Ten Drummers Drumming Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Bonham

In fact, 'Rolling Stone' noted that on the very first Led Zeppelin album: "John Bonham changed rock drumming forever".

Dave Grohl, another on the Rolling Stone list (number 27), said: "I spent years in my bedroom ... listening to Bonham's drums and trying to emulate his swing or his behind-the-beat swagger or his speed or power, not just memorizing what he did on those albums but getting myself into a place where I would have the same instinctual direction as he had."

Bonham on drums, Robert Plant on vocals, Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones on keyboards/bass guitar made Led Zeppelin one of the most complete combos of their era.

They also moved from just being providers of music to putting on a 'show' at a concert. Elaborate costumes and laser and light displays made them an act to imitate.

But all that power in concert performances could not be turned into success on the singles charts, although several albums sold well. Eight studio albums reached the UK and US top ten between 1969 and 1979.

In 1980, Bonham was found dead in bed during a US tour. Led Zeppelin soon afterwards disbanded.

Answer: Keith Moon

The Who were previously known as The Detours, then The High Numbers. They played the first Woodstock festival, in 1969, but Jon Entwhistle later said it was "probably the worst-ever festival experience we ever had."

Moon was known for his drugs excesses and died on September 7, 1978 after taking a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol.

That death occurred in the same London apartment where Mama Cass Elliott had died four years before.

Looking back, Keith Moon is considered as someone who changed music. His biographer Tony Fletcher said Moon: "did nothing short of revolutionizing the drums."

"...Keith was the first to treat the drums as though they were a lead instrument...He really made the drums an instrument that spoke very much in the same way that a lead guitar does."

In a feature "The 100 Best Drummers Ever" in 2016, Rolling Stone magazine placed Keith Moon at number two.

Answer: Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa would have been lost to music if his love of drumming had not been greater than his intended vocation - the priesthood.

He started off playing the saxophone, but switched to drums because they were the cheapest instrument he could afford. He also got his big break standing in for another drummer.

Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 15, 1909. He took up drums aged 11 as they were the cheapest item in the music store where he did chores. He recalled: "I used to look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum."

Krupka was credited with having introduced the drum solo in to jazz music. Mezz Mezzrow, Tommy Dorsey, Bix Beiderbecke and Benny Goodman were all musicians he developed his skills alongside.

In 2015, Neal Peart told National Public Radio: "He was the first rock drummer, in very many ways. He was the first drummer to command the spotlight and the first drummer to be celebrated for his solos... He did fundamentally easy things, but always made them look spectacular."

That 1941 movie was "Ball of Fire", in which Krupa and his orchestra backed Barbara Stanwyck apparently singing "Drum Boogie", although her singing voice was dubbed by Martha Tilton. In 1959, Sal Mineo played Krupa in "The Gene Krupa Story".

In an article to find "The 100 Best Drummers Ever", Rolling Stone magazine placed Krupa at number seven.

Steve Gadd and Steve Smith were later era drummers, although Hal Blaine was a near-contemporary.

Neal Peart, incidentally, the man at the back of Rush and that groan-making joke in the introduction to this quiz, was placed at number four in the 'Rolling Stone' list.

Answer: Jimmie Nichol

Nichol began gigging around London in 1957 and in 1964 helped form The Shubadubs in Liverpool.

In June of that year, with The Beatles about to engage on a tour of Europe and Australia, Ringo fell ill with tonsillitis. George Martin, producer of the Beatles, had worked with Jimmie Nichol before and recommended him as a replacement.

It is said that George Harrison had not wanted any replacement, maintaining that the tour be cancelled. Brian Epstein, the manager, resisted this and Nicol was signed up.

He played in six concerts in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Australia.
Nicol enjoyed his moment of fame, and although he returned to performing with The Shubadubs and the Swedish group The Spotnicks, he never managed the same heights of fame again.

Tommy Moore and Norman Chapman, incidentally, had drummed with The Silver Beetles, the precursors to the Fab Four.

In an article to find "The 100 Best Drummers Ever", Rolling Stone magazine placed Ringo at number 14.

Answer: Buddy Rich

That NYT obituary also described Rich as "hot-headed".

It added: "Musicians marvelled at the fact that he never practiced and that his hands were free of the calluses that afflict other drummers."

Rich was born in New York City and joined his parents' vaudeville act before he was even two years old.

The NYT noted: "By the time he was four, he was a Broadway song-and-dance prodigy known as Baby Traps the Drum Wonder, banging out 'Stars and Stripes Forever' on his tiny drum."

Through childhood and into early adulthood, Rich honed his skills. He regularly joined, then left, new bands.

He also had his own band and in the 1960s was noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid weekly performer. Ill health and bankruptcy were just around the corner, though, and he gave up performing to establish his own club.

Roger Taylor, drummer with Queen, said: "I would say of just sheer technique he's the best I've ever seen."

'Rolling Stone' magazine placed him at number 15 in a list of "The 100 Best Drummers Ever".

Answer: Earl Palmer

Palmer was born in New Orleans in 1924 and started his career at the age of five as a tap dancer.

Palmer was a consummate session musician and for many years was the 'go to' player for recordings in New Orleans. He played with some of the greats, including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Dave Bartholomew.

As 'Drummerworld' noted: "... the next time you pull out Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti,' Smiley Lewis's 'I Hear You Knockin',' Lloyd Price's 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy,' or Fats Domino's 'The Fat Man,' please keep in mind that it's Palmer feverishly stoking that beat - with a saucy second-line sensibility that drove those songs in fresh, utterly innovative directions."

'Rolling Stone' magazine hailed Palmer as "One of the most recorded drummers in history", and noted: "Earl Palmer was an artist-craftsman who defined the role of sideman."

And amid that who's who of musicians Palmer played behind on the US West Coast - the likes of Richie Valens, Eddie Cochran and The Righteous Brothers - another claim to fame for Palmer was drumming on the theme song for the television show "The Flintstones".

Answer: Jerry Allison

Jerry Allison also convinced Buddy Holly to change the name of another song, from "Cindy Lou" to "Peggy Sue".

He also changed the way The Crickets sounded, moving from the original cha-cha beat to the classic sticking rudiment known as a paradiddle.

'Rolling Stone' magazine placed him at number 44 in a list of "The 100 Best Drummers Ever".

Answer: Cozy Powell

Cozy Powell went on to play with Rainbow, Whitesnake, and Black Sabbath.

It was said that Powell never had a drum lesson in his life. Born Colin Powell on December 29, 1947, by the age of 16 he was playing semi-professionally in local bands in England: so much to the detriment of his education he was asked to leave school.

At the age of 17, he was working with The Sorcerers, playing for three years in clubs in Germany. "We'd play for eight hours a night, which was incredibly boring," Cozy later recalled. "I used to back strippers, so I really saw the seedy side of life, but it was a great experience. It taught me stamina and you got to try out all sorts of different things as you played, so I really learned a lot."

He was nicknamed "Cozy" after 1950s jazz drummer Cozy Cole.

Back in England, he joined the Jeff Beck Group. He later formed his own group and as Cozy Powell's Hammer they had a UK number three in 1973 with the drum-led instrumental "Dance With The Devil".

He mixed his passion for music with that of driving Formula Three racing cars. He died in a motorway crash in 1998 when the car he was driving suffered a punctured tyre while speeding at 104mph.

Paying tribute, Roger Daltrey said "Cozy Powell was a classic rocker. The best there was."

Answer: Alex Van Halen

'Rolling Stone' magazine noted that "millions of young drummers all over America drove themselves nuts in the Eighties trying to replicate the skip-stone tom-tom work and galloping swing" that Alex Van Halen brought to his music.

And in 1984 'Rolling Stone' described a show opening for the Rolling Stones where Van Halen played the entire set with his hand broken in four places. "He couldn't even hold a drumstick," journalist Debby Miller wrote. "So he tied the stick to his wrist with a shoelace .."

Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1953. When he was a child, the family moved to California.

He started off playing guitar, but soon picked up on his brother Eddie's drums.

In 1972 they were in the band Mammoth, which morphed into Van Halen and was still going strong when this quiz was written in 2019.

Answer: Terry A La Berry

Terry A La Berry was the name jokingly given by Arlo Guthrie to Terry Hall, and it stuck. He was usually credited under that nickname on Guthrie family recordings.

As well as touring and recording with Arlo, Terry A La Berry worked with Annie and Sarah Lee Guthrie.

He also recorded several children's songs in his own right, and played concerts in the trio Terry A La Berry and Friends.