Dec. 1, 1938 – February 14, 2022 We ALL, (every drummer alive,) owe Sandy Nelson a well deserved moment of drumming (as opposed to silence.) Before the Surfaris had a hit in 1963 with “Wipeout,” Sandy Nelson was recording drum-centric hit singles that were topping the charts. Sandy Nelson was one of the only drummers (if not THE only drummer) to score several top 10 instrumental hits on the pop charts in music history. Early in his career Sandy played drums on the song “To Know Him is to Love Him” in 1958 with Phil Spector’s group The Teddy Bears. He also played a trash can lid on the song “Alley Oop” from the band Hollywood Argyles. In was in October of 1959 that Sandy Nelson really started to make waves. In 1959, Nelson’s song “Teen Beat” reached number 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100. In 1961 Sandy’s infamous “Let There […]

April 2022 Issue