Sixty years of the drums from “Be My Baby”

Paola and I often have these musical journeys where we jump from song to song on YouTube, so we were on one of those the other day and she put on the Morning Benders’ song “Excuses.” In an interview with the band, they mentioned wanting a Wall of Sound effect. Great song, by the way, it’s below:

Either way, we started listening to the classic example of the Wall of Sound, the Ronnettes’ “Be My Baby” and when it came on, Paola said, “I know those drums.”

We then went on an internet scavenger hunt trying to locate what other songs use that same drum beat, which happens to be from the famous Wrecking Crew drummer, Hal Blaine. In similar situations, I’d usually check Who Sampled, but we were looking for a drum beat, not a song sample. We both ended simultaneously on this article from the Grammys: 30 Songs That Use Hal Blaine’s Iconic “Be My Baby” Beat and there it was, three quarters of the way down the page:

In the end, we completed the loop from 2000s indie to ’60s pop and back to 2000s indie. Hope you’ve enjoyed.