Those boots were made for walkin'. Carol Kaye behind the scenes.
Imagine if every hit song of the late 50s, 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s was performed by one band. Ridiculous, huh? Well, guess what? It's closer to reality than you may think.That quote was taken from a review for the film The Wrecking Crew (2008). I haven't seen the movie yet but I'd like to--but Netflix doesn't carry it and I'm too cheap to buy it at Amazon.
There is a fair bit about the Wrecking Crew over at Wiki. Back in the day, big label record companies didn't trust all the members of a band to go into a recording studio without screwing things up. Only the indispensable stars of a recording act would sit for a recording session. The rest of the musicians were professional session musicians like bassist Carol Kaye (above) at Capitol Records in L.A.
Detroit had its own "wrecking crew" and there's a film called Standing In The Shadows of Motown (2002) that tells their story.
I hadn't heard of The Wrecking Crew though I was well aware of some of the people who made up its roster over the years. (Hello, Leon Russel, an Okie!) I knew that George Harrison and Ringo Starr had used many of those musicians and so it makes sense that they would also appear on a lot of other albums. As Carol Kaye stated, with her steady bookings, she earned more than the President of the United States. That might not be much to the superstars they backed but she and the others lasted longer, and recorded more, than the other luminaries did. Just goes to show you hard work and talent - and a little luck - always pays off.
ReplyDeleteAnother fascinating post.
Good one, CL. My brother says The Funk Brothers are the Motown equivilant.
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