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Billy Ingram

Hal Blaine Talks Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis & More!

by Billy Ingram

LA session drummer Hal Blaine is a legend in the recording industry. Before passing away in 2019, he'd played on decades worth of hit records on behalf of Frank Sinatra, 5th Deminsion, John Denver, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, Johnny Rivers, Neil Diamond, and the Byrds to name a very few.

Songs you might recognize that had the Blaine magic touch: 'In My Room' by the Beach Boys, 'The Way We Were' by Barbra Streisand, 'Where the Boys Are' by Connie Francis, 'Do You Know Where You're Going To' by Diana Ross, 'A Little Less Conversation' by Elvis, 'Da Do Run Run' by The Crystals, and 'Eve of Destruction' by Barry McGuire. Here's a comprehensive list.

In this archive interview from the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, Hal Blaine talks about some of the mega-hits and superstars he worked with, starting With Dean Martin and The Rat Pack.

"Probably the most fun you can have in the studio," Blaine said, "was working with any of The Rat Pack because you never know who's going to drop in, it was always a party, it was always a party. Dean Martin's sessions, there was nothing like it. He always had, I think, a minimum of 50 chairs for guests. And those were all the secretaries for Warner/Reprise and so forth. And friends, anybody could bring anybody down, you know?

"And Jimmy Bowen would always make a little announcement, 'And now folks we're going to start getting ready to start recording so you've got to be very quiet for us until the song is over. And when you hear this engineer in here, Eddie Bracket, say 'Okay, that's it, thank you very much' then you can talk.

"And we'd be recording and all of a sudden we'd hear people talking. And Dean finally would, in the middle of the song, would kinda stop and look, here'd be two gals: 'And I told her I'll call her on Thursday, I'm not going over there until her mother...' And everybody doomed in on that of course, and Dean was very sweet about it. He'd walk over, he'd sit on their lap to kiss them on the cheek or something and he'd say, 'We told you, be quiet. I don't want to have to kick you out of here, make a fool out of you.' And they'd be so embarrassed."

Blaine goes on to talk about the unique way perfectionist Frank Sinatra recorded along with stories about John Lennon, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and Elvis.

Hal Blaine on Recording With The Rat Pack

Stuff you might not find at other web sites - Vegas Legends collects obscure stories about the greatest entertainers of all time! With rare performances from the casino showrooms and from the world of Television.