Bernard Purdie
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Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is a session drummer from Maryland, United States, who claims to be the most recorded drummer in history, working on over 3000 albums.
In 1963 or 1964, Polydor Records enlisted Purdie to overdub the drums on several early Beatles tracks, in which the group was recorded backing vocalist Tony Sheridan prior to the Beatles' own recording contract with EMI. The Tony Sheridan Record was originally recorded circa 1961 in Germany, when The Beatles were in Hamburg, and drummer Pete Best was still in the band. Purdie later claimed that he was hired to cover over the drumming of Ringo Starr, but had in fact worked on recordings featuring original Beatles drummer, Pete Best. (note: the early work with Tony Sheridan that was recorded when Pete Best was still the drummer, and for Polydor Records in 1961, has nothing to do with and is not to be confused with the real Beatles records in their professional career since they signed with EMI in 1962. The 1963/64 dates of the Polydor-calls-Purdie recordings may be confusing, but it must be remembered that he was supposed to work over the recordings done for Polydor in Germany 2/3 years previously, not over Beatles recordings. In other words, "No: Purdie didn't replace Ringo on any of the band's albums". This has to be said in order to quiet some misinformed rumor seen on an anti-Beatles site)
An incomplete list of the other artists he has recorded for/with is:
- James Brown
- Joe Cocker
- Hank Crawford
- King Curtis
- Miles Davis
- Aretha Franklin
- Hall & Oates
- Isaac Hayes
- Tom Jones
- B.B. King
- Herbie Mann
- Gil Scott-Heron
- Steely Dan
- Cat Stevens
- The Rolling Stones
- Jimmy Witherspoon
[edit] References
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