Thelma Houston - "Don't Leave Me This Way": Two drummers?

[soulster]

My ears tell me two drummers are playing on this track, or one drummer doubled the part. Does anyone know the facts?

[bankhousedave]

It sounds to me like there might be overdubs, Soulster. The tambourine is only added toward the end, but there is a different snare drum on the fills near the beginning, with a cleaner Detroit-type sound, rather than the slightly cardboard box tone of the west coast production. To my ears, the main drummer on the track is James Gadson working alone. When he does a fill it breaks the signature hi-hat off beat. If someone else was doing the fills, he would go right on on the hi-hat

[soulster]

The tambourine is only added toward the end, but there is a different snare drum on the fills near the beginning, with a cleaner Detroit-type sound, rather than the slightly cardboard box tone of the west coast production.

Um...the song was all done in California. There was no more Detroit Motown by 1976.

Anyway, it's sloppy, unlike "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs, where two drummers were used.