The Wrecking Crew

Never heard of a studio or session musician? Don't feel badly, neither had the people in this movie before they made it their career. A number of mostly jazz musicians went to Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s looking for work, and they found it playing rock and roll. Though they recorded several Grammy Award winning records, together they were never rock stars and most people would never recognize them.

They gave themselves the nickname "The Wrecking Crew," (because the established studio musicians said they would "wreck" the industry) but producers who wanted a hit record named them "The First Call Gang." Of all the musicians in Hollywood, these were the people you wanted on your team.

These guys quickly read and improvised harmonies for the studio recordings of popular music. This included rock and roll albums, theme song recordings and soundtracks for the movies and television. And they were really good at what they did.

One of the most called-upon and colorful of these musicians was Tommy Tedesco. His son Denny Tedesco has gathered decades worth of interviews, home movies and behind-the-scenes footage of The Wrecking Crew. Along with this, he has people like Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa and Cher talking about them. This and a soundtrack featuring some of the most popular music of the era sustain this documentary.

This Blu-ray features over six hours of footage not included in the movie as a special feature. Tedesco has a lot of material to work with and because of this the movie is a bit of a hodgepodge. It finally settles itself as a personal documentary honoring the life of Denny's father - and this gives the end of the movie all of its heart.

The most interesting part of the film is brief biographies of some of the unknown musician and the explanations of the industry. It is compelling to see little glimpses into the lives of certain workaday musician, people with phenomenal talent whose names were never credited on an album. For instance, Carol Kaye cut out a life for herself -- and raised children -- working long, hard hours in a man's industry. And Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Hal Blaine earned a more than comfortable living only to lose it all and end up working as a security guard.

In its reporting of rock and roll, "The Wrecking Crew" is full of superlatives about the music that came out of certain studios, discounting the rest of the industry. If you were to go by this documentary alone, Brian Wilson was the one great American genius and Motown never really existed.

"The Wrecking Crew"
Blu-ray
Rated PG | 102 minutes
www.magpictures.com/thewreckingcrew