The most prolific recording artists are usually uncredited. They are the highly talented session and house musicians that recording studios use to make bands under contract sound as good as possible. You might not be familiar with the band that came to be called the Wrecking Crew, but you certainly have heard their music. They were a group of musicians that many Los Angeles recording studios used for the biggest hits of the 1960s, fueling a revolution in pop music.
Most bands put together by the record companies were good, but not good enough for studio work and, more often than not, producers refused to use them for recording. Members of The Wrecking Crew were some of the most genius musicians in the industry with formal backgrounds in jazz or classical music. As an anonymous star-making machine, they were brought in for recordings credited to rock groups and singers. The Monkees first two albums? That was the Wrecking Crew, as well as the Byrds’ debut rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”. They also played for the Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds.
Some musicians of the Wrecking Crew became well-known, like Leon Russell and Glen Campbell. There are others you should know, like Carol Kaye, the only woman of the bunch and the player of iconic bass lines in songs like "Midnight Confessions," “Rescue Me,” and "La Bamba." Read about the Wrecking Crew and their influence on pop music at Messy Nessy Chic.