20 Greatest Drummers of All Time

Popular music is nothing without good drums. A great drummer can transform a fine song into an epic, just from their performance on the tubs. Whilst we all like making drummer jokes, we all secretly know that we’d be nothing without them, and today’s blog aims to throw some light on that fact! A great drummer elevates every player around them, and inspires like no other musician can. So what if they turn up late and hungover absolutely every time?

Sorry.

Today, I’ve taken it upon myself to gather together a list of the drummers whom I believe have made the biggest marks on culture. Some are visionaries who bring new ways of playing to the fore; some are technical wizards with chops that make us gasp; and some are simply the right person in the right gig at the right time. Magic is made.

Music is magic, of course, and these drummers are all high-ranking Mages of music. In no order whatsoever, here are the 20 greatest drummers of all-time…

Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich was maybe the first drummer who took the spotlight and made himself a superstar. Well, a big-band/jazz superstar, but we’re still in awe of him after all of these years, so he’s a leading light for sure.

If there was no Buddy Rich, then there would be no John Bonham, no Ginger Baker and no Roger Taylor. He was the zero point for a new language of modern drumming. He laid down the rules by which all subsequent drum heroes referred as they went about making their own names, always in the shadow of the great Buddy Rich.

Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie

Pretty Purdie is one of those ultimate session players who went somewhat unsung outside the industry for years. We know about his genius nowadays though, and I do mean genius. Ghost notes on the hi-hat? Pretty Purdie. The Purdie Shuffle? Him, of course. Playing with upside down drumsticks to get a bigger splash of sound? Pretty Purdie.

He played with artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan and Bob Marley, all of whom fully understood his genius.

Phil Collins

Ahhh, Phil Collins. Even if he only ever did that one drum fill, he’d be a legend. Of course you know the one I mean. In fact, it’s almost a shame that he became an enormous solo artist in the 80s (I’m sure he’s crying about it), only because it moved the focus away from his outstanding drum work in Genesis. He really is one of the best, whether he was playing to Peter Gabriel’s vocals or singing himself whilst drumming. He had the technical element down, he had the groove, and he brought some solid rock power to the somewhat flightier moments of early Genesis.

As I say, such a great shame that he became a legendary singer, eh?

Billy Cobham

Billy Cobham is your favourite drummer’s favourite drummer. This is the guy who played on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, OK? This is the guy from the Mahavishnu Orchestra! Nobody has blended jazzy flash with rock power like Billy Cobham. It’s like he’s telling a story with each performance, whilst having a ridiculous level of groove to draw from.

Mitch Mitchell

Mitch Mitchell played the drums like he was trying to survive a hurricane, but in perfect time. He rolled, he splashed, he painted the space with sounds from his toms and cymbals. Best of all, he played every song as a song, tailoring his performance to each part of the tune. 

Let’s put it this way: he was the musical match for his bandmate. 

That was Jimi Hendrix, by the way.

John Bonham

Best rock drummer ever? Most people agree on this and I have no reason to offer a counter-argument. Bonham drummed like his life depended on it, without ever losing that massive swing in his timing. He just played exactly the right beats every time. What more could you ever want from a musician?

Listening to Bonham tear through In My Time of Dying is a motivating experience that no fitness guru could hope to match. Skip the first 3 boring minutes, though, obviously.

Ginger Baker

Famously polyrhythmic and famously short-fused, the late Ginger Baker was a bit of a ‘wild rockstar’ archetype. Loud and expressive, both in life and in art, Baker was an engine room with a deliriously abstract mind. Cream would’ve been indulgent in all the wrong ways if Baker hadn’t trumped both Clapton and Bruce for musical fireworks. A one-off, which is both good and bad news for everyone.

Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr is a subtle guy. His sound and his beats underpin so many unadulterated classics that you sometimes forget that any other drummer might have really ruined the tunes. Ringo managed to pour in plenty of personality to his performances, not just in his accents and fills, but in his grooves. Laid back authority seems like an oxymoron, but that’s what I hear on every Beatles song from behind the drum kit.

Neil Peart

Rush’s late drum wizard blended huge ambition to huge talent. He actually plotted out ‘journeys’ for his drums to take, in both technical and narrative ways. Peart was/is the very definition of brains and brawn in synthesis, for drummers at least. He led Rush, he supported them, he made the audience notice and he left loads of space for Geddy and Alex. Talk about a legend?

Danny Carey

Tool’s drummer is a visionary on the drums. Here’s a monumental quote that sums up his entire philosophy: “It doesn’t mean anything if you just hear the drums doing tricky things. I don’t want to have people say, ‘That guy is burning.’ I would rather hear them say, ‘That reminds me of the Moors running down the hill, or Scotsmen attacking with their heads on fire, butt-naked in the middle of winter.'”

As a Scotsman, I wholeheartedly support this point of view.

Clyde Stubblefield & John ‘Jabo’ Starks

These two were both hired by James Brown at the same time, in order to double down on his rhythmcentric funk sound. Truly, you couldn’t find a better matched couple, with Stubblefield’s jazzy flair (he is the ‘Funky Drummer’ btw) on the snare held down by the solid support of Jabo. Together, they are the actual sound and feel of classic hip-hop, given how much the golden era of that genre samples them and reused their grooves. These two are enormously influential together.

Keith Moon

Legendary madman Moon was an innovative sticksman above all else. His style eschewed (for the most part) the hi-hat, giving him options elsewhere on the kit that opened his sound hugely. His technique was always controlled chaos, and was the direct inspiration for many generations of drummers.

Dave Grohl

Grohl’s a heavy-hitter in more than one way. The ex-Nirvana drummer has also performed with Queens of the Stone Age and Killing Joke, as well as with his Foo Fighters day job. With a style that redefines ‘sledgehammer’ (from teenage practice pounding on pillows with marching band drumsticks), Grohl is the best ‘not-subtle’ drummer in rock.

Jimmy Chamberlain

Do you want a hot take? Jimmy Chamberlain is the greatest rock drummer since John Bonham. There’s my hot take for you. Nobody can play like this guy, from his jazzy snare work to his thrilling tom playing. In an age when lots of drummers were aiming for Bonham, Chamberlain seems to have taken his lead from Billy Cobham, and he just stands out so much more as a result. 

As the Smashing Pumpkins’ lineup changes over the years has proved, Jimmy is really the only member besides Billy who is truly irreplaceable.

Levon Helm

If we are talking about ‘greatest’ today - and we are - then The Band’s Levon Helm is most definitely on this list. He was never one for flashy technique. He was never one for taking solos. What he was, though, was groove, vibe, authority, charisma and style like no one else. Truly, his drumming was simple but oh-so-cool, and made a huge difference to The Band’s sound.

The fact that he was an awesome singer too doesn’t even have to come into it if you don’t want it to. You just know that Levon could turn up at any gig, join in on drums, and improve the song. That’s what being ‘great’ is all about. 

Stewart Copeland

The word that comes straight to mind about Stewart Copeland is ‘propulsive’. His kinetic energy spills through the drum mics and out into the listener’s world, such is the focussed energy of this player. I love how much he dictates the sound and attitude of the early Police recordings, and I love how much his famous finesse got him a job playing only the hi-hat on Peter Gabriel’s Red Rain. How often does that happen?

Tomas Haake

When you can play beats that others would consider to be literally impossible to play, and you can play them without even breaking a sweat, then you belong at the top of any ‘best drummers’ list. Even if Meshuggah are too much for you, heavy-wise, give them a critical listen and pay serious attention to what each of Tomas Haake’s limbs are up to at any given moment. 

You will come away from the experience a different person.

Moe Tucker

Much as I mentioned with Levon Helm, attitude and charisma are absolutely prized attributes when it comes to greatness in my book. Mo Tucker, therefore, stands as tall as anyone here. 

Stands, literally: she played standing up, which was pretty revolutionary and also too cool. Mo always said she ‘didn’t want to play the drums, I want to play the songs’, which I love. She did that all over The Velvet Underground’s music, with rhythms, beats and performances that are as memorable as any other element in that extraordinary band. Even the very concept of speeding up and slowing down during Heroin to mimic the rush of the drug is inspired stuff.

Dennis Chambers

Even if Dennis Chambers wasn’t one of the top Parliament/Funkadelic guys, he’d still be a historically significant drummer thanks to Rapper’s Delight. Yep, he played on that. He’s one of funk music’s titans, and has been sampled almost as often as Clyde Stubblefield.

Matt Cameron

Matt Cameron recently retired, and I’d say he’s put in a good shift. He was drummer for the incredible Soundgarden, whose Superunknown has the BEST drum sound EVER. Then, he casually jumped into the ginormous Pearl Jam and became their drummer for decades. Once Soundgarden regrouped, he simply played in both massive bands like it was no thing. He’s a drum hero without a doubt, and the 90s would not have sounded the way it did were it not partly due to him.

20 Wasn’t Enough: Honourable Mentions

As a musician, you feel like you can never find drummers anywhere for love nor money. Then, you put together a list like this and realise the world is crawling with awesome stick-hitters. So, in the spirit of inclusion/indecisiveness/credit-where-it’s-due, here are some names that I wanted in there but ran out of time to include…

• Stephen Morris
• Max Weinberg
• Joey Jordison
• Budgie
• Chad Smith
• Igor Cavalera
• Lars Ulrich
• Gavin Harrison
• Sheila E
• Kenny Aronoff
• Travis Barker
• Greg Erico

You’ll know more than these ones, of course. So will I, and I’ll kick myself later for not including them, but still, that’s some list of tub-thumpers there! 

Did your favourite make the cut? What makes a great drummer to you? Is it technique? Groove? Personality? If there is anybody on today’s list that you’ve yet to properly meet, then I’ll consider it ‘mission accomplished’ if you check some of them out. They’re all here for a reason: they are the greatest drummers ever!