...just by listening to the tunes he played on, which, at the time (late 1950s-70s), I had no idea was him playing the drums.

With over 6000 recordings to his credit, he is one of the most recorded, if not THE most recorded human who ever lived.

RIP Hal...your contributions to music will live on forever.

MD: You’ve influenced so many drummers growing up at that time, myself included, before we even knew it was you on all those recordings.

Hal: I got a very nice letter and an autographed copy of Neil Peart’s book, Ghost Rider. He’s a beautiful writer. In his letter he said the same thing you just said. He said he knew every one of those records and that he learned from the records that I played on. The drummer with The Knack, Bruce Gary, was once asked who his favorite drummer was, and he said he was never so disappointed in his life to find out that a dozen of his favorite drummers were me. [laughs] That kind of stuck through the years, many people have used that quote.

...Hal was HUGELY influential!

He played with so many greats and was a legend in the history of music along with his "Wrecking Crew". Most people will know his distinct sound from the intro to "Wouldn't it Be Nice"...that "bum..bad dum dum" at the beginning.

Here's a behind the scenes for anyone interested:

Hal Blaine strikes again!

Another one of my musical heroes gone to the Great Beyond.

If there’s a Rock and Roll heaven, the drum chair just got vacated so Hal could take over.

As a key member of the Los Angeles-based studio musicians known as “Wrecking Crew,” Blain handled the percussion for a veritable “who’s who” of 1950s-1960’s pop music: the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Sonny & Cher, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, the Mamas & the Papas... on and on the list goes.

On Facebook, his family posted, “May he rest forever on 2 and 4,” referencing the accented beats that have powered hundreds — if not thousands — of hit recordings over the decades.