Er, did I miss something? Where is Mitch Mitchell on this list? The guy was fantastic.
I know it was Ringo’s 70th this week and I always respected him; don’t know, however, if I’d put him in the top 10. John Lennon, when asked if he thought Ringo was the greatest drummer in the world (shortly after Ringo’s brief resignation and then return to the band in August, 1968), ostensibly said that Ringo wasn’t even the greatest drummer in the Beatles (Paul, John, and George each took turns on the traps in Ringo’s absence, and 8-9 months later, when Paul and John recorded “The Ballad of John and Yoko” without George or Ringo, who were both on holiday and out of the country, Paul played drums again, with John jokingly calling Paul “Ringo” while Paul sat at the drum set). Of course, John was John, bless his soul, and he could be mean and nasty while seeming incisive and profound.
Anyway, did you people never hear of Mitch Mitchell?
Dave Grohl has gotten a lot of votes on this thread, but if we’re talking drummers who emerged from the Seattle grunge scene of the late '80s/early '90s, how about Matt Cameron?
Someone mentioned double-drummer bands (the Dead, the Allman Bros.). Among '60s San Francisco bands, I think Spencer Dryden (with the Airplane from late '66 to 1970; previously a jazz drummer and member of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy in LA) was underrated.
Speaking of LA sixties bands, John Densmore (who has been a bit of a killjoy in legally enjoining Manzarek and Krieger from playing as the Doors) could hold his own, and then there was Ed Cassidy, a jazz drummer playing in Spirit with his stepson, guitarist Randy California (born Randy Craig Wolfe; he got the name “Randy California” from Hendrix himself to distinguish him from another Randy during a time when the very young RC was playing in Hendrix’s New York, pre-Experience band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames). The last I heard, Cassidy was still active in his 80s.
Someone mentioned Hal Blaine: a good choice but largely a session drummer; I think the list was supposed to focus on drummers associated with performing bands. If one goes into underappreciated session musicians, the list will be miles long. One could include, for example, Jim Gordon, who was pretty much a session drummer except for about one year as one-fourth (or one-fifth, during the time Duane Allman was in the band) of Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominoes. Aside from his drumming skills, Gordon was responsible (not band keyboardist Bobby Whitlock) for the piano lead on the instrumental coda to “Layla.” Aside from that, Gordon, unfortunately, went berserkers in the early '80s, slashed his own mother to death in a psychotic (and possibly drug- and alcohol-fueled) rage, and wound up in a California prison for the criminally insane, where he still resides.