Clem Cattini, Drummer on More Than 40 No 1 Singles, Dies at 86

The drummer Clem Cattini, who has died aged 86, played on more than 40 No 1 singles. Largely unknown outside the music business, he was revered inside it as one of the finest session musicians of his generation. Over 45 years, from 1960 to 2005, he supplied the backbeat for dozens of British chart-toppers and thousands of recordings.

What did he actually play on?

The list runs from The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) by the Walker Brothers and Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, both from 1966, to Everlasting Love by Love Affair (1968). He recorded with the Kinks, the Yardbirds, the Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, Paul McCartney, the Hollies and Lou Reed. His final No 1 came in 2005, on the Comic Relief single (Is This the Way to) Amarillo by Tony Christie and Peter Kay.

Not every hit endured. He appeared on Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle of the Road (1971), Grandad by Clive Dunn (1970) and Ernie by Benny Hill (1971). Cattini, a self-proclaimed "musical navvy", had no time for snobbery and took a fixed fee for a turkey as readily as for a prize bird. "I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to admit that I played on anything," he said. "In the end it was all just work."

How did he start?

Cattini was born in Stoke Newington, north London, the son of Lena and Clemente Sr, who ran a cafe after emigrating from Italy. He left St Ignatius grammar school in Tottenham at 15 to work for his father, serving tea and working the till. The move into music came after he and a friend, Terry Kennedy, saw Bill Haley playing Rock Around the Clock in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. They formed a skiffle band, Terry Kennedy's Rock and Rollers, with the self-taught Cattini on washboard and drums.

Two early chart-toppers came as a real band member. First he drummed for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates on Shakin' All Over (1960). Then came the Tornados, whose other-worldly 1962 instrumental Telstar, written by producer Joe Meek, reached No 1 in the UK and made them the first British group to top the US singles chart.

Tired of touring, Cattini quit in 1965 and drifted into session work, crisscrossing London between the Decca, EMI, Regent Sound and Pye studios. He sometimes played three sessions a day, contributing to hundreds of singles; the work blurred together so often that he may have played on more No 1s than anyone has counted. "Most of the groups at that time were inexperienced in the studio," he said. "It wasn't a slight on their abilities, more a question of time means money."

At his peak, from 1966 to 1971, he averaged about four No 1s a year, including Tom Jones's Green, Green Grass of Home (1966), Something in the Air by Thunderclap Newman (1969), Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse (1970) and the New Seekers' I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (1971).

How did his career evolve?

Punk arrived in the late 70s and Cattini adapted. He spent a decade as resident drummer at Caesar's Palace nightclub in Luton, backing visiting artists such as Shirley Bassey, the Four Tops and Gene Pitney. In 1982 he toured Europe with the Kids from Fame show, later played in the touring Rocky Horror Show, and re-formed the Tornados in 1988, playing 60s revival dates until 2000.

After the Amarillo surprise, James Corden portrayed him in the 2008 film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story. In 2010, Paul Weller, a longtime admirer, called him into the studio to play on No Tears to Cry for the album Wake Up the Nation. He nailed the part in two takes. "Paul was lovely," Cattini reported. "But I had to tell him to stop calling me Sir."

A lifelong Arsenal fan, he and his wife Anna, whom he married in 1959, spent many years lodging young players from the club's academy. He is survived by Anna, his daughters Giulia, Daniella and Victoria, and grandchildren Tomas, Louis, Freddie and Isobel. His career remains the measure of what Britain's studio system at its height could produce: more chart history than any named band, made one three-minute take at a time.