Sandy Nelson - Let There Be Drums/Drums Are My Beat!

2-on-1 features original 1961 & 1962 albums by the famous drummer with the original artwork in tact. 20 tracks. Album Description

Memories

I never considered Sandy Nelson a great drummer, but he certainly appealed to millions of teens, including myself, in the late 50's through the mid 60's. This is a pretty good collection of those "TEEN" cuts as well as some more serious stuff, such as Cozy Coles's-Topsy Part II. I still have most of his stuff on vinyl and will eventually put some of his better, but never popular, recordings on CD's for a more complete, eclectic collection. April 17, 2008

A Blah Mix-And-Match by Collectables

Reading the other reviews it's obvious Collectables has put out two versions of the same CD - one faithfully reproducing two original LPs [one of which contained the long album cut of The Birth Of The Beat] and another containing the 45 rpm hit single edition. This 25-selection compilation contains the singles release.

It's hard to believe that someone could take the same monotonous drum beat and turn it into nine singles hits, but that's exactly what Sander Nelson, born December 1, 1938 in Santa Monica, California did, first for Original Sound, and then for Imperial.

After hanging out at the same high school with the likes of Phil Spector, Jan Berry, Dean Torrence, and Nancy Sinatra, he joined the local group Kip Tyler & The Flips, recording for the Ebb and Challenge labels with no national success. He then played on the 1958 Teddy Bears' hit To Know Him Is To Love Him, following which he appeared on Gene Vincent's album Crazy Times in 1959.

That same year he got a contract with Original Sound for which he recorded Teen Beat, backed by a solitary guitar throwing in some suitably menacing riffs. It rose to # 4 Billboard Pop Hot 100 that fall, and even crossed into the R&B charts, reaching # 17 [the flipside, Big Jump, is not included here].

Signed to Imperial right away, it looked like a bad move by Lew Chudd's label when nothing worked for all of 1960 [during which he played drums on the hit versions of Alley Oop and A Thousand Stars] and well into 1961 before the similar-sounding Let There Be Drums made it to # 7 Hot 100 in December b/w Quite A Beat, which is included here. Early 1962 saw Drums Are My Beat go to # 29 Hot 100 and the B-side, The Birth Of The Beat, settle in at # 75 Hot 100, followed in June by Drummin' Up A Storm [# 67] and Drum Stomp [# 86]. Clearly, his sound was wearing thin with the listening audience.

In July All Night Long could only manage a # 75 [the flip Rompin' And Stompin' is excluded], and in October ...And Then There Were Drums fared only marginally better, reaching # 65 [the flip, Live It Up, "bubbled under" at # 101 but is not included in this CD].

In 1963 he lost his left foot in an automobile accident and consequently had no charted hits that year while he rehabilitated, returning in late 1964 with Teen Beat '65 which just missed the Top 40, settling for # 44 Hot 100 b/w Kitty's Theme [not included]. After that nothing worked and he turned to making albums which offered nothing different from what had been heard so far.

In terms of rock instrumental groups Sandy Nelson would rank well down the list. September 1, 2007

If you can find it

Buy The Import "See For Miles Records" It is very hard to find. But it has the extended version of "Birth Of The Beat" Between my dad and my brother and myself we must have worn out 8 LPs. I have bought 3 CDs of the import. I have two That I shared with my dad before he passed away and gave my Brother one. July 5, 2007

Good percussion work

I've been looking for these two (combined on the CD) albums for a long time. I really enjoyed them. March 26, 2007

Let There be Drums

I purchased this CD for my nephew who's been playing the drums for about a year. He never heard of Sandy Nelson before...but listened to the CD over a dozen times the day he received it. He's thanked me over and over again for such a great, drum playing collection of music. September 14, 2005

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