Sandy Nelson Big Sixties Frat Party!

Sandy Nelson,

Sandy Nelson, born Sander Nelson in Santa Monica, Cali-fornia, on Dec. 1, 1938, attained considerable popularity in the early Sixties with a series of instrumentals which pitched his monotonous drumming against a solitary guitar playing menacing riffs. Originally a member of the same West Coast high school clique with Jan and Dean, Phil Spector and Nancy Sinatra, Nelson first played drums in an obscure local band called Kip Tyler and the Flips, which recorded for the Ebb and Challenge labels (ex-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston played piano).

In 1958, he played drums on the million-seller 'To Know Him Is To Love Him', by the Teddy Bears, with whom he also travelled during a cash-in tour. Turning to session work, he played on Gene Vincent's Crazy Times album (1959), shortly before recording 'Teen-beat' for the small Original Sound label. The record sold a million worldwide and Nelson immediately moved to the larger Imperial label where he had to wait two years for his second hit 'Let There Be Drums'.

Shortly before recording it, Nelson lost his left foot in a car crash but his drumming was unimpaired. During the Sixties, he recorded a series of near-Muzak instrumental albums covering a variety of contemporary themes but has not been active recently.