Hit Session Players Documentary Screens in Legendary Studio A
Pictured before the screening at United Recording are (L-R) CJ Vanston, Ross Hogarth, film director Denny Tedesco, Steve Genewick, Suzie Katayama, Dave Pell, studio manager Robin Goodchild, Jack Joseph Puig, and Clark Germain. Photo by David Goggin.
A new documentary “The Wrecking Crew,” which depicts the era when a small group of session players dominated the record charts, was screened in United Recording’s Studio A, where many of the legendary sessions actually took place. On hand for the catered event were a gathering of 90+ musicians and fans, along with the film’s director Denny Tedesco.
Special guests included Wrecking Crew keyboardist Don Randi and former head of A&R for Liberty Records and United Artists in the 1960s, Dave Pell.
The Wrecking Crew were active in the 60s & 70s and played on hundreds of hits for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers, among many others, and were also credited with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound.
Director Denny Tedesco, whose father and guitar virtuoso Tommy Tedesco was a core member of the Crew, introduced the film and presented a short slideshow of key still images from the film’s vast archives. “It was great to see the film here at United, in the very room where the crew worked with Frank Sinatra and many of the artists seen in the film.”
Before the era of The Wrecking Crew, the record industry was primarily in New York, London and Detroit in the late 50’s and early 60s. In the mid-60s, much of that mainstream activity was centered in LA and the West Coast. The Wrecking Crew session players were recording around the clock and anonymously responsible for the sound of the Gold records that dominated the charts.
“The Wrecking Crew” was a nickname coined by drummer Hal Blaine for the group of young, hip session musicians that played on countless hit records and replaced the traditional coat & tie sessions of the past.
Learn more about the film: http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/
About United Recording
United Recording was founded in 1957 by the legendary recording engineer and electronics inventor Bill Putnam with the backing of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. The studios were acquired and renamed Ocean Way Recording in 1977, and after acquisition in 2013 by Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc., were re-launched under the original name in 2014. United Recording, one of the world’s most recognized music recording studios, with more awards than any other recording enterprise, is responsible for record sales of more than one billion units. http://www.unitedrecordingstudios.com/
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