Allan Schwartzberg

This guy deserves some recognition for sure.

Allan Schwartzberg (born December 28, 1942) is an American musician and record producer. He has been a member of the rock band Mountain, Peter Gabriel's first solo band, toured with Brecker Brothers' Dreams, B. J. Thomas, Linda Ronstadt, Stan Getz band, and the Pat Travers band. He has experienced success as a prolific session musician, through recordings made from the 1970s through today.[1] He has also played on multi genre hits such as Gloria Gaynor "Never Can Say Goodbye",[2] considered the first disco record, James Brown's "Funky President", Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle", Tony Orlando & Dawn's Tie A Yellow Ribbon, Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", The Spinners' "Workin' My Way Back to You", the Star Wars theme, and Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook series including the hit "What A Wonderful World". He has played with musicians and singers including John Lennon, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Frank Sinatra, Roxy Music, Robert Palmer, Grace Slick, Roberta Flack, Barry Manilow, Harry Chapin, Barbra Streisand, Deodato, Frankie Valli, and Roger Daltrey.[3][4] He was also a frequent musician guest with Paul Shaffer's David Letterman Show band.

Great performance on Alice Cooper's Wish You Were Here:

He also played on the first version(unreleased) of Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker".



Dan

Great thread. Somehow I fell into a rabbit hole of his stuff and discovered I am a big fan. Glad to have a few more title to check out.

He's pretty spectacular on the original version of Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood," produced by Alice Cooper Goes to Hell producer Bob Ezrin. Gabriel himself never liked this version and given the minimalist treatment he's always given it since, I can understand that. But the tom fills are simply epic—he kinda sounds like if Phil Collins were a studio cat in the 70s—and the weird little hats-tom back and forth he does right before the guitar solo gets me every time.

I’m not very familiar with his career, but I remember seeing his name for the first time when Jimi Hendrix’s Crash Landing album came out. He had overdubbed most of the drum parts on that controversial and disappointing release.

Some credit Allan with coming up with the Pea Soup disco beat that was all the rage with the kids of the 70s.

I used to see him sub on the Letterman show a lot. But there was one time where Paul hired him to play aux e-drums for a guest, and he was jamming on the intro when Dave entered, walked up to him, said something in his ear, and you could see Allan’s entire mood instantly change from happy to very dark. A few minutes later, Dave apologized on air, and confessed that he asked Allan, “What the hell are you doing here?” as a joke, and Allan took him seriously.

I can’t decide if that was Dave’s most embarrassing moment, or when the late Harry Reasoner, at the time in his 80s and not in good health, came out and joined Dave and Mike Wallace. Dave showed a pic of Mike kissing Harry on the cheek before he came out, and then as Harry greets them, Dave gets a brilliant idea and says to Mike, “Hey, let’s both kiss him on the cheek!” Mike rightfully waves him off, and Dave later said it was the most embarrassed he ever felt that he even thought of it.

It’s a close one, though.

Secret session drummer on many 70's albums, often not listed in credits. He's on more records than those he is named.

I played with Alan on jingles and at Seventh Avenue on two two week occasions.
Alan, how's it going!