ABBA

Drummer, producer and writer whose early recordings included Stu Nunnery’s and Billy Joe Thomas’s self-titled albums, Melissa Manchester’s Home to Myself, Deodato Featuring Joao Donato, and Judy Collins’ True Stories.

In 1974, he appeared on Bright Eyes by Melissa Manchester, Dawn’s New Ragtime Follies by Dawn and Tony Orlando, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and Richard Harris, Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk by Meco, Twin Peaks by Mountain, and Verities & Balderdash by Harry Chapin.

He is purportedly responsible for the now-infamous disco beat, which he claims to have invented on Gloria Gaynor’s cover of The Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye”. In 1975, he drummed on her Experience and Never Can Say Goodbye albums, as well as Henry Gross’s Plug Me Into Something, Kimiko Kasai’s This is My Love, and Herbie Mann’s Waterbed. He also did overdubs for a pair of posthumous Jimi Hendrix albums, Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning.

In 1976, he played on Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, Enchantment’s eponymous LP, Greatest Stories – Live by Harry Chapin, I’ve Got You by Gloria Gaynor, Midnight Love Affair by Carol Douglas, Moon Over Brooklyn by The Group with No Name, Tropea by John Tropea, and Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps. by Babyface. He did two more Alice Cooper albums, Lace and Whiskey and Muscle of Love, the latter sans credit.

Other artists and groups with whom he has worked include James Brown, Cheap Trick, Petula Clark, Peter Gabriel, Robert Goulet, Barry Manilow, and B.J. Thomas. He also did three KISS albums, Animalize, Asylum, and Music from the Elder, and a pair of solo albums by Peter Criss and Gene Simmons. In 1984, he drummed on Roger Daltrey’s solo LP, Parting Should Be Painless.

Allan has gone on to open his own recording studio, Deep Diner Music, along with guitarist Bob Mann, who works with James Taylor’s band. They did three of Rod Stewart’s Great American Songbook CDs, as well as recordings by Joy and Regis Philbin, and Diana Ross.

The Spinners recordings

Disco Ride (Jolyon Skinner/Eltesa Weatherby/Michael Zager)

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