Artist Biography by William Ruhlmann Hal Blaine was the busiest recording session drummer in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, playing the drums on -- by his count -- tens of thousands of recordings, from the Wall of Sound productions of Phil Spector to Brian Wilson's productions of the Beach Boys, and including most of the pop/rock performers in Los Angeles in the '60s, as well as such notables as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. Blaine published a book of his memories, Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew, in 1990.