The Wrecking Crew

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Wrecking Crew was a loose collective of American session musicians from Los Angeles, who in the 1960s and 1970s played on countless studio recordings, including hundreds of hits. At the time they were rarely credited on the sleeve. They had no official name then. The drummer Hal Blaine said that older musicians came up with that nickname because they feared that rock 'n' roll would wreck the music industry, although the bassist Carol Kaye disputes that story. The musicians usually had a background in jazz or classical music and were excellent sight-readers.

Music and breakthrough

In 1962 they formed the house band for producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound at Gold Star Studios. After that they were the most sought-after session musicians in the city. They played for Jan and Dean, Sonny and Cher, The Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters and Frank and Nancy Sinatra, among others. Sometimes they also played under the name of rock groups, for example on Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds in 1965, on the first two albums by The Monkees and on Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys in 1966. The members included the drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, the saxophonist Steve Douglas, the guitarist Tommy Tedesco and the keyboard player Larry Knechtel, later of Bread. Leon Russell and Glen Campbell became solo stars themselves.

Influence

In Los Angeles studio time was expensive, so songs had to be recorded in as few takes as possible. The Wrecking Crew could do that in any style. Their work remained largely unnoticed until Blaine's memoirs in 1990. In 2000 Blaine and Palmer were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2007 the whole group followed into the Musicians Hall of Fame, and in 2008 a documentary about them appeared.

Listening

In School of Rock

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