Gary Chester

Gary Chester (October 27, 1924 – August 17, 1987) (born Cesario Gurciullo in Siracusa, Italy) was one of the 20th century's busiest studio drummers. Gary is counted as one of the greats when it comes to studio session musicians. His work appears on thousands of tracks, including hundreds of hit records from the '50s, '60s and '70s. He logged over 15,000 studio sessions over three decades. He is on the short list of 20th Century Drummers' Hall of Fame.

Chester occupied the same position of studio prominence on the east coast recording scene that Hal Blaine did on the west, and had the musical abilities and creative spirit to roll with all the changes in popular music flow that happened during his lifetime. Beginning with doo-wop and rhythm and blues recordings, Chester also showed a great knack for rock, folk rock, rockabilly, and pop. In 1970-1, Chester was the Musical Contractor for the Broadway musical production of Purlie. In 1964, Gary formed a group, Gary Chester and the Beatle Beat which released its only album entitled "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!" consisting of a dozen Beatles' cover songs.