Last night I finally had a chance to watch The Wrecking Crew. I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for years, all the way back to when I saw the kickstarter campaign for the final push of the movie development. I’ve been a fan of Carol Kaye for years, who is a fantastic musician and a member of the elite crew known as the Wrecking Crew. For those of you not familiar with Carol Kaye, please do some research. In my opinion Carol herself deserves a documentary just for her. Amazing.
The Wrecking Crew was a group of session musicians in the late 50s to the 70s, for the most part, and were basically the musicians you heard on those classic records. It wasn’t really known that session musicians were often used instead of the actual band. For example, the wrecking crew was the band on the Beach Boys recordings. I knew that vocal acts – like Sonny and Cher that were never really a ‘band’ needed those musicians, but existing bands was surprising to me.
The Wrecking Crew was also behind those iconic theme songs for TV shows – M.A.S.H, Mission Impossible, Hawaii Five O, etc. These guys worked a ton, and carved a profession for themselves. But, they also didn’t receive much credit, so watching a movie like this, is important.
Check out the official trailer:
I think a movie like this is so important to be out there. It’s important to acknowledge the work that these players accomplished. I also, think it’s important to see the quality of musicianship of these players. The ability to play ANYTHING and improve something that isn’t even their natural style of playing. True musicians. Watching this movie, makes we want to practice.
Let me know what you think of this movie if you’ve seen it by commenting below!
