Benny Benjamin

Honestly, it's tough to write anything about William "Benny" Benjamin without a small degree of frustration and even sadness. His career was brief, underappreciated, unknown, and massively influential. Playing in Big Bands and heavily influenced by jazz and afro-cuban drummers, he had a very unique and identifiable style of playing and flawless time. Benny was basically a jazz drummer who became a pop musician in the 60s. He was the first-call of three drummers for The Funk Brothers, Motown's impeccable studio band. Benny played on huge hits for The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, The Supremes, The Miracles, and Gladys Knight & The Pips. And yet, his name is mostly unknown. Ask somebody to sing the words to "My Girl" or "Do You Love Me" and they can probably do it (at least hopefully). Ask them who is playing the music on that song and they haven't got a clue. Even the internet is relatively bare of information on him. The picture above is one of the very few known photographs of him. Video footage is practically non-existent, except for the documentary film Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which I highly recommend. The Funk Brothers recorded more #1 hits in less than two decades than The Beatles, Elvis, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones combined. Benny Benjamin was playing the drums on at least a third of those recordings up until his tragic death in 1969.


When I have kids somebody, I have always planned to name my first born son Benjamin. That's the least I can do for the man that got me playing drums when I was 11 years old.


ARTISTS - The Funk Brothers (Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Miracles, Barrett Strong, The Contours, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Miracles, The Four Tops)


Here's what's on the CD:

1. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – The Temptations
2. Get Ready – The Temptations
3. I Can’t Get Next To You – The Temptations
4. My Girl – The Temptations
5. For Once in My Life – Stevie Wonder
6. Uptight (Everything’s Alright) – Stevie Wonder
7. I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Gladys Knight & The Pips
8. Money (That’s What I Want) – Barrett Strong
9. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

In some cases it's arguable whether it was Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen, or Uriel Jones that played drums on any given song. Music credits were given to simply "The Funk Brothers." But most of the #1s are reported to have Benny Benjamin on them since Berry Gordy insisted on having Benny play for any session he was present at.

Watch the documentary on The Funk Brothers called Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSkB15Fw38M

LINKS:
http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/benny-benjamin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Benjamin