[weegee]

This was a hard one to parse down for excerpt, but I know some readers don't make the jump...

His credits include work for Fats Domino, Little Richard, Smiley Lewis, Lloyd Price Clawdy", Shirley & Lee, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Paul Anka, Mel Torme, the Ronettes, Jan & Dean, Lou Rawls, James Brown, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Neil Young, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, Maria Muldaur, Little Feat, and Teena Marie...

His sountrack work includes the films "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World," "Cool Hand Luke," "In the Heat of the Night," "Valley of the Dolls," "Rosemary's Baby," "Kelly's Heroes," "Harold and Maude," "Lady Sings the Blues," "What's Up, Doc?," "Walking Tall," "The Longest Yard", "The Rose", "Gremlins," "Top Gun," "Predator," "Cocktail", "The Fabulous Baker Boys" and tv soundtrack themes and/or scores that include "I Dream of Jeannie," "Green Acres," "Ironside," "The Brady Bunch," "The Partridge Family," "The Odd Couple" and "M.A.S.H."

[weegee]

Rock & Roll PING.

(with Ponderosa Stomp biography with audio interview) More credits too (including Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else,” Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” and Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba)

http://www.ponderosastomp.com/music_more.php/15/Earl+Palmer

[Drumbo]

An Army veteran, he played on the seminal rock and roll recordings of Little Richard (Tutti-Fruiti" & Lucille"), who wrote in his autobiography that Palmer, "is probably the greatest session drummer of all time." Earl was the driving force behind Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep - Mountain High" and literally hundreds of hit songs.

He played on thousands of rock, jazz, R&B and soundtrack sessions over the years. After leaving New Orleans, from his home base in Los Angeles, he drummed on sessions for producer Phil Spector and for Barry Gordy at Motown. Besides those already listed in the article, his list of session credits includes artists as diverse as Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Duane Eddy, Frank Sinatra, The Monkees, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Otis and Elvis Costello. His first love was always jazz — "I lived in a jazz world," he says in his 1999 autobiography Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story, but he laid the foundation for rock'n'roll drumming with his solid stickwork and feverish backbeats.

He mentored us all. Gosh, we've lost another great one.



Godspeed and good rest,
In peace, be blessed.

[Aquinasfan]

The piece of rock ‘n’ roll drumming that stands out most to me is Steve Gadd’s drumming on “Aja.” Wow!

[KevinB]

Wow, weegee, I bet you’d be a great guy to have a beer with. In my circles I’m usually the teacher on this stuff. With you I’d be the student.