What is the Wrecking Crew?
Regardless of who you are, you have heard the Wrecking Crew.
They were the musicians who played on all of the following songs:
Good Vibrations - Beach Boys (and pretty much all Beach Boys songs from their peak period)
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
Mr. Tambourine Man - Byrds
These Boots Are Made For Walking - Nancy Sinatra
Monday Monday - Mamas and Papas
Strangers in the Night - Frank Sinatra
Windy - Association
Aquarius - Let The Sun Shine In - Fifth Dimension
He's A Rebel - Crystals
I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher
Close To You - Carpenters
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain and Tenille
Pink Panther Theme Song
Partridge Family Theme Song
And quite a few others.... Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sam Cooke, the Monkees....
In fact pretty much any song from the 60s and even into the early 70s has a 50/50 chance to have been played by this small group of people.
Basically, in the 60s, quite a few bands did not really play on their own records. Most were done by a fairly small group (about 15-20) of LA session musicians.
Most of the time, their work went uncredited, or was credited to someone else!
"The Wrecking Crew" was a nickname given to this group. Perhaps the coolest member is Carol Kaye, who played on all the Beach Boys songs, and actually wrote many famous bass riffs. For instance "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny and Cher has a very distinct bass line which was essentially created on the spot by Kaye.
The only household name of the group is Glen Campbell, who went on to have his own solo career.
Of course by the 1970s, bands were becoming more self-contained, and audiences expected more authenticity. Many of these session musicians found it hard to get work.
One musician, in high demand during the 1960s, was, by the 1980s, working as a security guard in Arizona.
The movie "The Wrecking Crew" was created by one of the children of a Wrecking Crew member. His dad was a guitarist who had yachts, mansions, and a Rolls Royce in the 60s, but by the mid-70s literally appeared on the Gong Show. He made this movie to commemorate his dad and all the other unrecognized musicians.
He began in 1996, and finally finished the movie in 2008.
It is so expensive to get the rights to the music, though, that it is still unreleased. It has played at a few festivals, but for now is basically unseen.
The movie screened at the (very large) Saban Theater Saturday to a full audience. Some of the members of the "Crew" were there, along with Herb Alpert (who used them quite frequently) and some other folks of interest.
It is a great movie with some amazing clips and interviews. It tells the story plainly, and in a way that even non-music nerds will probably appreciate. What's most amazing is just how many songs these people played on.
Amazing movie. Hopefully they will raise enough money to get it released commercially.....
