Earl Palmer was born in New Orleans in 1924 and grew up performing in his family's vaudeville act before becoming a jazz drummer. In the late 1940s he became the drummer of choice at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, where virtually every important early R&B and rock and roll recording was made.
On Fats Domino's 'The Fat Man' (1949), Palmer played what many musicologists consider the first rock and roll drum beat — a straight-eight feel derived from the New Orleans second-line tradition that replaced the swing pattern of jazz and created the rhythmic foundation for everything that followed.
Palmer moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and became the most-recorded studio musician in Hollywood history, appearing on an estimated 90 recordings per month at his peak. He played on hits for the Righteous Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and hundreds of others. His ability to serve any style with taste and swing was legendary.
Palmer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, recognition long overdue for a musician whose influence was felt on virtually every recording made in America from the late 1940s onward. He died in 2008, having played on more hit records than perhaps any musician in history.
