Many younger drummers counted him as a friend and mentor.
“Hal was funny, sweet, and genuine,” Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, drummer for the “Weird Al” Yankovic Band, said in email to The Associated Press. “He made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. His inspiration and influence to drummers everywhere is immeasurable. Hal was a treasure.”
Blaine, the son of Jewish immigrants, was born Harold Simon Belsky in Holyoke, Massachusetts. By age 8, he was already drumming, using a pair of dowels he removed from a seat in the living room. He was a professional by age 20 and within a few years switched from jazz to rock after being approached during a gig at the Garden Of Allah hotel in Hollywood.
“This guy came in,” Blaine told Modern Drummer, “and said, ‘Hey kid, I’ve been watching you for a couple of days. You want to make some bucks? I got a singer (Tommy Sands) over here and he’s going to be signed by Capitol Records, but he needs a drummer.”
The use of session musicians became a scandal in the late 1960s when it was discovered that the Monkees, the million-selling TV foursome, did not play on their songs. Blaine, who, of course, drummed for the Monkees, knew that many top groups depended on him and his peers. He even became friendly with some of the players he sat in for, including Wilson’s brother Dennis Wilson.