The Wrecking Crew | Movie

Testimonials
It was incredible! I felt just like I was sitting there with them at that table. It had everything I wanted to see and more that I didn't expect. Tommy's humor drew you in and the lifelong respect for each other was so evident. Thank you for making this film because it shows that these legendary musicians, who we listen to everyday, are anything but invisible!!!!!! - Peter Frampton It's about bloody time! - Micky Dolenz	The reason they were the unsung heros, if those guys were playing sessions today, they would be like the front four of any football team, those guys would be known, people would know about them. It would be something more than just session players. - Cher [from the documentary] "The Wrecking Crew" documentary is the first time that people will finally understand what it was like to be in the trenches of Rock and Roll... Its the closest thing to being there. It is a great pleasure to be a part of Denny Tedesco's Wrecking Crew. - Hal Blaine	You know, the musicians were really the unsung heros of all those hit records. They really made it work. The Wrecking Crew was on almost every record I made and I had 21 chart hits with them. Needless to say I think they were best musicians in the country - then and now. Brilliant technique, execution and feel... and they could READ! - Nancy Sinatra

Published and Online Reviews
A new documentary tells the story of the Wrecking Crew, a collective of Los Angeles musicians who played on hits by the Righteous Brothers, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and many others. Directed by Denny Tedesco, son of the late guitarist Tommy Tedesco, The Wrecking Crew features interviews with Brian Wilson, Cher, Roger McGuinn, and famed Crew members like Bassist Carol Kaye and drummer Hal Blaine. "These guys were chameleons," Tedesco says. "They went from Phil Spector to Nancy Sinatra to the Beach Boys. They always had to sound like somebody else." The film is currently playing fesstivals and is seeking theatrical distribution. - Rolling Stone
A treasure trove of witness-at-creation anecdotes and enduringly potent '60s pop classics, "The Wrecking Crew" is a well-nigh irresistible treat for aficionados of music from the era when acts like the Beach Boys, the Association and the Monkees were topping the charts. Pic celebrates a loose-knit group of largely unknown (except by industry insiders) session musicians, many of whom supplied the defining licks and backbeats -- and in some cases, actually played instruments for band members -- on legendary recordings. Nostalgia-drenched rockumentary should score impressively as cable fare, homevid product and public television fund-raiser. read more... - Joe Leydon, Variety
You'll gawk open-mouthed at the first hour of Denny Tedesco's documentary tribute to his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and the astonishing group of Los Angeles studio musicians who were his friends, and so much more. When Tedesco left Niagara Falls for L.A. there was absolutely no way he could know that he and the musician friends he'd make — who'd come to be called The Wrecking Crew - would become the musicians in America's national soundtrack for an entire generation - plus... ...This is a man's heartfelt tribute to an extraordinary father and his equally extraordinary friends and what they managed to accomplish in the world. If you have ever loved a record — any record — between 1960 and 1980, you've probably loved their work. And you'll find this movie deeply touching, very funny and a revelation. - Jeff Simon BuffaloNews.com (out of 4)	Much like Standing In the Shadows Of Motown, The Wrecking Crew tells the inside story of the studio musicians who played on the many hit records recorded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, including songs by The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, numerous Phil Spector productions and countless, countless others. Basically examining the music that became "the soundtrack to our lives," this is a nostalgia trip well worth taking. - Mitch Myers HighTimes.com This movie is a loving and revealing look at the gang of LA studio musicians who shaped the west coast pop sound of the '60s. Among the talking heads are Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb, Herb Alpert & Lou Adler, Micky Dolenz, Cher, and a roundtable of players including the inimitable Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye. Worth the price of admission to hear Kaye discuss how she came up with the bass lines for "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and "Wichita Lineman." - emscee mog.com	KNBC-TV Buffalo Niagara Awards Overture Magazine Digby's Blog (Seattle) Seattle Weekly KEXP-FM (Seattle) knoxnews.com (Nashville) Bass Player Magazine MSNBC proNetworks.org Buffalo News modernguitars.com
As a music reviewer who goes to lots of shows and listens to lots of records, it's hard not to notice that there's often a huge discrepancy in what you hear live and what comes through your radio or headphones. There are, of course, numerous reasons for this (more time in the studio to get the sound right, use of highly-paid studio professionals, etc…) but often it's because you could be hearing two separate groups of musicians. The studio players are often the more-skilled but rarely get the credit, so a film like The Wrecking Crew exists to retroactively ensure those musicians get recognized for their contributions. Filmmaker and narrator Denny Tedesco was the son of one of those musicians. His father Tommy was one of the most well-known studio guitarists of the time. Of course this documentary romanticizes those musicians (and rightfully so) but it also provides an interesting look into their world and helps piece together the process for making hit songs. Although there are interviews with stars like Cher, Brian Wilson and Nancy Sinatra, the most fun parts of this doc to watch are the scenes where a camera let four of those studio musicians sit at a table (it looked like a poker table with the close proximities) and let them tell their stories. Tommy Tedesco was joined by bassist Carol Kaye, drummer Hal Blaine and saxophonist Plas Johnson. Their stories set the narrative for the film and were sometimes funny sometimes heartbreaking (especially hearing Blaine discussing his post-divorce life). This took place in 1996 (Tommy Tedesco died in 1997). Kaye's solo interview is often illuminating because she was holding her Fender bass during the interview and illustrated some of her signature basslines while the camera focused on her hands. It was only a 95 minute doc, so the pop music nerd in me could have listened to those stories for hours and hours without growing tired, but the film did a good job of balancing the wonk stuff with telling their stories as accessibly as they could. Tommy Tedesco, unsurprisingly – it is his son's movie, comes across looking the best. He is seen as being funny and gracious and not showing any bitterness towards the people who were credited with the parts he actually played. When one touring musician told him that he felt guilty when was complimented by fans for parts that Tedesco actually played, he just told him to take the compliment and say thanks. He explained that it cuts both ways. If someone paid him their last $25 for his guitar parts on a record that flopped, he wasn't going to give the money back. He is considered to be the most widely-recorded guitarist ever, playing on over a thousand different tracks. The film ends anti-climactically. Studio musicians, even ones as skilled as the "Wrecking Crew" were, become less and less in-demand as music fans begin demanding that the same people they hear on records are the same people they see on stage while artists like Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend could do both and do it well. There are no real villains in this film and Denny Tedesco is very aware that the good times for studio musicians like his father couldn't last forever. The film works so well because the subjects are both humble and fully aware of their skill. They were not exploited or hold any real bitterness (at least that is apparent in the film). The Wrecking Crew succeeds because it lets these musicians who are largely unknown by name tell their stories in their own words and lets them take the credit they deserve. - ChrisB Three Imaginary Girls indie press

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