Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Book Review - The Wrecking Crew -


This is a scanned image of the jacket of the book I just finished, titled - The Wrecking Crew; the Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Bbest Kept Secret, by Kent Hartman.  As the jacket says - it is the story of "the unknown studio musicians who recorded the soundtrack of a generation."  I consider it - and highly recommend it - as a must-read if you want to know more about who played on almost all of the west coast hits starting from around 1965 with the Crystals, all the way to the Wrecking Crew’s last hurrah - 1975's Love will Keep us Together, by the Captain & Tennille.  We find out more about legendary songwriter - the genius Jimmy Webb and 10th annual Grammy Awards presentation.  Where in 1967, Glen Campbell releases a version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," that reaches No. 26.  Leading up to the 1967 Grammy Awards and Webb's "Up, Up and Away" (by The 5th Dimension - first called the Versatiles) was awarded Record of the Year and Song of the Year.  Along with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" - those two received eight Grammy Awards between them for Webb.  From Phil Specter, to Sonny Bono.  With Leon Russell and the many others.  Best-known 'members' of this unofficial group are Carol Kaye, the great Hal Blaine, Don Peake, Tommy  Tedesco, et al.  Among Blaine's vast list of recordings, he is acknowledged for having played on at least 40 U.S. #1 hits, and more than 150 Top Ten recordings.

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