Sandy Nelson

Drumming man BORN 1938

Born in Santa Monica, Sandy Nelson was a high school contemporary of Jan & Dean and Kim Fowley, and played drums in bands alongside future luminaries including Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, Nik Venet and Terry Melcher. As a session player, his credits included 1958 Number 1 To Know Him Is To Love Him by Phil Spector’s group The Teddy Bears: he also played with Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps, The Ventures and Duane Eddy. Inspired by Cozy Cole and Earl Palmer, he soon started scoring his own instrumental drumming hits, going UK and US Top 10 with 1959’s Teen Beat and 1961’s signature thumper Let There Be Drums. A 1963 motorbike collision with a school bus – Nelson later said that Bonnie Raitt was on board – led to the amputation of part of his right leg, though he adapted his style and drummed on, recording more than 30 solo LPs into the mid-’70s. After getting sober, he moved to Boulder City, Nevada, where he liked to excavate caves (which he called ‘Veeble Land’) in his back garden. Nelson later played keyboards and drums with ex-Three Dog Night guitarist James Quill Smith’s band, and continued to make live appearances into his late seventies.