The Velvet Underground – ‘I’m Set Free’

The rest of the drum fills that you’re going to read about on this list are exactly the kind that you’re expecting. They’re from rock bands, high energy, difficult to ignore and completely in your face. However, it’s worth initially flagging that for a drum fill to add to a song and heighten it to the extent that you feel your heart racing, it doesn’t need to be anything over the top.

Moe Tucker wasn’t exactly a flamboyant drummer, but she was able to carry songs by The Velvet Underground, giving them a simple swing and elevating tracks with gentle hits of the tom tom. One of the best examples of this is in the song ‘I’m Set Free’, as the chorus goes from stripped back to somewhat euphoric. Drum fills can add so much to a song, but they don’t need to be too over the top.

Arctic Monkeys – ‘R U Mine’

When Arctic Monkeys released their fourth album, Suck It And See, they continued the tradition of going down a different route compared to their last release. The album was softer than what people had come to expect, but still flooded with excellent songwriting and great lyrics. When the buzz of that album died down, and it was announced that the new single from their next project was getting released, people prepared themselves for what was next.

Who knows what they were expecting, but the entire Arctic Monkeys fandom had their worlds turned upside down the minute the intro to ‘R U Mine’ played, and it came in the form of Matt Helders’ drum fill. There was something about the energy of it, coming just after the hard-hitting F# that led to the perfect introduction for what would become an indie classic.

Led Zeppelin – ‘Achilles Last Stand’

John Bonham was a drumming phenomenon unlike anybody else. He took the rule book on how to play drums, tore it up, and then rewrote it with his own set of ideas. There are plenty of songs you can pick that highlight his genius, but one of his greatest is his drum fill after the verse in Led Zeppelin’s prog-adjacent epic ‘Achilles Last Stand’. This is a piece of drumming that sounds inhuman in its excellence.

Dave Grohl agreed. “This song has some fireworks, and it’s a good example of Bonham’s reckless side,” he said when discussing the track, “You can tell he’s taking chances as the tape rolls. There’s an amazing kick-drum pattern that propels the track. There’s one fill right after the first verse that just doesn’t sound humanly possible.”

Phil Collins – ‘In The Air Tonight’

This is one of the most exciting songs that Phil Collins ever put together, and he essentially made it up on the spot. “I was just fooling around,” said Collins, “I got these chords that I liked, so I turned the mic on and started singing. The lyrics you hear are what I wrote spontaneously. That frightens me a bit, but I’m quite proud of the fact that I sang 99.9 per cent of those lyrics spontaneously.”

That’s all pretty impressive, as just the chords and the lyrics on their own already hold up, but the thing that really elevated the song and put it into the history books is the drum fill. It’s so energetic and has enough power to get anybody listening more energised than someone who has drunk five Red Bulls and spun around really fast. The magic of a good drum fill, there really is nothing like it.

The Who – ‘Who Are You’

Keith Moon is another one of those extraordinary drummers. He wasn’t just a great percussionist, but he was someone who could reach into the depths of a song and pull out rhythm that other artists could only dream of. The reason ‘Who Are You’ and the drum fill in it are so good is that it came at a time when Moon was struggling creatively. However, despite the lull, he was still capable of putting together this headbanging rhythm section.

“I do know at the beginning he really wasn’t playing well,” said the producer Jon Astley, “and he was all over the place, and they had to sit him down and tell him to get his shit together. I don’t think he was drinking at the time; he was on slimming aid and things like that. In fairness to him, he did get it together on the album, and he really plays really well on parts.”