Who Were The Wrecking Crew? Behind The Most Recorded Band In Music

The Wrecking Crew were a group of all-purpose, highly revered studio musicians who appeared on thousands of popular records — including massive hits such as ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ by The Byrds and ‘California Dreamin’’ by The Mamas And The Papas. The instrumental work by this group of session men (and one woman) defined the sound of popular music on radio during the 60s and early 70s, meaning The Wrecking Crew can reasonably lay claim to being the most-recorded band in history.

The exact number of musicians in the loose collective of Los Angeles session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew is not known, partly because of the informal nature of the hiring and also because much of their work went uncredited. Three of their key members were the magnificent session drummer Hal Blaine, bassist and guitarist Carol Kaye (one of the few female session players in that era) and guitarist Tommy Tedesco.

After being known unofficially as “The Clique” and “The First Call Gang”, Hal Blaine later coined the name The Wrecking Crew. In his 1990 memoir, the drummer said the name was in ironic reference to the complaints of older musicians that these young studio performers were embracing rock and pop, and thereby going to “wreck” the music industry.

Blaine said that producers from lots of different record labels admired the quality of their musicianship and their ability to improvise. They were given musical freedom. “Nine times out of ten the producer or arranger would tell us to use the charts as a guide, that’s all. We were encouraged to go for it, to go beyond what had been…

Related posts:

By C. Cameron Williams. “The Words I Cannot Say” is published by C. Cameron Williams.