Music Popular songs with awesome drums

[Cheimoon]

The Greatest Basslines thread made me think of this. What are some popular songs with awesome drums in them? (Edit: I said live drums first, but that's misunderstood and I can't think of a better way to succinctly say that I mean drums that aren't programmed but played with hands and feet. And anyway, I'm interested in all good drum parts.)

There are obviously great drums parts in jazz, prog, math, and similar genres, and I love Terry Bozzio; but that's not what I am getting at here. I am looking for pop songs with hit potential (even if they weren't necessarily a hit) that have great drums. That can be about creativity, technique, feel - whatever makes that drum performance great.

I'm going to kick this off with the great Stewart Copeland myself. The Police's Message In A Bottle was obviously a huge hit and its sounds great fun and super accessible; but if you listen to the drums closely, you'll notice that Copeland plays something very different each verse (starting at 0:06, 1:00, and 2:10), and each time they're pretty creative and fitting parts. And in general of course, like anything Copeland did in The Police, it has his great sound and feel and everything.


I'll stop myself from posting more about Copeland. Over to you!

 

[Achilles McCool]

I might be showing my age, but anything from RUSH!
YYZ live and Neil Peart’s solo is still one of the strongest!

edit: I see now what you mean by “live” but I’ll stick with RUSH. Tom Sawyer had an incredible drum line. *doubt you’d call them “pop” though

 

[Ali Dia]

@Achilles McCool? - Achilles last stand

John Bonham at his devastating best

 

[Achilles McCool]

@Achilles McCool? - Achilles last stand

John Bonham at his devastating best

Bonham!!!
I like being outdone! Well played Ali!

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

I love Matt Cameron's drumming on this one.

 

[Cheimoon]

I might be showing my age, but anything from RUSH!
YYZ live and Neil Peart’s solo is still one of the strongest!

edit: I see now what you mean by “live” but I’ll stick with RUSH. Tom Sawyer had an incredible drum line. *doubt you’d call them “pop” though

Yeah, I didn't mean 'live in concert', and I would class YYZ as one of those difficult prog pieces, not a pop track. But Tom Sawyer counts! That was a big hit and still plays on the radio. Cool bassdrum/snare rhythm in that one - and Peart's trademark ultra quick fills of course.

We had a Rush discussion just last week btw: https://www.redcafe.net/threads/rush.464487/

 

[Cheimoon]

I love Matt Cameron's drumming on this one.

Yeah, the style/rhythm is an interesting choice! That could have been drummed much more conventionally, and it would've been a very different song. Special snare sound as well.

 

[Bondi77]

I just love the funky beat.....Some like it Hot

 

[Deery]

Foo Fighters- The Best of You.

 

[Tincanalley]

Few points: with sounds replacement nowadays the line between ‘live’ and programmed, played and sampled is much blurred. For instance you could play a song live on pads, to a click, and later replace the sounds. So lots of modern very authentic sounding kits need to be viewed in this light.

I love the mad freedom of pre-click days; songs that speed up over the course of the tune (Isley Brothers, T-Rex, Rolling Stones), car crash parts (Ringo in the mid 8 odd-time part in Happiness is a Warm Gun), great sounding kits (the Small Faces, anything by Creedence). And of course, as an antidote to machines, there is always Mr Keith Moon.

 

[Old Ma Crow]

Money for nothing - Dire Straits
Mitch Mitchell’s work with The Jimi Hendrix Experience

 

[Cheimoon]

Few points: with sounds replacement nowadays the line between ‘live’ and programmed, played and sampled is much blurred. For instance you could play a song live on pads, to a click, and later replace the sounds. So lots of modern very authentic sounding kits need to be viewed in this light.

I didn't mean to be that specific; I just meant anything that's not programmed outright. Like, Pet Shop Boys have made a lot of really nice and fitting drum parts for their 80s hits, but it's a different craft to my mind than playing it with hands and feet.

I love the mad freedom of pre-click days; songs that speed up over the course of the tune (Isley Brothers, T-Rex, Rolling Stones), car crash parts (Ringo in the mid 8 odd-time part in Happiness is a Warm Gun), great sounding kits (the Small Faces, anything by Creedence). And of course, as an antidote to machines, there is always Mr Keith Moon.

Yeah, click tracks remove some of the organicness from music; although I am not sure I could tell if put to the test. Most pop is anyway very constant in terms of tempo.

Kit sound is fascinating. Especially in the 80s, you can often date tracks within 2-3 years just by listening to the drums.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Yeah, the style/rhythm is an interesting choice! That could have been drummers much more conventionally, and it would've been a very different song. Special snare sound as well.

Especially considering Matt's normal gig was for Soundgarden. The feel of his drumming on that track is very special IMO.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Stevie Wonder's Another Star. Played every percussion instrument on this track.

 

[Hoof the ball]

I just love the funky beat.....Some like it Hot

This just reminds me of the scene from National Lampoon's European Vacation.

 

[Cheimoon]

This won't make me popular, but Turn It On Again by Genesis is another one for me. It actually goes through a sequence of odd time signatures, including 13/4 in the verses, but you can't really tell if you're not looking for it. That's partly because the main riff is kept simple, but also because Collins drums a very unassuming beat to it, that doesn't emphasize the timing but kinda glosses over it by playing less, leaving space, and so on. A wonderful way to make some difficult accessible by keeping everything understated.

Foo Fighters- The Best of You.

I see what you mean, but this is somehow a beat that really annoys me. It has a stumbling quality to me that feels like it's constantly waiting to break open and make the song 'fluid'; except when bands use it, it rather tends to be the song's main beat. I just can't stand it.

Another example of this is Wintersleep's Spirit - which emphasizes what I mean by letting the beat 'break open' in the middle eight section (at 2:11), but then goes straight back to it. Sigh.


Well, to me it's similar, anyway.

 

[led_scholes]

Ringo at his best


Bonham's most iconic one


I also wanted to include Burn by Deep Purple, but I don't think its really popular.

 

[djembatheking]

Not pop music but..... Cheb Nettles , great drummer.

 

[izzydiggler]

Rosanna by Toto...Picaro Shuffle.

 

[djembatheking]

Clem Burke , brilliant.

 

[djembatheking]

Ringo at his best


Bonham's most iconic one


I also wanted to include Burn by Deep Purple, but I don't think its really popular.

So many great Ringo beats

 

[Moby]

Stevie Wonder's Another Star. Played every percussion instrument on this track.

I loved this video on top of it.

 

[markhughes]

Queens of the Stone age - No one knows (special guest drummer)

 

[Vernon Philander]

 

[Green_Red]

 

[Cheimoon]

Queens of the Stone age - No one knows (special guest drummer)

Always loved all the extended breaks on that one.

It's got great drive while basically just constantly ploughing on with the same beat. Works really well.

 

[djembatheking]

 

[djembatheking]

 

[Cheimoon]

I like Rick Beato's YouTube channel; he's got lots of interesting things to say about music. He also does some Top 20s, and here is the one he did on drum grooves. Lots of good ones!

 

[Superunknown]

Great first choice with Stewart Copeland!

My two favourite drummers are Jimmy Chamberlin from the Smashing Pumpkins and Danny Carey from Tool. These two are easily two of the best drummers on the planet and are all-time greats, for different reasons. Both are two of my favourite musicians and have been highly influential for me.

A Pumpkins classic: Geek USA. Probably some of his best work.

Then there's Cherub Rock, which is much more well-known. I've included Geek USA because it's a highly regarded Pumpkins classic, but I can't tell how much it's known outside of their fanbase. Pretty sure everyone knows Cherub Rock, however.


There's so many great Tool tracks to name. Lateralus, Forty Six & 2. Tbh, any Tool song usually has an amazing drum part. The newest album has some of his best work, too. Pnuema, hnggggg.

I'm going with Ticks & Leeches:


and

 

[Revaulx]

Not sure whether it qualifies as a “popular song”, but the first thing I ever heard that really made me sit up and notice the drumming was Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. The single is good, but the longer version I first saw on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973 is on YouTube and is fab. Drum duets

 

[lsd]

 

[Sky1981]

Viva la vida has a simple bass but quite entertaining.

Money for nothing

And hotel california had a very unique few second drum play in the middle

 

[Acrobat7]

Fiona always like herself some good percussions:

Fiona Apple - Limp

 

[njred]

John Bonham’s When the Levee Breaks is one of the most iconic beginnings of a song with drums ever. It’s also one of the most sampled tracks used by the the Beastie Boys to Beyoncé. But as an earlier poster pointed out “Achilles Last Stand “ by Bonham with Zep is the pinnacle imo.

 

[Eckers99]

Yes. Great choice!

 

[Salt Bailly]

No Phil Collins yet? Burn this thread to the ground.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Great first choice with Stewart Copeland!

My two favourite drummers are Jimmy Chamberlin from the Smashing Pumpkins and Danny Carey from Tool. These two are easily two of the best drummers on the planet and are all-time greats, for different reasons. Both are two of my favourite musicians and have been highly influential for me.

A Pumpkins classic: Geek USA. Probably some of his best work.

Then there's Cherub Rock, which is much more well-known. I've included Geek USA because it's a highly regarded Pumpkins classic, but I can't tell how much it's known outside of their fanbase. Pretty sure everyone knows Cherub Rock, however.


There's so many great Tool tracks to name. Lateralus, Forty Six & 2. Tbh, any Tool song usually has an amazing drum part. The newest album has some of his best work, too. Pnuema, hnggggg.

I'm going with Ticks & Leeches:


and

Some great examples here.

Out of curiosity, do you play drums?

I've found Jimmy Chamberlain to be a real drummer's drummer. I didn't really appreciate just how technical his style was until I started playing. I played Siamese Dream to death when I was in high school and somehow he just didn't stand out to me. Perhaps I just started noticing drumming styles more as a result of playing, but his style is incredible complex, but doesn't appear overly flashy or fill-heavy. Massively underrated.

 

[Sweet Square]

 

[Stookie]

The twin drummers of Adam and the Ants are always good to listen to.