Earl Young

Who is Earl Young?

Earl Young is a Philadelphia-based drummer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s as part of the Philly Soul sound. Young is best known as the founder and leader of The Trammps who had a hit record with "Disco Inferno". Young, along with Ronnie Baker and Norman Harris, was the owner of the Golden Fleece record label.

Young is seen as the inventor of the disco style of rock drumming, as he was the first to make extensive and distinctive use of the hi-hat cymbal throughout the playing time of an R & B recording. This led to DJs favoring his recordings because they could hear the cymbal quite easily in their headphones as they "cued up" records to be mixed.

Young featured prominently on many Gamble and Huff recordings before moving on to Salsoul Records as part of the house band for the label. He recorded extensively at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios.

In 1989, newcomers Ten City sought out Young to work on their first album for the house music scene, and even commissioned Young to remix of some of the material and as a session drummer.

In September 2008, Young joined some other ex-MFSB musicians on the Carl Dixon/Bobby Eli session at Eli's Studio E in Philadelphia where four new songs were recorded. The rhythm section included Young, Eli, Dennis Harris on guitar, Jimmy Williams, T Conway and Rikki Hicks. Vocalists on the session were Pthe Philadelphia harmony group Double Exposure performing "Soul Recession", and Chiquita Green.