The Wrecking Crew - The Inside Story of Rock & Roll's Best Kept Secret Documentary DVD (2008)

You know the Wrecking Crew, even if you don’t think you do. The loosely affiliated assembly of musicians, which included the session drummer extraordinaire Hal Blaine (who coined the name), the bassist and guitarist Carol Kaye (one of the few female session players of her era), the guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and dozens of other musicians (at various times, Earl Palmer, Barney Kessel, Plas Johnson, Al Casey, Glen Campbell, James Burton, Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel, and Jack Nitzsche), dominated American popular music in the nineteen-sixties, first as the group of choice for Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound, and then as the physical embodiment of the lavish sonic dreams of Brian Wilson. The movie includes more than a hundred and thirty excerpts of songs.

Rarely credited on record, the Wrecking Crew nevertheless played for, with, and in the service of nearly every prominent American pop performer of the decade, to the point that it’s probably easier to make a list of the acts it didn’t support. If you’ve heard:

The Crystals - He’s a Rebel The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (the most played song in history) The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water The Association - Never My Love The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin’ / Monday Monday Herb Alpert - A Taste of Honey Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ Sonny & Cher - You Got Me, Babe / The Beat Goes On The Beach Boys California Girls / Pet Sounds album / SMiLE album Scott McKenzie - San Francisco The 5th Dimension - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin' Mason Williams - Classical Gas “Batman” theme “Mission: Impossible” theme “Hawaii Five-O” theme “Bonanza" theme

• then you’ve heard the Wrecking Crew. When producers called musicians, these were the musicians who got called first.

Sound: Stereo Region: All Running Time: 1 Hour 32 Minutes