Most people would be surprised to learn that a little-known group of session musicians played a very large part in creating many of the memorable pop songs in music history. A fascinating new documentary out right now called, "The Wrecking Crew", which is named after this band, sheds some light on how these jazz-trained musicians are actually who you hear playing on those popular hits heard throughout the 1960's and early 1970's. They worked with everyone; from Elvis to Sinatra to The Beach Boys to Simon and Garfunkel not to mention performing on many of those iconic television theme songs ("Hawaii 5-0", "Mission: Impossible", "Batman", "Bonanza").
It's been said that these musicians played on over 150 top-ten hits and worked on at least 35,000 pieces of music during their time. Listen to this very tiny selection of classic songs that the Wrecking Crew played on to get an idea of how they helped shape and influence pop music:
"The Pink Panther Theme" - Henry Mancini (1963)mp3
"A Taste of Honey" - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (1965)mp3
"Good Vibrations" - The Beach Boys (1966)mp3
"Strangers In The Night" - Frank Sinatra (1966)mp3
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" - Nancy Sinatra (1966)mp3
"Something Stupid" - Frank & Nancy Sinatra (1967)mp3
"Windy" - The Association (1967) mp3
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" - The 5th Dimension (1969) mp3
"Song Sung Blue" - Neil Diamond (1972) mp3
"Annie's Song" - John Denver (1974) mp3
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