The Drummer Who Came Before Bonham (And Why Nobody Remembers Him)

The Drummer Who Came Before Bonham (And Why Nobody Remembers Him) Before John Bonham. Before Keith Moon. Before Ringo Starr played his first televised note. If a young drummer anywhere in the world wanted to hear a rock and roll drum solo in 1959, they had one real option - put on a Sandy Nelson record. Sandy Nelson scored a number four hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 with "Teen Beat," selling over a million copies and earning a gold disc. His follow-up, "Let There Be Drums," reached number seven in the US and number three in the UK in January 1962, while John Bonham was thirteen years old. He released eight albums in eighteen months. He recorded with Phil Spector, played on the Hollywood Argyles' number one hit "Alley Oop," and was on the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is to Love Him" before anyone outside the studio knew his name. Then the British Invasion arrived, the market for drum instrumentals collapsed, a motorcycle accident on Mulholland Drive cost him his right foot, and the musicians who had absorbed his records as teenagers came back to America and became the legends. Nobody remembered who built the foundation. Sandy Nelson died on February 14, 2022, in Las Vegas, at age 83. He is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This video makes the case for why rock drumming history needs to be rewritten. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:10 - The World Before Bonham 02:30 - Santa Monica, 1938: The School That Built Rock 04:20 - Teen Beat: The Record That Started Everything 06:00 - Session Work and the LA Sound 07:30 - Let There Be Drums: The Record That Crossed the Atlantic 09:30 - The Chain of Influence: What We Can Document 11:20 - Eight Albums in Eighteen Months 12:30 - Mulholland Drive, 1963 13:30 - The British Invasion Ends His Moment 14:20 - The World Bonham Built 16:00 - Why Nobody Remembers Him18:00 - Rewriting Who Was First Subscribe for weekly deep dives into the rock history that didn't make the textbooks    / @highvoltagerockhistory   #HighVoltageRockHistory #RockHistory #JohnBonham #classicrock