October 25, 1924 – September 19, 2008
Earl Palmer; One of the greatest drummers of all time. Check this unbelievable, selected discography, compiled by his friend and regular rhythm partner Carol Kaye
Singles – 1947-1949 Dave Bartholomew “Dave’s Boogie Woogie”, “Stardust”, others, Fats Domino “The Fat Man”, “Detroit City Blues”.
1950 Dave Bartholomew “Good Jax Boogie”, etc. Fats Domino “Every Night About This Time”, Jewel King, Tommy Ridgley, Joe Turner “Jumpin Tonight”,” Midnight Rockin”
1951 Fats Domino “Rockin’ Chair”
1952 Dave Bartholomew “Little Girl Sing Ding-a-ling” etc., Fats Domino “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”, Smily Lewis “The Bells Are Ringing”, Lloyd Price “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, Shirley & Lee “I’m Gone”
1953 Fats Domino “Little School Girl”, “Rose Mary”, “Swanee River Hop”, Shirly & Lee “Big Mamou”
1954 Dave Bartholomew “Jump Children”, “Cat Music”, “When The Saints Go Marching In”, etc., James Booker, Ernie K-Doe, Earl King, Professor Longhair “In The Night”, Spiders, Earl Williams “I Can’t Go On”.
1955 Fats Domino “Bo Weevil”, “I’m In Love Again”, “My Blue Heaven”, “Poor Me”; Smiley Lewis “I Hear You Knocking”, “One Night”, Little Richard “Directly From My Heart”, “Kansas City”, “Tuttie Frutti”, Bob Luman “Red Hot”, Roy Montrell “Ooh Wow”, Shirley & Lee “Feel So Good”
1956 Lee Allen, Charles Brown (I’ll Always Be In Love With You, Merry Christmas Baby; Roy Brown “Saturday Night”, Fats Domino “When My Dreamboat Comes Home”, Merle Kilgore, Earl King, Little Richard “The Girl Can’t Help It”, “Long Tall Sally”, “Slippin & Slidin'”, Amos Milburn, Art Neville “Ooh-Whee Baby”, Shirley & Lee “Let The Good Times Roll”, Spider That’s My Desire
1957 “Let the 4 Winds Blow”, “Party Doll”, Sam Cooke “Forever”, “You Send Me”, Sugarboy Crawford, Fats Domino “I’m Walkin'”, Don and Dewey “I’m Leavin It All Up To You”, Thurston Harris, Hollywood Flames, Little Richard “Baby Face”, Jenny Jenny, Miss Ann, Lucille Marvin & Johnny “Pretty Eyes”, Percy Mayfield “Please Believce Me”, Ricky Nelson “Bebop Baby”, “I’m Walkin etc”., Earl Palmer’s Party Rockers, Tommy Sands “Sing Boy Sing”, Slim Whitman “Unchain My Heart”, Larry Williams
1958 Burnette Bros. Eugene Chuch, Eddie Cochran “Summertime Blues” etc., Bobby Day “Rockin Robin”, The Bluebird, etc. Doris Day “Everybody Loves a Lover”, Fats Domino “I Hear You Knocking”, Margi, Don & Dewey Koko Joe, Jan & Arnie, Johnny Otis Show Willie and the Hand Jive, Little Richard “Good Golly Miss Molly”, Earl Palmer’s own “Drum Village”, Art & Dotty Todd “Chanson d’amour”, Ritch Valens, “Come On Let’s Go”, “Donna”, “La Bamba”, Larry Williams “Heebie Jeebies”, Sheb Wooley “The Purple People Eater”.
1959 Dorsey Burnette “There Was a Tall Oak Tree”, Edd Byrnes “Kookie, Kookie” etc. Eddie Cochran, Don & Dewey, Ernie Field “In The Mood”, Jan & Dean “Baby Talk”, Don Ralke “Bourbon St. Beat”, Chan Romero, Spectors Three “I Really Do”, April Stevens “Teach Me Tiger”, Connie Stevens “16 Reasons”, Teddy Bears “Oh Why”,
1960 Bobby Bare “Book of Love”, Walter Brennan “Dutchman’s Gold”, Dorsey Burnette “Hey Little One”, Dante & The Evergreens “Alley Oop”, Bobby Vee “Devil or Angel”, Dinah Washington “Love Walked In”.
1961 Paul Anka “Dance On Little Girl”, B. Bumble & The Stingers: “Bumble Boogie”, “Caravan”, “Nutrocker”, Glen Campbell: “Turn Around Look at Me”, Castelles, “Sacred”, Sam Cooke – “Stupid”, “Twistin’ The Night Away”, Bobby Darin – “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby”, Jackie DeShannon – “Heaven Is Being With You”, Fleetwoods – “He’s the Great Impostor”, “Tragedy”, Lettermen – “When I Fall In Love”, Limelighters – “A Dollar Down”, Gene McDaniels – “Chip Chip”, “A Hundred Pounds of Clay”, Toward of Strength, Lou Rawls – “Above My Head”, Simms Twins “Sooth Me”, Bobby Vee – “Run to Him”, “Take Good Care of My Baby”, Dinah Washington – “Our Love Is Here To Stay”, “Sept. in The Rain”, Jimmy Witherspoon – “Warm Your Heart”, Timi Yuro – “Hurt”.
1962 Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass – “The Lonely Bull”, Walter Brennan – “Mama Sang a Song”, Anita Bryant “Till There Was You”, Vikki Carr – “He’s a Rebel”, Ray Charles – “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”, “You Don’t Know Me”, Nat King Cole – “Ramblin’ Rose”, Johnny Crawford – “Cindy’s Birthday”, Bobby Darin – “You’re the Reason I’m Living”, Duane Eddy – “The Ballad of Paladin”, “Deep in The Heart of Texas”, Everly Bros. – “Don’t Ask Me To Be Friends”, Ketty Lester – “Love Letters”, Willlie Nelson – “Half a Man”, Clifford Scott – “The Kangaroo”, “Walk That Twist”, Frank Sinatra – “Everybody’s Twistin'”, Bobby Vee – “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”.
1963 Roy Clark: “Through the Eyes of a Fool”, Bobby Darin – “Treat My Baby Good”, Everly Bros. – “It’s Been Nice”, Jan & Dean – “Drag City, Surf City”, Wayne Jennings “Rave On”, Willie Nelson – “Opportunity to Cry”, Nino Tempo/April Stevens – “Deep Purple”, Andy Williams – “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”.
1964 Beefeaters (later called the Byrds) – “Please Let Me Love You/It Won’t Be Wrong”, Roy Clark “When the Wind Blows in Chicago”, Sam Cooke – “Shake”, “A Change is Gonna Come”, Vic Damone – “On the Street Where You Live”, Jan & Dean “Dead Man’s Curve”, “The Little Ol’ Lady From Pasadena”, “New Girl In School”; Little Richard – “Bama Lama Bama Lou”, Righteous Bros. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, Ronettes “Born to Be Together”, “You Baby” ,Glenn Yarbrough “Baby The Rain Must Fall”.
1965 Beach Boys – “Please Let Me Wonder”, Stan Kenton – “Theme from Peyton Place”, Righteous Bros. “Just Once In My Life”, “Unchained Melody”, Sonny & Cher “What Now My Love”, Supremes “A Lovers’ Concerto”
1966 Ray Charles “Let’s Go Get Stoned”, Jackie De Shannon “I can Make it With You”, Tim Hardin “It’ll Never Happen Again”, “Misty Roses”, Neal Hefti “Batman Theme”, Marketts “Batman Theme”, Brenda Holloway “Where Were You”, PJ Proby Niki Hoeky, Righteous Bros, “Soul & Inspiration”, Ike & Tina Turner “A Love Like Yours”, “River Deep – Mountain High”.
1967 Bobbie Gentry Okolona River Bottom Band, Brenda Holloway “You Made Me So Very Happy”, Monkees “Tapioca Tundra”, Lou Rawls “Dead End Street”, Paul Revere & Raiders “Legend of Paul Revere” Lalo Schifrin “Mission Impossible”.
1968 Ray Charles “Eleanor Rigby”, “I Don’t Need No Doctor”, Fats Domino “Lady Madonna”, Little Richard “Baby Don’t You Tear My Clothes”, Stingy Jenny, Monkees “It’s Nice to Be With You”, Lou Rawls “Down Here on The Ground”, “Natural Man”, Marty Robbins “Padre”.
1969 Sonny Charles & The Checkmates, “Proud Mary”, James Brown, “World part 1”, Jimy Durante “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother”, Screamin Jay Hawkins “Constipation Blues”.
1970 Jose Feliciano, and other artists such as: Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Peggy Lee, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick.
(Motown stuff was cut without contracts from 1963 on for Earl along with the rest of the studio musicians: Supremes, Four Tops etc.), tons of albums throughout the years with the above artists also. I know “Spanish Eyes” and other hits with Al Martino fit in there somewhere, done at Capitol, just not mentioned in this list which is only the tip of the iceberg. Later ones such as Bonnie Raitt also, he used to talk about her, admiringly.
It’s safe to say Earl played drums on a lot of the Electric Prunes stuff, the Dave Axelrod things, the Henry Mancini recordings, and the Bobby Darin things as well as a *lot* of the Phil Spector dates, Sonny & Cher, and many of the top classy acts like Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney etc.
Respect.