You", "Don't", "Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole". However most of their time would be writing numerous hits for black artists like the Coasters and Ben E King throughout the 1960's.

Exhibit E;
"I'm a hog for you" ~ The Lords;




They would also also branch out into owning record label Red Bird Records, which issued the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" and the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" which they did not write however. As producers they also acted as mentors to the young Phil Spector. They also won a ton of awards.

Exhibit F;
"Kansas City" ~ The Beatles;



As time went on their tastes went to more elaborate pop songs that would lead to hits for Edith Piaf and Peggy Lee. They would continue into the 1970's with hits for Stealer's Wheel, Earth Wind and Fire, Elkie Brooks, George Benson, Steely Dan and Mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and her pianist-composer husband William Bolcom, which had little to do with rock and roll.

Exhibit G;
"Ruby Baby" ~ Dion;



However they also lived to see their early Rock and R&B hots are still covered down to the punk era by the likes of Dr.Feelgood, The Lambrettas, Los Straitjackets, Mink DeVille, El Vez, Queen, Mötley Crüe, Brownsville Station, Patti Smith, ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, The Cramps, AC/DC, MDC, White Stripes, Flotsam & Jetsam, Motorhead, Pennywise and The Blues Brothers (This version was the ending song of the movie, performed with other musicians such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway), even Negativeland and John Oswald. They were usually good sports about that, if somewhat bemused.

Exhibit H;
"Searchin'" ~ The Coasters;




Jerry Leiber died at the age of 78 on August 22, 2011, from cardio-pulmonary failure.

Exhibit I;
"Stand by me" ~ Ben E. King;



Exhibit J;
"There goes my baby" ~ The Walker Bros.;



Exhibit K;
"Stand by me" ~ John Lennon;