Wealth & Money Quote by Mel Torme

It sounds like hyperbole, but it lands as a kind of street-level canonization: Buddy Rich isn’t being ranked first, he’s being removed from the category entirely. Mel Torme’s line works because it borrows the language of casual fandom and turns it into an absolutist hierarchy. “As regards my feelings” signals something personal, almost offhand, then the punchline snaps into place: there’s Rich, and then the rest of humanity scrambling behind him. The joke is the confidence; the subtext is reverence.

Coming from Torme, it carries extra weight. He wasn’t a random admirer; he was a peer with ruthless standards, a singer and bandleader who knew the difference between flashy chops and musical authority. His phrasing implies that Rich didn’t just play drums well, he redefined what “well” even meant in the modern big-band ecosystem: precision at speed, terrifying control, and a kind of kinetic charisma that made the drummer a front-line star without needing to sing a note.

The context matters too: mid-century American pop and jazz were full of virtuosos, and drummers were often treated as infrastructure rather than auteurs. Torme flips that status. He’s also telegraphing an insider’s consensus, the way musicians talk when they want to end a debate quickly. It’s praise with a competitive edge: a reminder that, in a scene built on ego and excellence, even the best still had someone they’d rather not follow on the bill.