Wrecking Crew Film

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Latest Features/Reviews • The Advocate - Baton Rouge • GT Weekly - Santa Cruz • Shreveport Times, Louisiana • Live for Films • Leonard Maltin • MovieMaker.com • NY Post • LA Times - Kenneth Turan
"Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the '60s, Denny Tedesco didn't think his dad was different from anybody else's father in the neighborhood. He'd walk through the door each evening after work, kiss his wife and greet the kids. Then he'd ask the same question: "Any calls?" Instead of working in an office, however, Tommy Tedesco filled his days reeling off twangy riffs that became the musical signatures of TV shows such as "Bonanza" and "Batman" along with the atmospheric acoustic guitar intro for the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and colorful leads and fills on hits for Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Monkees and countless others. " Read the entire article... - Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
Mr. Tedesco's plight underlies the difficulties that the makers of music documentaries increasingly face. As the recording industry has seen its sales tumble by more than half since 2000, labels are intent on squeezing every bit of profit out of songs in their catalogs. Licensing that music to films -- whether big Hollywood productions or modestly budgeted documentaries -- is an attractive source of revenue. "It's harder now, because the music industry needs those licensing fees," said Eddie Schmidt, who has just finished a three-year term as president of the International Documentary Association. "If you're making a film about a singer-songwriter, that person might have some influence over what gets licensed. But here the people who are your subjects aren't necessarily the names on the records, so you have to go to third parties and say, 'What's your price?' " Read the entire article... - Larry Rohter, New York Times
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 festivals and is seeking theatrical distribution. - Rolling Stone
They're the L.A. studio musicians who played on Glen Campbell's early hits, including "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and countless other songs that became part of America's soundtrack during the '60s and '70s. One of their biggest admirers, Denny Tedesco, remains on a mission to tell their story in the film documentary, The Wrecking Crew. Read the entire article... - Calvin Gilbert, CMT News
One of the movie's most interesting clips is from an interview with Frank Zappa, originally part of a 30-minute profile about his father that Denny made in college, previously only aired on local PBS. The senior Tedesco was the class clown of the Wrecking Crew. As is fairly well known (even legendary) in the guitar community, he won TV's "Gong Show" by playing guitar and singing a song about being a washed up studio has-been -- dressed like a 300-pound ballerina. "This is where it got interesting for me," Denny says. "We showed Frank Zappa a clip of my father on 'The Gong Show' and expected some funnycomment from him. Instead, he came back with a very serious commentary about how the recording business works in L.A. At the time I was disappointed, but only years later did I understand the impact of his comments. It's as if he said, 'Hey, you might want to take a look at this in 25 years.' Read the entire article... - Dan Forte, Vintage Guitar
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
Toe-tapping audience members can scarcely contain their joy (or their singing voices) as the first notes of every familiar tune fly at them rapid-fire. And with each new salvo of nostalgia, viewer-listeners are left asking themselves that same baffling question: "the SAME BAND played all of these songs?!" Indeed they did. The movie tells the story of a relatively small group of studio musicians nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew" that played on almost every hit single of the late 1960s and early 1970s. With a relentless work ethic and a mastery of the recording process these 20 or so souls formed a backing unit the likes of which was never seen before, nor will ever be seen again. Read the entire article... - Jeff Cazanov, Rock Cellar
Tedesco captures their tumultuous, raucous world in interviews (with participants such as Brian Wilson, Herb Alpert, Campbell and other surviving sidemen), a staggering soundtrack of 130 recordings featuring the musicians and Blaine's voluminous collection of session snapshots. read more... - San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate (pink section)
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) I give it four stars out of four -- and it deserves an extra one. - Honolulu Star (out of 4) Selected as one of the Top Ten Classic Rock Documentaries Read more... - UltimateClassicRock.com
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
RADIO/PODCAST INTERVIEWS Rock Solid with Pat Francis WTF with Marc Maron Vinyl Schminyl WKSU 89.7, Kent State Radio NPR Radio Sportsradio 1310 Dallas - 'The Ticket' GrowingBolder.com Cincinnati Radio Interview MORE ONLINE REVIEWS/FEATURES MovieWallas.com Shindig Magazine Toronto Sun Chino Kino Santa Barbara Independent Detroit News San Diego Reader Da Belly Music Radar Times-Herald - Napa, CA Daily Republic - Fairfield, CA WindsorStar.com RonBenningtonInterviews.com RockNRollInterview.com Jack FM Radio Interview North Coast Voice (Ohio) Allegro (NY Musicians Union 802 magazine) Nashville Scene Ventura County Star River Cities Gazette - Miami Springs, FL Premiere Guitar Live 2 Play Network Newstime - Danbury, CT Flagpole.com Cincy World Cinema Overture Magazine [4/09] goTriad.com Arts (Salem) Willamette Week (Portland) CultureCatch.com - Ten Best of 2008 Air America Gambit Weekly (New Orleans) FringeReport.com Jan and Dean Blog Mix Magazine: The Lost Tommy Tedesco Interview 1985 Bloomsday Ramblings (Mill Valley) Life and Times of a New Dad Documentary Channel KNBC-TV CNN.com Buffalo Niagara Awards Overture Magazine [6/08] Digby's Blog (Seattle) Seattle Weekly KEXP-FM (Seattle) knoxnews.com (Nashville) Bass Player Magazine MSNBC proNetworks.org Buffalo News modernguitars.com
The Wrecking Crew is everything good about independent film. There is a feeling of intimacy with the picture and the audience is connected and brought back to a time long past. The story gets right to the point and does not use any of the glamour or hype tactics that more commercial films often do. These men and one woman are the unsung heroes of sixties style rock and roll, and while the movie could have been "in your face" about how the events transpired the story is told with humility, and firmly gives credit where credit is due. Read more... - Nathan Seaward Suite101.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