The Wrecking Crew (you may never heard of them but you definitely heard them)

[rocketman]

The Wrecking Crew were a bunch of hardworking studio musicians in the 1960s. They played TV show themes, jingles and laid down parts for many popular bands. These were true musicians who could play anything. One of them was actually Glen Campbell! Howard Roberts was another one. Tommy Tedesco was yet another. He played the guitar part on Green Acres, Batman, Bonanza, and M*A*S*H to name a few! The interesting one is Carol Kaye who played bass on an estimated 10,000 sessions!

 

Here is a very cool list of great songs that they played on. Unfortunately, they were never credited at all on the records. If you click on details you can see the actual contracts. Sometimes you can make out their wages too. Hal Blaine played percussion on a ton of them.

 

They were (rightfully) inducted in the HOF in 2007. Tedesco's son is trying to make a movie about them too. Details can be found at http://wreckingcrew.tv/.

[Buxom]

Green Acres

 

[bonzoboy]

The Wrecking Crew also did most of the playing on The Monkees' first album and one of them-I forget who but it wasn't Tommy T or Glen-did the beautiful Spanish influenced leads on their hit Valleri.The guitar played sounds somewhat Tele like but it was in fact a on off handmade custom guitar made for the guitarist. There was a very interesting story about that guitar and the hits that featured its unique tone in Vintage Guitar Mag. a couple of years ago.I have all my V.G. mags in chronological order but it would take me months to track down that article-I'll give it a go tomorrow if I find a couple or three free hours.

[Kaiser Bill]

Thanks for that wealth of info. Its amazing that a small group is responsible for many great tunes. Then again there was a small group of musicians that did all the major hits in Nashville back in the 70s so I've been told by the boys in Printer's Alley.

I remember reading an interview with Tommy Tedesco in GP many years ago. He said he always carried a Telly in the trunk of his car for special studio sessions. He also did a lot of banjo work in the studio. His secret was he tuned the banjo like a guitar. I think we all know that Glen was in the studio band "The Champs" (Tequila). Howard Roberts was a big influence on me starting in '65.

[Notes_Norton]

I've been on their mailing list for years. I can't wait for the movie to come out on DVD - I'm buying it the first day it's for sale.