Carmine Appice has put Dino Danelli forward as a forgotten drummer who shaped rock drumming’s entire vocabulary, telling Classic Rock that Danelli started everything in terms of playing, showmanship and twirling, yet never received the credit he deserved.
The remarks come in a new career-spanning interview with Appice, and they land as something of a provocation. Asked to rank John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon and himself in order of greatness, he sidesteps the question entirely and throws a fifth name into the ring. ‘We’re all so different,’ he says. ‘Bonzo was great cos the band was great, they kept him up there. If he was in another band, I don’t know if he’d have stayed up there. Ginger Baker was there at the beginning of rock with that double bass drum. Keith Moon was just so unusual. I took what I did and made it really powerful. And I’d add Dino Danelli from The Rascals.’
Who was Dino Danelli and why does the Dino Danelli forgotten drummer argument hold up?
Danelli was the drummer and co-founder of The Rascals, the New York band who came up on the same circuit as Appice’s own Vanilla Fudge. Originally billed as The Young Rascals, the group notched up a run of hit US singles between 1965 and 1969, including three US number ones. They were not as heavy as Vanilla Fudge, but Appice’s point is less about volume than about what Danelli was doing behind the kit before anyone else was doing it. ‘He started everything in rock drumming, the playing, the showmanship, the twirling,’ Appice tells Classic Rock. ‘He was a monster player and never got credit.’ Danelli died in 2022.
The interview also covers Appice’s own claim to a central place in rock history. He explains the sheer physical logic behind how he became the powerhouse New Yorker who influenced John Bonham, Deep Purple’s Ian Paice and Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward. ‘No PAs. That simple,’ he says. ‘I beat the hell out of the drums so I could be heard. The bass drum was so small, so I figured if I got a bigger bass drum it would be louder, and it was. So I made everything bigger, which was much louder. But you really had to hit them hard to get the sound out.’
Appice on Led Zeppelin’s first US show and the Bonham replacement rumour
One of the interview’s more vivid passages concerns Led Zeppelin’s Stateside debut. Appice recalls that Zeppelin supported Vanilla Fudge in Denver, Colorado on 26 December 1968, with the connection coming through a shared attorney and a prior acquaintance with Jimmy Page from his Yardbirds days. ‘They sent us an acetate of the first album and we listened to it and went: “Whoah…” I heard Bonzo on Good Times, Bad Times and went: “This guy’s really good.” So we were ready for them. We became great friends. I do remember walking down the street and telling Robert Plant he should move around more.’
The story of Appice and Zeppelin doesn’t end there, at least not in terms of rumour. After John Bonham’s death in 1980, speculation circulated that Appice was in line to replace him. He puts that story to rest plainly. ‘I heard that rumour. But I never got a call.’ He was with Rod Stewart at the time, who, on hearing the rumours, told him: ‘There’s rumours I’m going to retire. Keep the rumours going, we’ll sell more tickets that way.’
Appice still leads a modern incarnation of Vanilla Fudge, and the full interview, which also takes in his time in Rod Stewart’s band and an unlikely connection to Goodfellas inspiration Henry Hill, is in the new issue of Classic Rock, on sale now.
