It comes with great sadness to have to tell you that the drumming legend
Earl Palmer sadly died aged 84 after a long illness. Those of you will obviously have heard Earl Palmer as he had recorded literally Thousands of records over the years; he was once called the greatest session drummer of all time. The term rock n roll drumming came about after he single handed many of the early sessions with the likes of Little Richard’s
Tutti Frutti and Fat’s Dominoes the Fat Man way back in 1940.
Earl Palmer was born in New Orleans on October 25th 1924, by the age of 5 he was tap dancing and touring with his mother in Ida Cox’s jazz and blues revue. His childhood experiences served him well as he said that through tap dancing this gave him an understanding of rhythmic time.
He studied piano and percussion and learnt to read, compose and arrange
Music.
A move to Los Angeles saw him team up with Hal Blaine when he became part of the Wrecking Crew who were a group of elite session players that were working constantly on record after record in some of the very best recording studios in Los Angeles with the likes of Frank Sinatra, The Righteous Brothers, Eddie Cochran,
The Beach Boys, Mamas and the Papas, the Supremes, the Monkees
Neil Young, Harry Nilsson, Elvis Costello, the list goes on and on.
Earl Palmer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000
He was often called the most recorded drummer in music history and apart from the thousands of sessions he played on he also played on Television theme tunes, Movie Scores, and Commercials.
He remained in demand as a drummer throughout the 1970’s and 80’s
I would suggest you getting hold of his book it is called. Earl Palmer’s Story and is available through Backbeat the book was written by
Tony Sherman
