103, "The Wrecking Crew"

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
by Kent Hartman

The Wrecking Crew was an extraordinary group of musicians who provided the largely-uncredited musical backdrop for thousands of pop and rock songs in the 1960's and 1970's. It was an unofficial collection of roughly 20 drummers, guitarists, horn players, bassists, and others, including drummer Hal Blaine, guitarist Glenn Campbell, and bassist/guitarist Carol Kaye (whose careers the book highlights in particular). This book is a mostly chronological collection of anecdotes, stories from the studios and the road, that tell of the origins of the "group," the development of pop-rock in the early 60's, the explosion of Top 40 hits and its contribution to the expanding importance of session musicians in entertainment centers such as LA, the heyday of the Wrecking Crew, and finally its decline in the mid 70's with the turns in recording technology and techniques and changing public taste. People like Phil Spector, Sonny Bono, Brian Wilson, and others are introduced, along with their innovations to the cutting-edge of recording technology at the time. The group and the times are fascinating, all the more so when compared to how different the music business is today, or even when comparing it to my most recently-read book on music.

Hartman writes very colloquially, which is fine most of the time, though I couldn't help but notice he uses a lot of cliches. The depth of research into such an obscure and little-known portion of the music of the 20th century is impressive and is presented pretty well. Great reading if you're into music recording history.