pop – Friggin' Doo A!
Hal Blaine, one of the most prolific and influential drummers of his generation, has died at the age of 90.
Over the course of his career, he played on countless hits by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys and John Lennon, amongst others.
But his most recognisable riff was the “boom-ba-boom-crack” bar that opened The Ronnettes’ Be My Baby.
The Monkees often get sidelined as an amusing footnote in the world of pop music, a “Pre-fab Four” that was hastily thrown together in the mid-’60s for a U.S. version of Beatlemania. But the four Monkees transcended their pre-fab status to become an actual band, and the transition is unlike any other in pop-music history.
And from 2017, a very sedate Wonder Bread version by Avriel and The Sequoias.