I went to a private screening last night of a documentary about the group of studio musicians that became known as The Wrecking Crew. It was made by Denny Todesco, son of Tommy Todesco, who was one of the main guitarists in this group. Really fun and interesting watching what went on behind the scenes of the hit making machine that the record companies had set up here in L.A. during the '60's. The shear volume of songs and hits these guys played on was staggering. They were often doing three sessions a day at different studios. They mostly worked off of chord charts and improvised their own parts on the spot. It was normal for them to walk into a session, learn the basic song, come up with some signature lick and finish recording a final take in three hours.
It was also interesting to find out that one of the main bass players for this group was a lady, whose name escapes me right now. A lot of the signature bass lines that we all tapped our foot to, she laid down. Very cool stuff.
Glen Cambell was a member of this group until he hit it big on his own. He then used them for all of his hits.
I passed on a chance to go see Albert Lee in a small club, to go to the screening. That was a tough choice.

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They were the cats pajamas at the time .I mean they were the very best of what they did.I don't think that there will ever be another bunch like them.They were insane musicians and played on many many albums .I too saw a show on them a while back and they blew me away what they could pull off

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I saw the film about a month ago and had a brief chat with Denny
after following him @WreckCrewFilm on Twitter. I used to love his
Dad's columns in Guitar Player magazine.

So many great players - - Carol Kaye, James Burton, Leon Russell, Dr. John,
Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon and The Wrecking Crew worked long hours and 15-hour days were not unusual, although the rewards were great — Carol Kaye has commented that during her peak as a session musician, she earned more per year than the President.

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Carol Kaye was the "girl" you are talking about playing bass. Wrecking Crew players not only made hit music recordings but also soundtracks for film and TV as well. "Pink Panther Theme" is Carol Kaye on bass for example. She also played on the "Shaft" soundtrack project and it came as a total surprise that she got co-author credit along with Issac Hayes on "Theme From Shaft" when the sheet music was published. It was a nice recognition of her contribution to the project as a whole.

Herb Alpert, Berry Potkin and Jr, Hal Blaine were other notable Crew members. It was my understanding that it was the producers like Brian Wilson and Phil Spector that would actually select them.

Carol Kaye was actually a be-bop jazz guitarist who joined the AFM and started playing as a studio musician in LA (playing guitar on "Tequilia" by the Champs for example) but at one session project the bassist was a no show, so she doubled. After that she became the first call session bassist in L.A. She's still a fine guitarist of course. Last I heard she was still teaching private lessons at her home.

Sort of like Les Paul, Carol was injured in a bad car accident in Mexico which interrupted her studio career. That accident killed her husband who had a running gig there. During the down time she wrote her first bass instructional book that would be the first of dozens of "tutors" as she calls them for aspiring guitarists and bassists. She would later become the first electric bass instructor at the Henry Mancini School of Music at UCLA. Her printed, audio and video tutor materials are available on her website.

It should be noted that the Wrecking Crew name came about after the fact and was coined by drummer Hal Blaine for his book about those days.

when oh when are they going to release the dvd.

the website asks for donations, but i would hope there is someone out there who sees this as an investment

the wrecking crew is the west coast answer to detroit's funk brothers. as a young kid growing up an hour south of detroit, i don't think i really appreciated the talent of those musicians

The Wrecking Crew played backup to many of the biggest Top 40 hits and artists. They provided most of the instruments on the Monkees first album as well as some Beach Boys albums,Gary Lewis and the Playboys,Frank Sinatra and countless others.A short while ago someone posted many dozens of the recordings and artists that the Wrecking Crew worked on-it was quite impressive.I can't wait for the DVD to be released for the general public.

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They were Phil Spector's wall of sound. It was mentioned that everyone thought River Deep Mountain High would be the next big hit. When it wasn't, a lot of eye brows got raised and there was a feeling that the ride might be coming to an end. But what a ride it was for them. I was surprised to find that they did all the tracks for the Byrds first couple of hits.

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Yep, and the Beach Boys didn't play much on Pet Sounds. It's amazing stuff.

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