Kind Rewind: “The Wrecking Crew” (2008)
When Tommy Tedesco died in 1997, news networks mispronounced his last name and misidentified him as “Tony.”
After making so many millions of people happy with his talent, the guitarist died with none of those people knowing who Tommy Tedesco was.
And that was a rip-off, because anyone who’s reading this knows Tedesco’s music.
His anonymous death was a final indignity to a musician who played on literally thousands of hit singles and mega-selling albums and who provided music for television shows from “Bonanza” to “M*A*S*H*.“ It’s also the starting point for the film about him and a band of studio musicians known informally as the Wrecking Crew, which is also the title of the documentary.
If you were to sit down and listen to tracks by the Monkees, Sonny & Cher, the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, Nancy Sinatra, the Association and Gary Lewis and the Playboys back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, you’d be hearing literally the same core group of players - including Tedesco - on every song. It’s a core group of players that virtually no one knew about and whose names are included on the credits of exactly zero recordings.
In fact, of the 30 or so musicians - no one can agree on an exact number - who made up the Wrecking Crew, only Glen Campbell and Leon Russell went on to enjoy any sort of mainstream recognition. Tedesco’s son Denny sought to remedy that by bringing together the surviving crew members - along with more recognizable faces including Dick Clark, Roger McGuinn, Frank Zappa, Brian Wilson and Peter Tork - to remember their days of helping to stoke the star-maker machinery behind the popular songs.
Much like the musicians it chronicles, "The Wrecking Crew” took forever to make its way into the public eye and looks old even though it’s been out for only two years. Production began in 1996, it made its film-festival debut in 2008 and finally made its way to theaters in 2015.
Despite its age at release, “The Wrecking Crew” is an ear- and eye-opening film with a killer soundtrack that comes off more like a text book than an entertaining diversion. It should be required viewing for anyone who claims to be a fan of 1960s-vintage music. But it unfortunately isn’t particularly riveting as drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, guitarists Tedesco and Al Casey, pianist Don Randi and a couple of dozen other musicians, producers and engineers sit around talking about the days when the bands didn’t play their own music and the musicians who did play and arrange it didn’t get any credit.
It’s an essential bit of visual and audio education; however, non-fans will be bored to tears.
Grade card: “The Wrecking Crew” - C+
