The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret

This is a rollicking saga of the LA studio musicians who ruled the 1960s and 1970s, backing up every big hit we all still love today. The stories of the producers (Phil Spector and Sonny Bono), bands (Beach Boys, Carpenters, Mama and Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Ronettes, Byrds, Righteous Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Monkees, Barbra Streisand), and the players (Leon Russell, Glen Campbell) are detailed and fascinating. The most astounding portrayal is of the unknown bassist Carol Kaye, responsible for the aching tone of "Wichita Lineman" and the "dum-dum-dum-dum-DUM-dum-dee-dum-dum" bass line of "The Beat Goes On". The primary premise is that these bands were on the road playing their own instruments but in the studio, the pros took over. show more The wool was pulled over our eyes and it's great that these outstanding players finally get their due credit. Similar to "20 Feet From Stardom" and "Standing In The Shadow of Motown", "The Wrecking Crew" movie is coming soon to a theatre near you. show less

The Wrecking Crew was a core group of talented session musicians who played on an astounding number of top 40 hits from the early 60s to the early 70s. While band members of groups like The Byrds, The Monkees, The Mamas and The Papas, and The Beach Boys played live concerts to adoring fans, these session musicians provided the actual instrumentation on the recordings. It was a big secret and often a source of contention between the band members, who were not allowed to play on their own albums, and the producers, who wanted the recorded performances to be perfect.

I found the anecdotes fascinating and often had to stop the audio book to listen to the songs being described - a fun little trip down memory lane since a lot of this music was show more the soundtrack of my childhood/early teens. The story deserved to be told. The writing is pretty dreadful (I kept thinking of Stephen King: the adverb is NOT your friend), and the narrator grated on my nerves, but if you can give that a pass, and if the subject interests you, this is worth a listen. show less

While I was aware for a long time about the "pre-fab" nature of a lot of the popular music of the 1960s (someone had to be playing the actual instruments for those "vocal groups" after all) the virtue of this book is that it shows how deep the phenomena went, before improved recording technology somewhat undermined the need for session musicians who could knock out tunes quickly as a combo and as "authenticity" became a virtue. As for this particular gang of players they basically came together as Phil Spector's house band when he was creating his "wall of sound" and remained in demand from that point on; eventually gaining the credibility that if you needed saving from yourself in regards to musical arrangements you were wise to take show more their advice! That said, having looked at some of the negative reviews at Amazon, the author might be guilty of imposing more of a narrative then actually existed on his material. show less

Let's get this out of the way, right off the bat: Kent Hartman is a pedestrian writer at best.

That being said, he does an obviously good job at researching, and recreating certain events—if from more of a high-level view—during that phenomenal period of time when the Wrecking Crew could truly do no wrong, and were blasting out of our speakers on so many of the songs I loved, and still love, back in the Sixties and Seventies.

Along the way, he also does give a glimpse into the timeline of some of those songs (god, what I wouldn't give for a song-by-song breakdown of who played and what happened).

So, lots of stars for the subject matter and giving us some glimpses into key events, but dismally few stars for the banal attempts at show more suspense (the songs he hints at before revealing are hilariously obvious) and workmanlike prose. show less

What a fun read - very interesting history of the music business. This answers the question from my childhood when I'd see a group on TV singing and a whole lot of music behind them, but I couldn't see the band. Where'd all that music come from?

A very interesting read that really shows what really went on behind the scenes of a number of (perhaps the majority of) pop songs of the 60's & 70's. And that would be enough, the book then goes in depth into the background and personality of the people who'd made the music that topped the charts. I got confused with all the names at certain points and sometimes it felt a little repetitive but still interesting.

I've read many bios in my life add this one to the list. I rated this a five more for the content then the actual writing. Hartman isn't a flowery writer but he tries and that might be where some of his writing goes wrong. I didn't care so much for the beginning stories about Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, and Carole Kaye's upbringing, they were too long. While some background on the musicians are needed and Hartman certainly did that for other musicians, those three are focused on almost too much and takes too long to get into the studio with them.

I've known about The Wrecking Crew for a while now but I thought they were mainly a Phil Spector/Brian Wilson thing and they worked mostly for them. I was shocked to find out how much other music show more they played on and how many hits along the way. They rival the Funk Brothers over in Motown. The Wrecking Crew played for The Byrds, The Association, Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, and The Monkees to name a few. I think everyone knew the Monkees, at least by this point, did not start off writing or performing on their own but all those amazing musicians who played the music for "Don't Worry Baby" by The Ronettes did the music for "(Last Train to) Clarksville" by The Monkees and did the music for The Carpenters and so forth. They even worked with Simon and Garfunkel.

It's a short book, 250 pages or so with about 25 more being dedicated to interview notes, bibliography, and a sample of the songs they worked on. If you want a quick primer on The Wrecking Crew this is probably your best bet. It'll give you the names and songs that you want and it'll inspire you to want to listen to some of the music that's mentioned in here. There's tragedy, there's triumphs, there's everything that would make a good HBO miniseries or something. I recommend it for the story, not so much for the writing. show less