The Wrecking Crew (OT) (Music Notes)

I spent yesterday feasting on music and movies and articles about music, following up on all your suggestions and comments from the recent post about guitarists. The big discovery for me is Sylvain Luc, who was suggested by a reader signing himself Williiam.

And I've been learning all about The Wrecking Crew, a shifting group of 15 to 35 freewheeling first-call session musicians in L.A. in the 1960s and early '70s who played on literally hundreds of hits from the era. Just a few: The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man"; Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were"; the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville"; the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"; Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"; Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On" (for which Wrecking Crew stalwart Carol Kaye provided the famous bass line); and Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" ("the worst f------ song I've ever heard," Sinatra said when he first heard it, but it went straight to number one and stayed there for a whopping fifteen weeks). They played on records by Nat King Cole, the Carpenters, John Denver, Neil Diamond, and Ike and Tina Turner and dozens if not hundreds of others. Frothy now-forgotten number-one hits like The Association's "Windy," and "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe? That was them. They played on dozens of TV themes, too, from "Hawaii Five-O" to "Bonanza" to "Batman," and created innumerable commercial jingles.

Their names never appeared on the records because the recording industry didn't want the public to know that the bands weren't playing on their own records—and that so many of the same musicians were playing on all the records. The facade began to crack when one of the Monkees—I think it was Peter Tork—arrived at the studio with his guitar and was shocked to learn that the songs were already all finished except for the vocals, which was the only part the band members were expected to provide. The word started to get out—I actually remember where I was when I heard the rumor about the Monkees not even playing on their own records (on the school bus passing my friend Larry Dubin's house)—and the practice of having session aces replace band members on recordings started to decline.

One of the biggest reasons for the arrangement in the first place was efficiency. Wrecking Crew players could lay down a finished track in one to four hours whereas it might take the real band a similar number of days of studio time to accomplish the same task. Ironically, the huge and growing sales of records in the '60s made it more feasible to let bands play on their own records; paying for exorbitant amounts of studio time became feasible for big acts in the later years of the '60s and in fact became a bit of a status symbol. (The vinyl box of the recent deluxe 50th Anniversary release of Crosby Stills & Nash's Déjà Vu contains three disks of demos, outtakes and alternates from the sessions.) The Beatles famously allowed themselves unlimited amounts of studio time after they stopped touring.

The group got its moniker from the 1990 memoir of drummer Hal Blaine, who said that in the early days, the more straightlaced and formal studio musicians of an earlier time thought that the new young guys (and Carol!) who were willing to play rock 'n' roll, as well as improvise from charts instead of having everything written out, were going to "wreck" music.

If you're interested in pop music and you remember that era, the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew is fascinating. I found it on Amazon but it's available elsewhere too.

Mike

Lens of Interest this week:

If you should happen to be looking for an all-purpose zoom for the Sony APS-C cameras I've been discussing lately, here it is. The Sony E 16–55mm ƒ/2.8 G is a high-quality, constant aperture APS-C zoom of manageable weight and appropriate size that covers the true wide-angle to short telephoto range. Its built-in stabilization makes it a perfect match for the unstabilized A6xxx models, but it's good enough to be matched with Sony's best.

The link above is a portal to Amazon. Also available from:

Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Comments

[Ken Grace]

Unfortunately the Sony E 16-55 does not have stabilisation - if it did I'd buy it like a shot!

[Albert Smith]

I own the documentary "The Wrecking Crew" on DVD (yeah, I own physical media) and it is well worth watching. Anyone into music, especially those that grew up in that time frame where music was transitioning from the Sinatra era into pop/rock will have their memories stimulated. We all know these songs but never knew how little the people on the album jackets were directly involved in making the sounds.

These players were truly masters of their craft.

[Albert Smith]

I recieved the CSN&Y Deja vu box set this week and it's fantastic. The out takes and demos are worth the price for me (this ain't cheap), and the overall packaging is quite nice. There is some thought that this was going to be a double album in 1970, and there are several never heard songs in the extras that let you know that was a possibility.

[Bruce Rubenstein]

The weakness of the Wrecking Crew documentary that was put together by Tommy Tedesco's son Denny is that because the Wrecking Crew played on so many songs owned by many record companies, Denny needed a release for every song the Wrecking Crew played on. Very difficult and time consuming. There are lots of bits and pieces of the documentary on You Tube. A search for Carol Kaye will turn up lots of links for the Wrecking Crew's primary bass player.

One of the best behind the scene documentaries is Standing in the Shadows of Motown. With the material controlled by Motown, it has much greater breath and depth.

[Roger]

My misspent youth was spent in Southern California. Concerts at iconic venues were always on the agenda and many were disappointing: The bands couldn't play or at least play well. We would often chalk that up to the bands needing to do a few tunes to "get warmed up". We later learned about those session plays and that no, those headline performers didn't need to "warm up", they needed music lessons.

[Tom Burke]

Interesting. I wasn’t surprised about the various solo artists - I mean, how often did Streisand play a lick? - but some of the groups were a bit startling. I think I always doubted the Monkees, though.

I’m not sure how common the use of session musicians was here in the UK. Certainly there were some groups who subsequently became (in)famous for not playing on their own records. There were rumours about many bands who seemed to exist mainly because of their looks. The Small Faces perhaps? Maybe, even, The Who? (In both cases, only very early on.) And there were many session musicians, a number of whom went on to have successful careers in bands - Andy Summers of The Police was one, I believe. They must have been doing something…I do get the feeling that the UK record industry was less governed by business in the 60s, but I might have that all wrong. There is the famous story of the newly-recruited Ringo Starr playing a tambourine on an early Beatles recording while a session musician drummed. George Martin’s excuse was that at that point in time he didn’t know enough about Ringo’s drumming to use him on the recording.

[Steve Murdock]

Windy and Dizzy are not forgotten!

[Speed]

Steely Dan making Peg

It wasn't like they played musical chairs with the guys in the band, they played musical bands. A whole band would go and a whole incredible other band would come in.

https://youtu.be/waIBA6_0GQc?t=212

Making Peg from the beginning ...
https://youtu.be/waIBA6_0GQc

And here is the whole one hour documentary about making the Aja album which includes Peg ... I'm embarrassed to say how many times I've watched it.
https://youtu.be/8sdMV9TzMkc?list=RD8sdMV9TzMkc

[Roger S]

The 16-55 does not have stabilization according to Sony.

[Steve Rosenblum]

Let’s not forget that Glen Campbell was a guitarist in the Wrecking Crew! That movie is enlightening and truly fascinating. Two of my favorite drummers were primarily session pros: Hal Blaine and Jeff Porcaro (most known as the drummer of the group Toto, but played on hundreds of records in the 70’s and 80’s with artists ranging from Steely Dan to Michael Jackson).

[Henry Rinne]

I will second the recommendation of Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Great film and great insight into the recording industry back in the day. Still going on today especially in Nashville. My son works the studio scene in Nashville and says they are known for their efficiency in turning out solid material in a very short time. In fact, he and others have been flown to New York on several occasions because of how quickly they turn out the finished product.

[C.R. Marshall]

Funny, I just purchased the book (on the 12th of this month): https://www.amazon.com/Wrecking-Crew-Inside-Best-Kept-Secret-ebook/dp/B005XMMMRY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+wrecking+crew&qid=1621990065&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

[Nick Davis]

Session musicians are still used extensively in the UK. I was told by someone who is generally reckoned to be the third best guitarist in the UK after Julian Bream and John Williams, that he did a lot of session work and with a great deal of modesty on his part, that he just does the "hard bits" that most bands can't play!