‘Greatest’ will drum no more

Hal Blaine, the Hall of Fame session drummer and virtual one-man soundtrack of the 1960s and 70s who played on the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys and laid down one of music’s most memorable opening riffs on the Ronettes’ Be My Baby, has died.

Blaine died aged 90 of natural causes at his home in Palm Desert, California, his son-in-law, Andy Johnson, said.

A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner last year, his name was known by few outside the industry.

But he was the drummer on songs that included Presley’s Return to

Sender, the Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine

Man, Barbra Streisand’s The Way We

Were, the Beach Boys’ Good

Vibrations, dozens of hits produced by Phil Spector, and the theme songs to Batman, The Partridge Family and dozens of other shows.

“Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words,” the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson said in a tweet. “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success — he was the greatest drummer ever.”

As a member of Los Angeles-based studio band The Wrecking Crew, Blaine forged a hard-earned virtuosity and versatility that enabled him to adapt to a wide range of popular music. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame said he played on 40 No. 1 hits and 150 top-10 songs.

He also played on eight songs that won Grammy record of the year, including Strangers In the Night and Bridge Over Troubled Water.