Players on this track include Glen Campbell, James Burton and Al Casey on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass and Jim Gordon on drums.
Showing posts with label hal blaine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hal blaine. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2016
The Wrecking Crew - Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
Released in October of 1968, this was a hit written by Jimmy Webb for a former member of the Wrecking Crew, Glen Campbell.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Practically Toto - "Breakdown Dead Ahead" - Boz Scaggs
I've been posting YouTube videos of pop songs that were recorded by members of the Wrecking Crew. The "Wrecking Crew" was a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles who played on many of the hits in the 60's and 70's. Musicians like Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye and dozens of others laid the foundation tracks for a diverse group of artists like The Beach Boys, The Mamas and Papas, Sonny and Cher, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, The Monkees, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters, Nancy Sinatra and many others. Hal Blaine (who coined the group's name) alone played on six consecutive Grammy Records of the Year. That's a record that will never be broken.
Towards the end of the 70's a new group of musicians started getting the top calls for major label record dates. A few of them, Steve Lukather, David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Porcaro and David Hungate went on to form the band Toto. They had several hits in the late 70's and throughout the 80's. As many hits as they had they went on to play on even more hits for other artists.
This "Practically Toto" series will concentrate on songs that had two or more Toto band members on the recording.
Lukather, Jeff Porcaro and Hungate contributed to almost every track on Boz Scaggs "Middle Man" album. This song, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" features Luke and Hungate.
Towards the end of the 70's a new group of musicians started getting the top calls for major label record dates. A few of them, Steve Lukather, David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Porcaro and David Hungate went on to form the band Toto. They had several hits in the late 70's and throughout the 80's. As many hits as they had they went on to play on even more hits for other artists.
This "Practically Toto" series will concentrate on songs that had two or more Toto band members on the recording.
Lukather, Jeff Porcaro and Hungate contributed to almost every track on Boz Scaggs "Middle Man" album. This song, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" features Luke and Hungate.
Neither Hungate nor Luke are in this video.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
The Wrecking Crew - Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel
Recorded February 1st, 1968 on the contract listed only Hal Blaine, Larry Knetchtel and Paul Simon.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
The Wrecking Crew - MacArthur Park - Richard Harris
Released May 11th 1968, 45 years ago today.
The epic seven plus minute song features the best musicians in LA at the time, including but not limited to Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Al Casey, Larry Knechtel and the young writer Jimmy Webb.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Wrecking Crew - Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
The Wrecking Crew played all the instruments on the Pet Sounds record by the Beach Boys. The most well known track is "Good Vibrations"recorded on this date 45 years ago...
Check out the Wrecking Crew.
The AFM contract here.
Rare footage here...
Check out the Wrecking Crew.
The AFM contract here.
Rare footage here...
Thursday, December 20, 2012
The Wrecking Crew - California Dreamin' - The Mamas & The Papas
Another song from the Golden Era of the LA session scene.
Featuring Wrecking Crew mates Hal Blaine on drums, Joe Osborn on bass, pianist Larry Knechtal and acoustic guitars by P. F. Sloan who came up the picked intro. An important skill to have as a session musician is creativity. The ability to create a great part will make you very valuable.
See the union contract here.
Featuring Wrecking Crew mates Hal Blaine on drums, Joe Osborn on bass, pianist Larry Knechtal and acoustic guitars by P. F. Sloan who came up the picked intro. An important skill to have as a session musician is creativity. The ability to create a great part will make you very valuable.
See the union contract here.
Monday, October 29, 2012
The Wrecking Crew - The Lonely Bull - Herb Alpert
This was a track recorded by the Wrecking Crew by Herb Alpert. When he did the session at Conway Recorders in Hollywood (where I record "Turn To You" with Justin Bieber) 50 years ago on this date, he didn't have a lot of money he paid the sessions musicians $15 each. A few months later when the song had become a big hit, Herb went to the union and paid the fines and paid the musicians full union wages.
Check out The Wrecking Crew.
Check out The Wrecking Crew.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
"It's not like it use to be"
There is one thing that is constant in the entertainment business and that is change.
Take movies - Silent films, then talkies, then color, 3D, then video, then DVD, then digital distribution. All within a hundred years. Less.
Television - B & W, Color, VHS/Beta, cable, satellite. All in less than 60 years.
Music - 78's, 33's, 45's, 8-track, cassette, CD, digital.
Every time a major change happens we are told this is the end of the business as we know it. Of course it is. And this is a good thing. That is if you are adaptable. In fact change provides great opportunities for those have the foresight to get ahead of the curve and take a chance. Change gives you a chance. If you were the first in town to buy a 24-track tape machine in the 70's or the first digital editing bay in the 80's, or the first ProTools rig in the 90's you probably still have a career today, if you kept being first. No one is going to intentionally surrender their business to you. You have to find that gap. That entrance. That service that no one is providing. Not just once, but the smart ones do it throughout their careers. Adapt or die. It's very Darwinian. I believe it as applied here.
When cassettes came about the record companies worried that people would stop buying records. That kind of happened. But then digital CD's came out, and everybody, including myself, bought replacement copies of many of their albums. You can't hardly find cassettes any more. The giants in the industry, ie. the labels, could control the medium and create the next "need". But now that digital exists, it's gotten much more difficult for the majors to affect technological sea changes. We still don't know the ultimate result of that yet. Won't for a while. But it's opened many opportunities for even hobbyists to get their music made and out there. I, as a session player, work for a lot of hobbyists. Truth be told, they sometimes have more money.
I've been told for almost thirty years, regarding session work in LA, "it's not like it use to be". I understand that there are some guys hurting because they were making a lot more in the seventies and eighties then today. Though to some degree I say, "thank God it's not the same!"
In the sixties there were basically three networks. Today there are over 500 cable channels. Smart players built a studio and started writing. More back end income in writing too.
In the sixties the "Wrecking Crew" did a majority of the good work. Who's the Wrecking Crew? They were a group of about 30 musicians, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, among many others who played on a majority of the major records produced in LA. Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, The Partridge Family, Phil Spector records, and many others. I heard Hal Blaine say in an interview that at one point he was doing six "three hour" sessions a day! They had cots in the studios for the "crew" members to sleep on between gigs. Aside from being unhealthy, it's just not fair.
There is an excellent documentary about the Wrecking Crew. If you can get a chance to see it I highly recommend it. It's interesting, when I saw it, my wife and I had two very different emotional reactions afterwards. I opined for such days filled with cool work with great players... the "old" days. She was just proud of me that I made a living doing what I do.
A large part of why I moved to LA was because of Wrecking Crew member Tommy Tedesco's monthly column in Guitar Player magazine in the 70's call "Studio Log". He would humorously talk about a film, TV or record date he had recently done, include a bit of a chart and tick off the instruments played, the leader, the time and most importantly the pay.
My career has morphed from a fledgling one into an embryonic one, mainly out of necessity, sometimes by choice and occasionally by force. But I keep my musical and creative tendons limber enough to change directions when the seas "suggest" it. My career has been on a slow arc.
Some resources...
Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician (Book)
Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story
Tommy Tedesco - Confessions of a Guitar Player
For Guitar Players Only
Tommy Tedesco: Anatomy of a Guitar Player
Carol Kaye Bass DVD Course
Take movies - Silent films, then talkies, then color, 3D, then video, then DVD, then digital distribution. All within a hundred years. Less.
Television - B & W, Color, VHS/Beta, cable, satellite. All in less than 60 years.
Music - 78's, 33's, 45's, 8-track, cassette, CD, digital.
Every time a major change happens we are told this is the end of the business as we know it. Of course it is. And this is a good thing. That is if you are adaptable. In fact change provides great opportunities for those have the foresight to get ahead of the curve and take a chance. Change gives you a chance. If you were the first in town to buy a 24-track tape machine in the 70's or the first digital editing bay in the 80's, or the first ProTools rig in the 90's you probably still have a career today, if you kept being first. No one is going to intentionally surrender their business to you. You have to find that gap. That entrance. That service that no one is providing. Not just once, but the smart ones do it throughout their careers. Adapt or die. It's very Darwinian. I believe it as applied here.
When cassettes came about the record companies worried that people would stop buying records. That kind of happened. But then digital CD's came out, and everybody, including myself, bought replacement copies of many of their albums. You can't hardly find cassettes any more. The giants in the industry, ie. the labels, could control the medium and create the next "need". But now that digital exists, it's gotten much more difficult for the majors to affect technological sea changes. We still don't know the ultimate result of that yet. Won't for a while. But it's opened many opportunities for even hobbyists to get their music made and out there. I, as a session player, work for a lot of hobbyists. Truth be told, they sometimes have more money.
I've been told for almost thirty years, regarding session work in LA, "it's not like it use to be". I understand that there are some guys hurting because they were making a lot more in the seventies and eighties then today. Though to some degree I say, "thank God it's not the same!"
In the sixties there were basically three networks. Today there are over 500 cable channels. Smart players built a studio and started writing. More back end income in writing too.
In the sixties the "Wrecking Crew" did a majority of the good work. Who's the Wrecking Crew? They were a group of about 30 musicians, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, among many others who played on a majority of the major records produced in LA. Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, The Partridge Family, Phil Spector records, and many others. I heard Hal Blaine say in an interview that at one point he was doing six "three hour" sessions a day! They had cots in the studios for the "crew" members to sleep on between gigs. Aside from being unhealthy, it's just not fair.
There is an excellent documentary about the Wrecking Crew. If you can get a chance to see it I highly recommend it. It's interesting, when I saw it, my wife and I had two very different emotional reactions afterwards. I opined for such days filled with cool work with great players... the "old" days. She was just proud of me that I made a living doing what I do.
A large part of why I moved to LA was because of Wrecking Crew member Tommy Tedesco's monthly column in Guitar Player magazine in the 70's call "Studio Log". He would humorously talk about a film, TV or record date he had recently done, include a bit of a chart and tick off the instruments played, the leader, the time and most importantly the pay.
My career has morphed from a fledgling one into an embryonic one, mainly out of necessity, sometimes by choice and occasionally by force. But I keep my musical and creative tendons limber enough to change directions when the seas "suggest" it. My career has been on a slow arc.
Some resources...
Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician (Book)
Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story
Tommy Tedesco - Confessions of a Guitar Player
For Guitar Players Only
Tommy Tedesco: Anatomy of a Guitar Player
Carol Kaye Bass DVD Course
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