Title: Free (with ads) Movie "The Wrecking Crew" Source:
YouTube URL Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZgBexrZvM0 Published:May 10, 2019 Author:Denny Tedesco - Director Post Date:2019-09-13 11:00:55 by Deckard Ping List:*Music*Subscribe to *Music* Keywords:None Views:783 Comments:3
Music lovers will be astonished at the influence The Wrecking Crew wielded over rock and pop music in the 1960s and early 1970s.
These unsung instrumentalists were the de-facto backing band on hit records by The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny & Cher, Elvis, The Monkees and many more.
These dedicated musicians brought the flair and musicianship that made the American “West Coast Sound” a dominant cultural force around the world.
The Wrecking Crew is what made so many pop songs of the Sixties sound the same with their cliche instrumental parts. The only real originality in the songs was submerged in the Crew's usual pile of brass instruments and strings.
Of course, Big Band had died as a future for musicians to keep plugging toward. Wrecking Crew was a bunch of refugees from the end of Big Band era. But the Sixties hippie and metal music wasn't very polished to the American ear, especially the people whose childhood was influenced by Big Band sounds. So the big studios hired Wrecking Crew and a few similar outfits to give these new pop songs a patina of polish and Big Band sound.
They were a staple of the era in pop music. Which goes a long way toward explaining why so many of those songs had such similar sound and feel.
It appears there were 78 recognized members. I know there were some musicians with lesser roles, like harpists or the guy who played the theremin, who are not included.
The list of all the people who might be said to be part of Wrecking Crew in total is probably over 200.
Small wonder that they had a big advantage over all the little pop bands who only had 4-5 members in their early twenties, if even that many. I think we should be surprised it is was otherwise. The Wrecking Crew people were in their 30's and 40's, mature musicians with a deep background in classical music and jazz and some holdovers from Big Band.
I had no idea that Glenn Campbell started his career with them, playing on tracks like Help Me, Rhonda with Beach Boys. Wrecking Crew musicians were so good and Brian Wilson's compositions got so complex that the Beach Boys stopped playing their own instruments entirely and just sang; Pet Sounds was entirely Wrecking Crew instrumentals.
I'd say Beach Boys was the biggest single act that made extensive use of their services.
