The Wrecking Crew-Outtakes

[eggman90]

What is the Wrecking Crew?

The Wrecking Crew were a group of Studio Musicians in Los Angeles in the 60s who played on hits for: The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers and were Phil Spector\'s Wall of Sound. The amount of work that they were involved in was tremendous.

A producer would get the guys in and lay down some instrumental tracks. If it became a hit, they would record an album and put a group together to go on the road. This happened many times with groups like the Marketts, Routers, and T-Bones. The next day they would do the same thing and call it another name. Same musicians, but different group Name.

At the time the record industry was primarily in New York, London and Detroit in the late 50s and early 60s. Then there was a surge towards the mid-60s that pushed the recording to the west Coast. So these musicians were recording around the clock for a good 8 years. It\'s heyday for this group was in 1967 when the charts turned to the west.

Check out the outtakes:

http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/thankyou.html

[Duckhead]

GREAT stuff. But I am a bit confused? This film has not been released on DVD yet? I\'d love to see it, what a bunch of cool cats  . I don\'t know much about the music industry I just know I love music and respect musicians. Gonna buy the Hal Blaine book, looks like a good read and might just kick the cobwebs outta my head.

Not to derail the thread but the stuff Micky said about the Monkees was interesting. I read a book years ago that talked about music on TV and used the equation that Music + TV = Money. I think guys like Elvis and the Beatles when they appeared on TV showed the industry that this was true but I wonder if the Monkees were the first "manufactured band" to actually put the equation to test?