The Wrecking Crew!

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1

This sound we're going

to record with a tape recorder.

- Brad?

- Here we go.

- Brad?

- Yes.

Do you want me to lay out again

after that instrumental break,

and then come back in

with the fours

toward the end of the, uh...

like, before "C"?

We'll have you wail on

that baby, for the instrument...

Here we go!

This'll be what?

Okay, take two.

- Alvin!

- Okay!

It's 5:
00 in Los Angeles!

The Wrecking Crew was

the focal point of the music.

They were the ones

with all the spirit,

and all the know-how,

especially for rock and roll

music.

In the hardcore producing area,

everybody knew

what went on there.

I mean, everybody knew

that the best musicians

played on all the sessions,

but we as the general public

didn't know.

I had no idea

that certain people

didn't play their own records

until The Monkees came along.

They played so well, and

they played so well together.

I think they were so into that.

They all respected each other,

and they all would

sit and hang...

You know, talk

in between takes and hang.

I mean, it was like...

it was a social event

for these guys too.

What was nice about that unit

was that they played

together a lot.

And so they were

an established groove machine.

They knew each other.

So you could really count on

what they had to offer.

We played on everybody's.

The Lazy-Crazy-Hazy Days

of Summer album

with Nat King Cole,

it was the same guys doing that

that was doing The Beach Boys.

The musicians were really

the unsung heroes

of all those hit records.

When I listen to the records,

it is so apparent

that these guys

were just really so good.

And you can see why

everybody used 'em, you know?

Because they were so tight.

They were the stone cold

rock and roll professionals,

and there may never, ever be

a group of rock and roll

musicians

of that caliber again.

The chances are,

you didn't know his name.

But it's likely you sang and

hummed along with his music.

Famed studio guitarist

Tommy Tedesco has died.

I'm Kurt Loder

with an MTV news brief.

Tommy Tedesco was arguably

the king of Los Angeles

session guitarists.

You've probably never

heard his name

or heard him speak, but listen.

He is someone

you've heard before.

He was featured

in the theme to Bonanza...

in Batman.

The chores!

The stores!

Tedesco died of cancer Monday

at his home

in Northridge, California,

at the age of 67.

While his name may not be

immediately familiar

to everyone, some aspect of

his music almost certainly is.

Here's the irony.

You spend your whole life

playing guitar,

creating guitar licks

that people

all around the world recognize.

But nobody knows your name,

until you're dead.

And then, even in the end,

they misspell your name

and call you...

- " Tony Tedesco."

- ...instead of Tommy.

Tommy was not only

a legendary guitarist.

He was my father.

And he was also a member

of an elite group

of studio musicians.

So what follows

is the story of my father

and his extended family,

The Wrecking Crew.

Hondells, Marketts, Routers...

We'd cut the tracks

and the records,

and then they'd form a group

to be that group.

People were really not focused

on the long, drawn-out album

recording sessions.

Four songs in three hours.

It's only a certain group

of guys can do that.

A lot of the recording

came out here.

That's when you had an influx

of a lot of New York musicians.

That was in the mid-'60s,

when they started

flowing out here.

Then it became a flood

around that time.

This led to a surge of work

for the L.A. studio musicians.

Not all of 'em,

but a small group,

who later became known

as The Wrecking Crew.

It wasn't an organized band

of musicians

that set out

to take over rock and roll.

And I can't tell you

exactly who was part of this

hit-making machine.

Even the musicians

that were part of this scene

couldn't come to an agreement.

Twelve, 15 people.

Maybe what, 20 of us?

Thirty, maybe?

It was probably 20 musicians,

or maybe a few more,

counting the string players,

of course.

They were doing

all the sessions.

They were a product

of the '40s, '50s, and '60s.

And they were great musicians

who came of age

when rock and roll came of age.

And here they are at the height

of their physical powers

with all of this talent.

And they're in the right place.

And it's the right time,

and so they get to do this.

On the first day of shooting,

I brought

four of L.A.'s greatest

session players together.

Carol Kaye, Plas Johnson

and Hal Blaine,

along with my father.

It was probably the first time

that all four

had been in the same room

in about 20 years.

Do you recognize me...

You've lost weight!

And all you have to do is

just get sick.

Rolling.

- Rolling.

- Okay, the question is...

This is not, uh...

You know, if all the guys

that had been in the studios...

God bless 'em all...

For 20, 30 years,

they all wore the blue blazers,

the neck ties,

and there was no talking,

no smoking, and no nothing.

And we came in there

with Levis and t-shirts,

smoking cigarettes,

whatever we're...

- Yeah.

- And the older guys

were saying, "They're gonna

wreck the business."

You know, "They are gonna wreck

the music business."

We didn't have the respect

that the older guys had.

Remember the older

studio players,

Barney Kessels,

and the Lloyd Elliots,

- all these people?

- Yeah, exactly.

Well, that's how that whole

wrecking crew thing came in.

Even though the term

"The Wrecking Crew"

gained popularity

with rock historians,

many of these musicians

never heard the term

until years later.

I think Hal Blaine was

the first one I heard it from.

- Yeah, it...

- He probably

came up with the name.

I think it kind of evolved

really.

- There was...

- The first time I heard

the name, I think

was at The Baked Potato,

where they had

that get-together.

They used the expression

"the wrecking crew."

Well, it was used before that.

It was used

while we were recording.

And the definition of who was

a member of The Wrecking Crew,

there really isn't

any definition.

Between the engineers, producers

and musicians themselves,

each has their own take

on how this all went down.

Together, they form

a snapshot of a time

that will never be repeated.

Anybody could do

five or six different things

on as many different

instruments also.

There were a lot of producers

at that time

that were not really musicians,

so these guys were able

to decode...

He's talking about me,

by the way, so...

No, I mean, there were

some producers

that really just, you know,

didn't really know

the musicians' language,

and these guys were able

to just quickly interpret it.

The people we're talking about

played for so many people

in so many different styles.

That's a fascinating thing.

They could walk into, uh,

a pop sound, and play it.

They could do rhythm and blues.

They could do soul music.

I guess they could have done

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