The Wrecking Crew

“The Wrecking Crew” (Blu-Ray): The Music Industry’s Best-Kept Secret & Profit-Maker
We were hoodwinked! I’m still in a state of cognitive dissonance, awe, and amazement after I watched and heard Dick Clark tell the audience in this Blu-Ray that no one knew the truth about the music industry of the late 60s-early 70s. He said that even he didn’t know the truth until The Monkeys formed ‘their’ band.Clark said that the reason for the subterfuge was that music execs simply wanted to crank out high amounts of great music in the shortest time-frames possible for late 60s and early 70s ‘bands’, and the public wanted this. The ‘bands’ were often groups of people that couldn’t play instruments or sing but would later be on the radio, TV, and on tour, making fans believe that these ‘bands’ whose records they bought and whose concerts they attended were 100% legit. They weren’t legit, but music exec. profits soared because they could save money by using sessions players like “The Wrecking Crew”.“The Wrecking Crew” were the behind-the-scenes-sessions players, mainly East Coasters, who migrated to LA and became part of the shift in which ‘happening’ music was created and new music groups were formed.Why weren’t all of these talented players made to be stars in their own right? A few players from this group DID become major stars – Glen Campbell, who couldn’t read any musical notes, and Leon Russell and Herb Alpert, both of whom could. Their ‘sessions’ mates assisted them to catapult to stardom, and then, they formed their own bands and had no need for their “Wrecking Crew” services again.Why are we learning the truth now? Thanks to Danny Tedesco, son of the late “Wrecking Crew” lead guitarist Tommy Tedesco, he interviewed people like Dick Clark and Herb Alpert (also an executive producer-insider of this film) to tell us who really created the music for some of the most revered bands in mid-20th century pop music history, which included: The Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, The Byrds, The 5th Dimension, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, Sonny and Cher, and many more.Why the subterfuge? Dick Clark and Cher both answered with the same thing: “Why would record producers use anybody else when the “Wrecking Crew” were so good”? Cher then went on to say that later musicians then ‘learned to do everything themselves’, meaning that with computers and special software, any sound could be made – and perfectly centered. This means that this ruse still continues today! On tour, the singer only needs to ‘lip sync’ to canned music. There have been ‘lip-sync’ slip-ups during concerts that attest to this. Remember Ashlee Simpson on tour?If the clock could be rewound and a different reality could have emerged, all of these musicians should have played together and formed their own band, with cues coming from, maybe, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, who had brilliant music ideas and allowed the players, like guitarist Carol Kaye to create their own riffs, which became famous in their own right. (For example, note the use of the tonic chord, the 5th, and the 3rd that Kaye created for the Intro. bars of “Good Vibrations”. Watch her demonstrate this in her mini ‘Master Class’ of this in the film. Another great mini ‘Master Class’ is the long double bass Intro. downslide riff beginning by Chuck Berghofer for Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking”. And yet another mini “Master Class” is Hal Blaine’s beginning multiple drum riff to the Nonette’s “Be My Baby”: ‘dummm-dee-dummm’ [on the bass drum with pedal] ‘smash’ [on the snare drum rim whacked with sticks].)Other sessions’ mates also taught the audience instructive mini ‘Master Classes’, like Kaye, Berghofer, and Blaine. And besides this, there was the demonstration of some of the famous riffs from the recordings performed AT THE SAME TIME as the riffs are being played by the same musicians now! This technique showed that the musicians had the same chops to be able to play these riffs today.After the “Wrecking Crew” ‘Sessions-Player’ time period wound down, Tommy Tedesco travelled the country to provide ‘Master Classes’ at universities to demonstrate the various types of guitars that he used and the different types of riffs that he created during his career as a lead guitarist on both recordings and on TV show music.I’m still trying to reconcile the absurdity of the bands that Dick Clark mentioned were ‘recorded’ by “The Wrecking Crew” and then told to start taking lessons to learn how to play their instruments and sing before the band could ‘emerge’ on the radio charts and start touring, to generate money for the record companies and the tour venues!If “The Wrecking Crew” existed today, there would be no shadows forcing them to be hidden, and they would be credited and paid to claim their own right to fame as the musical professionals that they were.Thankfully, we have Tommy Tedesco’s son, Denny, and Herb Alpert helping to educate us about who really created the pop music of the 60s and 70s. Hopefully, after watching this Blu-Ray, the public won’t ever be fooled again.(Interestingly, in 1967, The Beatles on their “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” record tried to COPY the sound of these “Wrecking Crew” sessions artists because their music was so good!)NOTE: To create the most enjoyable experience of this Blu-Ray (and others), be sure to have a quality sound and video system on which to play it. At the very minimum, have the following equipment to watch this and other Blu-Rays: 1. At least a 1080p 50” TV, 2. A Blu-Ray player (or a combination BD player, which also up-converts [cleans up] DVDs), and at least a 5.1 home theater sound system.Because of the deft engineering that went into creating this Blu-Ray, I would advise against buying this in a DVD format.This Blu-Ray deserves to be on the shelves (and on the Blu-Ray players) of all people who experienced the music of this time period in the music industry, and the lessons that we learn from it also need to be taught to younger people, so that this ‘sleight of hand’ never happens again and all musicians will be given their due credit.I have sent out the link to this Blu-ray to every person I know, so that they also experience how good it is, buy it, and tell others about it.I would give this Blu-Ray 10 Stars if I could!

Wonderful DVD
This is a well-done DVD of the Wrecking Crew.

Oh my
What a wonderful documentary. It’s the quality they brought to the music, of course, but it’s also much more, at least for me: the quality of heart that was shaped by their experiences.

Loved this documentary.
I very rarely buy DVDs anymore but I had to get this one cause I loved the documentary so much.

Great documentary about the studio musicians who played on most of the hit records that came out of Los Angeles in the late 50’s and 60’s. Highly recommended.

Recomendado a todo aquel fan de la buena música, un documental bastante entretenido e interesante.Con bastante material extra que ofrece una experiencia ampliada a lo visto en el documental.

最近になるまで知られていなかった60年代から70年代初期の米国のほとんどのヒット曲を支えた影武者たちにスポットライトを当てた画期的なドキュメンタリーです。60年代で最高の完成度のポピュラーソングはビートルズのアデイインザライフ、ビーチボーイズのグッドバイブレーションズ、フィフスディメンションのアクエリアス・レットザサンシャインインだと考えていますが、そのうちの2曲が何とこの人たちの演奏だったというのを知りました。レットザサンシャインインのベースはポップ史上最高のベースだと思いますが、それをジョーオズボーンが再現しているシーンは感動モノです。また、この当時のタートルズやアソシエーションに代表されるような何とも言えないノスタルジックで完成度の高いバック演奏のほぼ全てを支えていたのですね。モンキーズのミッキードレンツが「昔はみんなモンキーズだけが演奏していないのを批判したけど実はみんなも演奏してなかったのがついにわかってよかったよ」と言っているシーンは笑ってしまいました。全体としては今では年老いてしまった人たちのインタビューが中心なので関心がない人には退屈かもしれませんが、この頃の音楽が好きな人は必見です。