Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, billed as the “World’s Most Recorded Drummer,” is a session musician most active during the 60’s and 70’s though he has played on more recent songs as well. He is perhaps most well known for creating the “Purdie Shuffle,” an innovative drumbeat he invented for the song “Home At Last” by Steely Dan.

He has played on tracks by people such as James Brown, Hall and Oates, Roberta Flack, Bob Marley, B.B. King, Miles Davis, Gil Scott Heron, and Aretha Franklin. He was Franklin’s musical director for five years.

In 1978, Purdie caused controversy by saying that he “overdubbed the drumming on 21 tracks of the first three Beatle albums.” This has since been shown to be very improbable, though it is likely that he overdubbed Pete Best’s drumming on a few of the band’s earlier recordings.