Podcasts about Tommy Tedesco

For our big Season 2 Finale, Discograffiti's opted to fudge the timeline just a bit in order to give the proper red-carpet drum-roll gravitas to Season 3, especially since much of the music on The Beach Boys' “Stack-O-Tracks” was created during this period, by the musicians who'd go on to create 99% of the music created during Season 3.  In this very special episode, the inimitable Don Randi and Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco's son Denny Tedesco—director of the excellent music docs The Wrecking Crew and The Immediate Family—come together for an overview of the black sheep of The Beach Boys' 1960s catalog, plus a history of the musicians who made most of the music on it…not to mention most of Pet Sounds & Smile. Here's just a few of the many things that Don and Denny discuss with Discograffiti in this podcast:A sneak peek preview of Denny's upcoming third music doc;The very different original track listing for “Stack-O-Tracks”;The origin story and early days of The Wrecking Crew;The many reasons for the disbursement of that classic group of great players;The resentments of the band members who wound up being replaced on their records by the 1960s session guys;If Don really knew that Brian was a genius at the time, without the benefit of hindsight;Plus, some background on the ill-fated 1992 Phil Spector session with The Wrecking Crew that never quite came off.Listen: linktr.ee/discograffitiI support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income. If you're a Beach Boys superfan like me, you'll want The Director's Cut of this episode. It's ad-free and features 23 additional minutes of essential material. Purchase it as a one-off, get the entire Season 1 & 2 Series as a bundle (listed under Collections), or better yet…Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. And now with our 2025 Patreon Membership Drive, you'll also get an episode all about YOU and a FREE copy of Metal Machine Muzak at the Lieutenant Tier or higher: Patreon.com/DiscograffitiCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#donrandi #dennytedesco #thewreckingcrew #theimmediatefamily #immediatefamily #stackotracks #davidmarks #thebeachboys #brianwilson #beachboys #denniswilson #mikelove #carlwilson #music #vinyl #aljardine #thebeatles #brucejohnston #petsounds #goodvibrations #surf #rocknroll #surfing #california #beach #surfrock #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #andyourdreamscometrue

Twitter: @podgaverockInsta: @podgaverockSpecial Guest Hosts: Michael RusseckDarlene Love “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from the 1963 album "A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records". Released on Philles. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector and produced by Phil Spector.Personel:Darlene Love - lead vocalsCher and The Blossoms (Fanita James, Darlene Love, Gracia Nitzsche, Edna Wright, and Carolyn Willis) - backing vocalsThe Wrecking Crew:Jack Nitzche - arrangements, percussionSteve Douglas - saxophoneJay Migliori - saxophoneHal Blaine - drumsLouis Blackburn - hornsLeon Russell - pianoRoy Caton - trumpetSonny Bono, Frank Capp - percussionRay Pohlman - bassIrv Rubins, Barney Kessel, Bill Pittman, Tommy Tedesco, Nino Tempo - guitarJimmy Vidor - stringsLarry Levine - engineerCover:Performed by Neal Marsh and Josh BondIntro Music:"Shithouse" 2010 release from "A Collection of Songs for the Kings". Written by Josh Bond. Produced by Frank Charlton.

Twitter: @podgaverockInsta: @podgaverockSpecial Guest Hosts: Michael RusseckDarlene Love “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from the 1963 album "A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records". Released on Philles. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector and produced by Phil Spector.Personel:Darlene Love - lead vocalsCher and The Blossoms (Fanita James, Darlene Love, Gracia Nitzsche, Edna Wright, and Carolyn Willis) - backing vocalsThe Wrecking Crew:Jack Nitzche - arrangements, percussionSteve Douglas - saxophoneJay Migliori - saxophoneHal Blaine - drumsLouis Blackburn - hornsLeon Russell - pianoRoy Caton - trumpet Sonny Bono, Frank Capp - percussionRay Pohlman - bassIrv Rubins, Barney Kessel, Bill Pittman, Tommy Tedesco, Nino Tempo - guitarJimmy Vidor - stringsLarry Levine - engineer Cover:Performed by Neal Marsh and Josh BondIntro Music:"Shithouse" 2010 release from "A Collection of Songs for the Kings". Written by Josh Bond. Produced by Frank Charlton.Other Artists Mentioned:Jingle Bell RockBing Crosby “White Christmas”Santa Claus is Coming to TownChevy ChaseTaylor SwiftJanis JoplinBob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band “We've Got Tonight”Grateful DeadGreyboy AllstarsJohn Cleary and John Scofield “Piety Street”Medeski, Martin, and WoodThe LumineersKings of LeonThe BeatlesThe Fruit BatsThe CureThe Black KeysNeil YoungFor the Kings “Heart of This Man”Beach Boys “God Only Knows”Warren HaynesDave MatthewsDerek TrucksGoose Trey AnastasioMarc BroussardThe Ronettes “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”The Crystals “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”National Lampoon's Christmas VacationThe GremlinsDarlene Love “Johnny (Please Come Home)”The Ronettes “Be My Baby”The Righteous Brothers “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'”Lindas RonstadtDavid LettermanPaul ShaferRonnie SpectorChuck Berry “Run, Rudolph Run”Bruce SpringsteenRobert Walter “In a Holiday Groove”Karl DensonThe Rolling StonesThe OffspringWillie NelsonPink FloydWizard of OzGeorge Michael “Last Christmas”The Chordettes “Mr Sandman”Little Shop of HorrorsMariah CareyMichael BubleBon JoviU2 “Joshua Tree”Joey RamoneMy Morning JacketThe StrokesJulian Casablancas “Christmas Wish”Taj Mahal

The Wrecking Crew in the 60s and The Immediate Family in the 70s were the faces behind most of the hits of that time. They were proficient, able to improvise and highly sought after. However, their experiences as session musicians and their relationships with the bands and artists they supported were very different. While the members of the Wrecking Crew were the anonymous, unsung heroes of their time, the members of the Immediate Family were credited on the albums on which they played and forged strong relationships with the bands and artists they supported on the road. Director and Producer Denny Tedesco joins My Rock Moment in today's episode. As the Director of both The Wrecking Crew and Immediate Family documentaries, he takes us behind the making of the two documentaries and shares stories about the musicians they celebrated. He also shares personal moments growing up as the son of Tommy Tedesco, one of the most highly revered session guitarists of the 60s and part of The Wrecking Crew. To learn more about the documentaries, check out the links below: https://www.magpictures.com/thewreckingcrew https://immediatefamilyfilm.com Follow My Rock Moment on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la_woman_rocks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join @thebuzzknight for this episode with film maker Denny Tedesco. He is the son of Tommy Tedesco, who was part of the famous "Wrecking Crew" which Denny turned into a documentary. Denny also created a documentary on The Immediate Family, the talented group of LA session musicians.  If you have questions or comments, write buzz@buzzknightmedia.com. Connect with Buzz on Twitter @TheBuzzKnight and Instagram @takinawalkpodcast. Like the show? Leave us a review here. Review  Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David & Phil joyfully welcome their friend Jimmy Jam and their new friend Denny Tedesco to "Naked Lunch" for a moving conversation about music, fathers and sons and so much more. Jimmy Jam shares an inspiring update about his ongoing reunion with his long estranged father, who is the subject of a great new book, "Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs & Salvation of Cornbread Harris" by Andrea Swensson, which you can buy here. Denny Tedesco tells how putting a spotlight on his legendary musician father Tommy Tedesco led him to direct two great music documentaries, 2008's "The Wrecking Crew" about the great studio musicians in Los Angeles in The Sixties and now, 2023's "Immediate Family" about a group of musicians who have defined The Seventies and made enduringly iconic recordings with the likes of Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, to name just a few. You can see both films on Hulu. To learn more about "Immediate Family," click here. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.

This Morning, Niagara Falls Native Denny Tedesco joins us to talk about his father Tommy Tedesco and the extensive list of songs he was apart of along with his new film, The Immediate Family.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tommy Tedesco (1930-1997) was an American guitarist who worked for almost 40 years and had one of the greatest careers as a studio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood. He performed on a gazillion of recording dates, including thousands of film and television scoring sessions for virtually all the major film composers in Hollywood. Tedesco was part of an unofficial collective of studio musicians labeled as "The Wrecking Crew," who performed (often uncredited) on an impressive amount of recordings for pop and rock artists between the late 1950s and the early 1980s, including such big stars as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & The Papas, Sonny & Cher, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Sinatra, The 5th Dimension, The Byrds, and many others. In this episode of the "L.A. Studio Legends" series, producer and director Denny Tedesco talks about the extraordinary career of his father Tommy, from his early days as a young guitar player to the peak years of The Wrecking Crew, going in detail about his many experiences playing for John Williams on numerous projects, including such film scores as Conrack, The River and Indiana Jones. Denny also reflects on his father's unique legacy and how he celebrated it through his own documentary film The Wrecking Crew. For more detailed information, go to https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2024/07/19/tommy-tedesco-podcast/

Send us a Text Message.Our latest Bonus Track features a great conversation with the legendary Leland Sklar and director Denny Tedesco regarding his film, The Immediate Family. That's right, someone finally made a movie about Lee Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel. If you're a liner notes nerd, you know those names!Here's one example:Jackson Browne's Running on Empty album was one where the music fans got to be part of the process. Because it was recorded live on stage in concert -- and at other points along the touring trail, backstage, in hotel rooms and even on the tour bus - it was a unique and often chaotic experience for those involved in the recording.As Sklar told me, Running on Empty was unlike anything he had ever been a part of. While bands and artists are very used to the uncomfortable nature of playing new material in front of an audience that's just there to hear the hits, Running on Empty captured moments with Browne and the band where they were playing new songs that the audiences hadn't even had a chance to get on an album yet, because they hadn't been recorded.For Sklar, it was just one experience of many songs and albums that he's played on across the decades. While he's worked with countless names, there were a few that kept coming up -- guitarist Waddy Wachtel, guitarist Danny Kortchmar and drummer Russ Kunkel. The four became known as The Section, the '70s heir apparent to The Wrecking Crew of the '60s. Collectively and often together, they've played on thousands of albums.In more recent years, they've acquired a new moniker, one which fits well with their connection to the legendary albums they played on by Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Don Henley and many others -- The Immediate Family. Adding vocalist Steve Postell to their ranks, they've put out several albums.But it was Tedesco who decided to tell the story of the guys, through the words of their famous employers and associates. He's well-suited for the task, having put out a film about The Wrecking Crew, the group of session musicians that featured his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco. He saw the natural throughline that connected that collective with what Kortchmar, Wachtel, Sklar and Kunkel continued with the Section.The Immediate Family is a fascinating journey, one which weaves together valuable history as recounted by those who were there. The film was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray and continues to screen nationally. You can find further details at immediatefamilyfilm.com.I loved chatting with Denny and Lee -- and it was exciting to hear some details from Denny about his next project, a movie about Wolfman Jack that's currently in process! Can't wait!P.S. I mention it during the episode, but here's a direct link to Leland's YouTube channel.Support the Show.

Heino [00:23] "Heute Singen Wir Mit Heino/Wißt Ihr Was? Heute Hat's Geschneit" Sing Mit Heino Folge 9 und 10 Winterzeit - Kinderzeit - Weihnachtzeit Hör Zu 1 C 066-45 322 1979 Sing along with Heino! And evidently, the old Deustschekrooner is still alive. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the German phenomenon that is Heino, of course, there's a documentary (https://youtu.be/M-39Unh0X2E?si=WlId8Vtympf3n2ob). The Four Roses Society [03:03] "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane/Deep in the Heart of Texas" Sing with the Four Roses Society Four Roses K8OP-6582 / 3 Well all right then. During my brief career as a liquor store clerk (one summer during college), Four Roses bourbon was not the esteemed brand it is today. It was easily found on the bottom shelf of the whiskey section. Kitty Wells [05:49] "Country Girl" Singing'em Country Decca DL 75221 1970 One of the contenders to the title of Queen of Country Music reminiscing at the ripe old age of 51. Elvis Presley [08:24] "Santa Bring My Baby Back (to Me)" Sings Christmas Songs - Elvis' Christmas Album RCA Victor LPM-1951 1957 (1964 reissue) An extremely well-worn seasonal classic. I'm surprised it sounds as good as it does, considering the state of the record surface. Odetta [12:45] "Don't Think Twice, It's Allright" Odetta Sings Dylan RCA Victor LSP-3324 An excellent rendition of this transitional Dylan single. To my mind, it is almost as good as the jangling toe-tapper version by Waylon Jennings (https://youtu.be/2GTl6-BJhvc?si=Ofi9FdbmGvJyqCKr). Bob McGrath with the Jimmy Joyce Singers [18:30] "Black and White" Sings for All the Boys and Girls Disneyland 1357 1974 Indeed, that Bob from Sesame Street. Helped out here by some of the Wrecking Crew including Tommy Tedesco and Earl Palmer. Inspired by the Three Dog Night version of this song (https://youtu.be/PEy6968xO-I?si=hNq9IL8tnQ9RCPDd), the song was originally recorded by Pete Seger in 1956 and with lyrics by David I. Arkin, father of Alan Arkin no less. Nat King Cole [22:21] "Autumn Leaves" Sings for Two in Love Capitol Records DT 420 1963 (original release 1953) This monophonic classic album is reinvigorated in beautiful Duophonic sound! Bonnie Prince Billy [25:03] "Ohio River Boat Song" Sings Greatest Palace Music Drag City DC252 / Palace Records PR31 A collection of Nashville-ified reimaginings Will Oldham's earlier work, with a number of Nashville greats, including Hargus "Pig" Robbins. The thing I love about seeing Will Oldham perform live in whatever configuration is that he seemingly never plays a song the same way twice. This pass at the debut single from Palace Music (https://youtu.be/jYVTkUTHENg?si=Iz69YWTah4Kmc4uO) exemplifies that spirit. Wayne Newton [30:00] "More (Theme from 'Mondo Cane')" Sings Hit Songs Capitol Records T 2130 1964 Despite rumblings in Memphis and New Orleans and even Liverpool by this point, the big band sound of the Greatest Generation continues to thrive in popular music. John McCormack [32:37] "The Foggy Dew" Sings Irish Songs Pickwick CAS-407 1975 Evidently, stereo, in this case, means slapping some reverb on the left channel. Despite being partially the result of Irish immigration, I am not sentimental, which is why I chose the shortest track for this collection. Lotte Lehman [34:41] "Ich Liebe Dich (Beethoven)" Sings Lieder, Vol. 1 Camden CAL-378 Pretty sure I grabbed this from the dollar bin because in my haste I thought it was Lotte Lenya. Colin Meloy [37:21] "Bandit Queen" Sings Live! Jealous Butcher Records JB-065 2008 From a solo tour Colin Meloy made in 2006, recorded at various venues, including this one that I happened to attend at the Great American Music Hall. This live album does do one of those things that drives me nuts, which is to put the stage banter for the upcoming song before the track break. Tom Jones [43:05] "In Dreams" Sings She's a Lady Parrot XPAS 71046 1971 Candy colored clown! (https://youtu.be/R7zukRlfzh8?si=110VDkQtE8m4jD52) Nat "King" Cole [46:30] "Blue Gardenia" Ballads of the Day Capitol Records DT 680 1960 (original release 1956) As performed in Fritz Lang's classic noir The Blue Gardenia (https://youtu.be/3bxSn2UMBMY?si=vKu34lBUOQstY3f4). Harry Belafonte [49:29] "A Fool For You" Sings the Blues RCA Victor LSP-1972 1958 A collection of blues standards, including this Ray Charles number. Ella Fitzgerald [53:09] "'S Wonderful" Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (Volume Two) Verve Records MG V-4025 1959 Helped out here by Nelson Riddle. An excellent cover painting by Bernard Buffet is featured on this album. Music behind the DJ: "Games People Play (https://youtu.be/hIBlCac8_wk?si=KjX6MUoC_zQ0qftn)" by Arthur Greenslade and his Orchesta

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tommy Tedesco is probably the most recorded guitarist in history having played on thousands of recordings from the 1960s-1980s ( Many of them top 20 hits). Tommy's son, filmmaker Denny Tedesco, produced The Wrecking Crew, the highly-acclaimed documentary about his father and the other musicians who made up The Wrecking Crew, and is here to tell us the story! Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Los Angeles-based Denny Tedesco is an award-winning documentary producer and director. His credits include The Wrecking Crew, which showcases his father, Tommy Tedesco, and the LA session players such as Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine and many others who recorded thousands of hit records and soundtracks from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Denny's most recent project, Immediate Family (available on Amazon), features the session musicians (Waddy Watchel, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Steve Powell) who played for James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Phil Collins, Stevie Nicks, and Linda Ronstadt, among others. Both of these documentaries are "must-sees" for any music fan.

Director Denny Tedesco has followed up his smash hit documentary, The Wrecking Crew with an enlightening look at the next generation of session musicians who worked closely with  70s' singer/songwriters in creating the soundtrack which continues to enrich and lift our lives. They are Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Danny Kortchmar and Steve Postell. The band and the film are called Immediate Family.Denny joins us, along with Waddy and Leland to get into the making of the film and their incredible journey through the history of rock, pop, folk, jazz, country and beyond. Waddy shares career highlights with David Crosby, The Everly Brothers, Warren Zevon, Steve Perry, Jackson Browne, Kim Carnes, and Stevie Nicks. Leland has stories about Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Neil Young, and Phil Collins. These guys hand crafted our playlists!When Crosby asked Waddy if he should team up with Stills and Nash, Waddy gave him a solid thumbs up. When Don Henley asked Leland what he thought of “The Eagles” as a band name, Lee said, “Sure. Why not?” #TrendsettersIt took Denny 18 years to complete The Wrecking Crew, a love song to his father, Wrecking Crew guitar man, Tommy Tedesco. The fruits of that effort continue to blossom with the credentials and lessons that made Immediate Family possible and now, Denny's next film about Wolfman Jack.Weezy and Waddy have a Cowsills history in common. Waddy appears in her film, Family Band: The Cowsills Story and they share thoughts on the moment in the movie where Billy Cowsill finally stands up to his father, Bud when Bud makes a derogatory remark about Billy's mentor, Waddy. It's a fierce and loving act that gets Billy kicked out of his own band.Fritz and Denny both share impossibly beautiful Linda Ronstadt memories and Leland tells us how a friend of a friend of a friend led to his lifelong relationship with James Taylor.Plus, Fritz and Weezy are recommending the doc, Filling in the Blanks on Prime and Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher.Path Points of Interest:Immediate FamilyDenny TedescoDenny Tedesco on IMDBLeland Sklar on YoutubeThe Wrecking CrewSound Explosion: Inside L.A.'s Studio Factory With The Wrecking Crew by Ken SharpFamily Band: The Cowsills StoryFilling In The BlanksBurn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

Back at episode 110 of See Hear, Tim, Kerry and I had a round table discussion (Broadway Danny Rose style) about Denny Tedesco's 2015 documentary, The Wrecking Crew. That film was about the session musicians of the 1960s LA scene that made the “name” performers sound great. These session musicians were not known by name outside of that community until their achievements were lauded decades later. What happens in the 1970s when the next generation of LA musicians want to have the ability to play with lot of different artists AND have the joy of being part of a BAND rather than just being part of a pool? You get Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel rewriting the rules. Welcome to episode 113 of See Hear Podcast. Unlike the members of the Wrecking Crew who were originally trained as jazz musicians, and fell into rock and roll to earn a living, the new generation of musicians had grown with rock and roll, loved The Beatles, and wanted to play with songwriters that they admired – as well as contribute to their arrangements. They had the best of both worlds – freedom to play with different people, but still feel part of a gang. Director Denny Tedesco has created a wonderful follow-up to his Wrecking Crew film with the new doc, Immediate Family. For the last few years, they've been playing as a band under that name, but for years, they were playing (together and separately) for hundreds of songwriters / performers including James Taylor, John Prine, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins, and many many more. Their “employers” were also their friends who valued these gents' creative input, not just the ability to knock off a song under tight record company and studio requirements. Once again, Denny has produced an absorbing film about a side of rock history not usually discussed outside of musician circles. As well as chatting about Immediate Family, we of course go back to The Wrecking Crew documentary, and Denny's relationship with his dad, legendary guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. If you want to find out details of where to stream the film or see a theatrical screening, go to https://immediatefamilyfilm.com/ Sadly, it would appear that it's only streaming in the US at the moment, but check for updates on the website or https://www.facebook.com/immediatefamilyfilm. Did I mention that this episode marks See Hear's 10 year anniversary? From GG Allin to Immediate Family, we cover it all for your aural pleasure. If you've been enjoying the show, please consider giving us a favourable review on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists. If you don't enjoy the show, tell your adversaries to tune in. We don't care who listens..... See Hear is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts. Check out all the other wonderful shows at http://pantheonpodcasts.com. Send us feedback via email at seehearpodcast@gmail.com Join the Facebook group at http://facebook.com/groups/seehearpodcast Check out the Instagram page at www.instagram.com/seehearpodcast You can download the show by searching for See Hear on whatever podcast app you favour. Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back at episode 110 of See Hear, Tim, Kerry and I had a round table discussion (Broadway Danny Rose style) about Denny Tedesco's 2015 documentary, The Wrecking Crew. That film was about the session musicians of the 1960s LA scene that made the “name” performers sound great. These session musicians were not known by name outside of that community until their achievements were lauded decades later. What happens in the 1970s when the next generation of LA musicians want to have the ability to play with lot of different artists AND have the joy of being part of a BAND rather than just being part of a pool? You get Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel rewriting the rules. Welcome to episode 113 of See Hear Podcast. Unlike the members of the Wrecking Crew who were originally trained as jazz musicians, and fell into rock and roll to earn a living, the new generation of musicians had grown with rock and roll, loved The Beatles, and wanted to play with songwriters that they admired – as well as contribute to their arrangements. They had the best of both worlds – freedom to play with different people, but still feel part of a gang. Director Denny Tedesco has created a wonderful follow-up to his Wrecking Crew film with the new doc, Immediate Family. For the last few years, they've been playing as a band under that name, but for years, they were playing (together and separately) for hundreds of songwriters / performers including James Taylor, John Prine, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins, and many many more. Their “employers” were also their friends who valued these gents' creative input, not just the ability to knock off a song under tight record company and studio requirements. Once again, Denny has produced an absorbing film about a side of rock history not usually discussed outside of musician circles. As well as chatting about Immediate Family, we of course go back to The Wrecking Crew documentary, and Denny's relationship with his dad, legendary guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. If you want to find out details of where to stream the film or see a theatrical screening, go to https://immediatefamilyfilm.com/ Sadly, it would appear that it's only streaming in the US at the moment, but check for updates on the website or https://www.facebook.com/immediatefamilyfilm. If you've been enjoying the show, please consider giving us a favourable review on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists. If you don't enjoy the show, tell your adversaries to tune in. We don't care who listens..... See Hear is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts. Check out all the other wonderful shows at http://pantheonpodcasts.com. Send us feedback via email at seehearpodcast@gmail.com Join the Facebook group at http://facebook.com/groups/seehearpodcast Check out the Instagram page at www.instagram.com/seehearpodcast You can download the show by searching for See Hear on whatever podcast app you favour. Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Dan Gilbert , a monster guitarist and top instructor at Hollywood's Musicians Institute. What is special about this episode for me is that Dan was my private teacher when I attended M.I. (then known as "GIT") in the early 90's. One of the original graduates of the early days of the program at the school, Dan worked alongside legends such as Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco and has taught thousands of students in his 45 year career at the school. In this episode Dan shares stories of studying with Pat Martino, how visualization techniques work when learning new material, his record "Before the Sunrise" and much more!Click here for Dan's record "Before the Sunrise"Click here for a video of Dan talking about learning techniques on the guitar.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-riff-raff-with-shane-theriot/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Denny Tedesco is director of the films The Wrecking Crew and the brand new release Immediate Family.  Both of these documentary films are about world-class musicians that you'll find on hundreds of albums and thousands of songs by artists who are in numerous Hall of Fame's and won hundreds of Grammy awards.  Played in film festivals around the United States, Immediate Family has garnered well over a dozen awards and is released to theaters everywhere on December 15, 2023.  Multi-award winning program director Ray White caught up with Denny at the Virginia Film Festival in October of 2023 before the viewing of this fantastic film.  They talked about his background growing up (son of The Wrecking Crew member Tommy Tedesco), briefly on The Wrecking Crew film and various aspects of the brand new Immediate Family (Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel & Steve Postell) film.  We'll take you on a journey back to the heyday of Rock and Pop music on this episode.  Be sure to listen to Episode 143 too, where we're joined by Waddy Wachtel of The Immediate Family!  Don't miss this show (or film)!!

Host Michael Azevedo is joined by director Denny Tedesco to talk about his enthralling music documentary "Immediate Family," which is a follow-up to his acclaimed 2008 documentary “The Wrecking Crew.”  That earlier film followed the first wave of studio musicians in the 1960s, including Denny's father, guitar virtuoso Tommy Tedesco. “Immediate Family” takes up the story where “The Wrecking Crew” ended, taking a deep dive through some of the most famous and influential session musicians from the 1970s.  To that end, the new documentary includes commentary from the likes of Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Keith Richards, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, and Phil Collins.  In addition to talking to those music legends, “Immediate Family” tracks the rise and collaborations of session musicians Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Waddy Wachtel as they help craft some of the decade's most enduring hits.  Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.   About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/   Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Most working people have that day gig – accountant, engineer, admin, hospitality. The job pays the bills and puts food on the table. We don't tend to think of being a musician as a day job category. Welcome to episode 110 of See Hear Podcast. Through the 20th century, there was always some group of musicians who had that “day job” status – playing for corporate functions, teaching people to instrumental skills, and being the faceless people providing the grooves and melodies behind your favourite records. Remember the shock you felt realising that the Beach Boys weren't playing their own instruments on Pet Sounds? Or The Monkees? The collective of Los Angeles session musicians who became known as The Wrecking Crew (via drummer Hal Blaine's autobiography) provided the music for tons of songs that music fans consider pop pantheon. There were other collectives of course – Motown had the Funk Brothers, Stax had Booker T and the MGs, and there were the collectives in Muscle Shoals and Nashville. Film maker Denny Tedesco is the son of Wrecking Crew guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. In the mid 90s, Denny started making a documentary that took nearly 20 years to make. Financing for licensing rights was a big part of that duration, but in the end, he created a wonderful film that opens a window to the world of that period of time when Sonny and Cher, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas and the Papas, The Ronettes, and The Beach Boys all had one thing in common – The Wrecking Crew. Even if the general public had no idea who Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Earl Palmer or Plas Johnson were, the “name” artists certainly did and revered their work. For episode 110, Tim, Kerry and myself discussed Denny's documentary as well as our own favourite records from that period, the difference between WC and other famous session groups, British session musicians, social context, and economics. Tim also has an interesting spin on why session musicians may not feel the need to brag about their work……. If you want to catch up on the film, it's currently available on Beamafilm, Prime and (in October / November 2023) SBS On Demand. Very excitingly, we will be having Denny Tedesco on See Hear in early 2024 to talk about his new film The Immediate Family about another group of LA session musicians from the 70s. If you've been enjoying the show, please consider giving us a favourable review on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists. If you don't enjoy the show, tell your adversaries to tune in. We don't care who listens..... See Hear is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts. Check out all the other wonderful shows at http://pantheonpodcasts.com. Send us feedback via email at seehearpodcast@gmail.com Join the Facebook group at http://facebook.com/groups/seehearpodcast Check out the Instagram page at www.instagram.com/seehearpodcast/?hl=en You can download the show by searching for See Hear on whatever podcast app you favour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most working people have that day gig – accountant, engineer, admin, hospitality. The job pays the bills and puts food on the table. We don't tend to think of being a musician as a day job category. Welcome to episode 110 of See Hear Podcast. Through the 20th century, there was always some group of musicians who had that “day job” status – playing for corporate functions, teaching people to instrumental skills, and being the faceless people providing the grooves and melodies behind your favourite records. Remember the shock you felt realising that the Beach Boys weren't playing their own instruments on Pet Sounds? Or The Monkees? The collective of Los Angeles session musicians who became known as The Wrecking Crew (via drummer Hal Blaine's autobiography) provided the music for tons of songs that music fans consider pop pantheon. There were other collectives of course – Motown had the Funk Brothers, Stax had Booker T and the MGs, and there were the collectives in Muscle Shoals and Nashville. Film maker Denny Tedesco is the son of Wrecking Crew guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. In the mid 90s, Denny started making a documentary that took nearly 20 years to make. Financing for licensing rights was a big part of that duration, but in the end, he created a wonderful film that opens a window to the world of that period of time when Sonny and Cher, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas and the Papas, The Ronettes, and The Beach Boys all had one thing in common – The Wrecking Crew. Even if the general public had no idea who Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Earl Palmer or Plas Johnson were, the “name” artists certainly did and revered their work. For episode 110, Tim, Kerry and myself discussed Denny's documentary as well as our own favourite records from that period, the difference between WC and other famous session groups, British session musicians, social context, and economics. Tim also has an interesting spin on why session musicians may not feel the need to brag about their work……. If you want to catch up on the film, it's currently available on Beamafilm, Prime and (in October / November 2023) SBS On Demand. Very excitingly, we will be having Denny Tedesco on See Hear in early 2024 to talk about his new film The Immediate Family about another group of LA session musicians from the 70s. If you've been enjoying the show, please consider giving us a favourable review on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists. If you don't enjoy the show, tell your adversaries to tune in. We don't care who listens..... See Hear is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts. Check out all the other wonderful shows at http://pantheonpodcasts.com. Send us feedback via email at seehearpodcast@gmail.com Join the Facebook group at http://facebook.com/groups/seehearpodcast Check out the Instagram page at www.instagram.com/seehearpodcast/?hl=en You can download the show by searching for See Hear on whatever podcast app you favour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guitar Legend Juan Carlos Quintero Releases New Album “Desserts” As with all good meals, the sweets are the most memorable! It's no wonder that guitar legend Juan Carlos Quintero's critically acclaimed chart-topping 2022 release, “Table For Five,” segues so effortlessly to the sequel – the new album, “Desserts” … Quintero's new album expands the music menu producing tasty treats while skillfully blending authentic grooves – originating from South American & Caribbean regions – culminating in a thread of meaningful performances honoring the beauty and breadth of Latin-Jazz traditions! Enticing gems include “The Gift,” “All or Nothing At All,” “How Insensitive,” “Tangerine,” “A Night in Tunisia,” “Along Came Betty” & crowd favorite, Van Morrison's “Moondance”! This seasoned Quintet never disappoints as it navigates an array of well-crafted classics re-imagined with newly fine-tuned arrangements! PLEASE WELCOME LATIN JAZZ GUITAR LEGEND/COMPOSER/RECORD PRODUCER JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO TO INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS … PURCHASE THE NEW ALBUM BY JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO entitled DESSERTS available at https://lnk.to/juancarlosquintero_desserts “DESSERTS BY JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO IS A BEAUTIFUL ACOUSTIC RENDITION OF TIMELESS CLASSICS. JUAN CARLOS IS A TRUE MASTER OF JAZZ AND LATIN GUITAR AND COMPOSITION. DESSERTS WILL BE ENJOYED BY EVERYONE WHO ENJOYS A LAID-BACK FRAME OF MIND AND MAGNIFICENT VIBES.” BY MUSIC JOURNALIST RAY SHASHO 5 STARS!   FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO VISIT www.juancarlosquintero.com Official website www.facebook.com/JCQMoondo Facebook   DISCOGRAPHY Juan Carlos Quintero 1990 Through the Winds 1992 Los Musicos 2001 Medellin 2003 Los Primos 2003 Guitarra De Passion 2005 Joy to The World 2007 Desserts 2023     Support us on PayPal!

The Wrecking Crew WC40 w Phil Yale OMoM S2E2 HD 720p https://youtu.be/Gx0VaMZS9Vs The Wrecking Crew was a loose-knit group of studio musicians who played on countless hit records in the 1960s and 1970s. They were known for their versatility and skill, and their work can be heard on everything from pop and rock to country and jazz. Special thanks to: Phil Yale https://www.philyale.com/ Ingrid Fasching (@Facebook #HalBlaine Group) whose feedback, information sharing, and corrections :-) have been incredibly helpful. https://www.facebook.com/groups/drummerhalblaine/  @DennyTedesco  and #TheWreckingCrew Facebook group: Denny's @WreckingCrewMovie  was my starting point for learning about this amazing group of musicians, including Denny's father, Tommy Tedesco. The information the movie and Facebook site share have been invaluable in preparing this episode. http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/ https://www.facebook.com/WreckingCrewFilm/about #WreckingCrew #studiomusicians #LosAngeles #1960s #1970s #hitrecords #versatility #skill #pop #rock #country #jazz #fypage #musichistory #foryou #music #fypシ #fyp Included in this video: Artist, Song, Timestamp OurMindonMusic Intro 0:00 Phil's Intro (Phil's Tracks) 2:30  @WreckingCrewMovie  3:18 5:05 - 8:05 The Beach Boys Good Vibrations (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 13, 1968) 9:20 - 10:49 José Feliciano California Dreamin' 13:19 - 14:51 Jan & Dean Dead Man's Curve (Remastered 1990/Stereo Remix) 18:08 - 18:35 Elvis Presley A Little Less Conversation 18:08 - 18:35 Elvis Presley Almost In Love 20:02 - 20:23 Petula Clark My Love (Performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show 11/28/65) 20:25 - 20:36 Petula Clark Downtown 22:01 - 22:34 Bobby Vee Take Good Care Of My Baby 22:36 - 23:14 Harry Nilsson Everybody's Talkin' 24:35 - 25:21 Ricky Nelson Travelin' Man 25:25 - 26:13 Bobby Darin If I Were A Carpenter (Live) 26:35 - 27:11 Frank Sinatra Strangers In The Night (Remastered 2008) 27:24 - 28:10 Frank Sinatra Somethin' Stupid (2011 Digital Remaster) 33:34 - 33:53 The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man (Live at Colden Center Auditorium, Queens, NY - February 1970) 34:01 - 35:06 The Righteous Brothers You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 35:05 - 35:40 Gary Lewis & The Playboys This Diamond Ring (Remastered) 37:04 - 37:45 The 5th Dimension Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) (From the Musical "Hair") 41:41 - 42:19 The Association Never My Love (Remastered Version) 43:07 - 44:33 The Ronettes Be My Baby 44:31 - 46:00 The Crystals He's a Rebel 47:57 - 48:25 The Ventures Hawaii Five-O 48:32 - 49:12 Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass This Guy's In Love With You 50:04 - 50:54 David Cassidy, The Partridge Family I Think I Love You 52:00 - 52:36 Neil Diamond Cracklin' Rosie (Single Version) 54:42 - 55:25 Johnny Rivers Secret Agent Man (From "Secret Agent" CBS TV Show) 57:44 - 58:02 Sam Cooke You Send Me (Lyric Video) 58:34 - 59:10 Richard Harris MacArthur Park 1:00:04 - 1:00:47 Mark Lindsay Arizona 1:00:53 - 1:01:40 Sammy Johns Chevy Van 1:01:44 - 1:02:12 Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds Don't Pull Your Love Out Some of the most famous members of the Wrecking Crew include: Hal Blaine (drums) Carol Kaye (bass) Larry Knechtel (keyboards) Tommy Tedesco (guitar) Glen Campbell (guitar) Leon Russell (keyboards) Earl Palmer (drums) Steve Douglas (saxophone) The Wrecking Crew played on countless hit records, including: "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys "My Way" by Frank Sinatra "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley "Hey Jude" by The Beatles "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel "(They Long to Be) Close to You" by The Carpenters "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra "Downtown" by Petula Clark "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers "Cherish" by The Association #WreckingCrew #studiomusicians #LosAngeles #1960s #1970s #hitrecords #versatility #skill #pop #rock #country #jazz

To Support the Channel: https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar: https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac Or check out my store for merch - www.askzac.comBaz Luhrmann's Elvis movie stars Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, and Presley's timeless music. The unseen star of the music is guitarist JD Simo, who was tasked by Lurhmann and Dave Cobb to replicate the original parts and tones played by Scotty Moore, James Burton, Hank Garland, Reggie Young, and Tommy Tedesco. In today's special collaboration with Truetone, we sit down with Simo, as he tells the tale of how he was asked to take part, and the gear he used to replicate the legendary guitarist's riffs. We also take a look at his soon-to-be-released album Songs From The House Of Grease. Recorded with his trio, the album features his recently acquired Danocaster Singel-Cut, along with an ancient Alamo amp and a venerable 1965 Deluxe Reverb. Simo also shows off his new Xact Tone built pedal board.#askzac #JDSimo #elvisSupport the show

Hi everybody, this is Rick Kern - producer & host of TalkandRockRadio. When I think of great guitar pickers - many names come to mind: Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Tommy Emanuelle. There are so many! The gentleman you are about to see, at age 11 was asked by Chet Atkins to come up on stage and play with him at Her Majesty's Theater in London. Forty one years later he's carved his place as one of the very best in the industry. Welcome, live from the Star City Studios in El Paso, Texas! Our dear friend - Richard Smith!

On this Brent Mason Interview: Brent shares the story behind his move to Nashville, and the alternative misery he would face if he didn't move... working with Chet Atkins, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Glen Campbell, Nancy Sinatra… his favorite music to play, 5 things responsible for his success as a studio musician, strangest (and funniest) sessions he's been on, sacrifices he made to succeed, toughest decision he's had to make, overcoming shyness. VERY COOL convo w one of the most respected players in Nashville's history. Cool Guitar & Music T-Shirts, ELG Merch!: http://www.GuitarMerch.com Brent is one of the most recorded guitarists in history, has played on 1,800 top ten hit singles, and has recorded with Toby Keith, Aaron Lewis, Reba McEntire, Allison Krauss, Darius Rucker, Asleep at the Wheel, Alabama, George Jones, Trace Adkins, Jamey Johnson, Martina McBride, Amy Grant, Brad Paisley, Willie Nelson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Neil Diamond, Marty Stuart and 00's of others  As well as being a Grammy Award winning artist he is also a 14 time winner of the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Guitarist of the Year Award, and a 2 time winner of the CMA Award Musician of the Year (being nominated every year since 1991). He has been named as one of the top ten session guitarists in the world, joining the ranks of Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton, Tommy Tedesco and Steve Cropper.  Brent has played on well over a thousand albums and continues to add to this extensive resume. In October 2019 he was inducted into the Musician's Hall of Fame and in May 2023, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame Nashville Cats Subscribe & Website:  https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe Support this show: http://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Freddie Salem grew up in the Akron Ohio area listening to all styles of music as a kid. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18 with his Gibson Les Paul and five hundred dollars, and 6 months later, having almost given up on the dream of being in the music business, he auditioned for the psychedelic soul band “The Chambers Brothers”, and from that moment on, his multi-decade musical journey began.  After leaving the band, he spent time in the Southern California recording studio system as what he called a “creative session player” in those famous Los Angeles and Hollywood studios, and meeting the legendary Tommy Tedesco from “The Wrecking Crew” along the way, while honing his craft.  While touring with Jesse Colin Young and Roberta Flack, The Outlaws management reached out to Freddie, asking if he'd be interested in meeting the members of the band. A year after that, he joined the band as their 3rd guitarist / vocalist on stage, and in the studio.  Freddie helped shape their sound from 1977 thru 1983, by turning the band from a Country Rock feel, to a hard Southern Rock sound that helped create larger audiences. The band went on to perform and tour with such major acts as The Grateful Dead, Boston, and Black Sabbath, selling over 12 million records in the process.  Freddie, in addition to still performing and recording new music these days, is also working on music scores for such films as Top Gun, Dunkirk, and numerous other film scores. He was inducted into the “Rock Godz Hall of Fame” in 2016. Also joining us in the studio is guest host Al Bowman, founder of the LA Music Awards, and the CEO of Nashville PRG. www.freddie-salem.com © 2023 Lotta Dogs Productions LLC Showrunner and Executive Producer Emeritus: Tom Sabella Producer and Host (the guy who has a face for podcasting): Bob Bender Management Representation: Chuck Thompson for Thompson Entertainment Group, LLC Co-Producer - Audio/Video Editor (the man behind the curtain): Mark Sabella Director of Video and Continuity (the brains of the entire operation): Deborah Halle Marketing and Social Media (all knowing): Sarah Fleshner for 362 Entertainment All Around Problem Solver (and Mental Health Therapist for us): Connie Ribas Recorded inside what could be an old beat up Airstream Trailer located somewhere on what's left of Music Row in Nashville TN (Man we sure do miss Noshville, and the Longhorn Steakhouse) Mixed and Mastered at Music Dog Studios in Nashville, TN Editing and Post at Midnight Express Studio located in Olian, NY Production Sound Design: Keith Stark Voice Over and Promo: Lisa Fuson Special Thanks to the creator and founder of the podcast, Tom Sabella, along with Traci Snow for producing and hosting over 100 episodes of the original "Business Side of Music" podcast and trusting us to carry on their legacy. Website: If you would like to be a guest on the show, please submit a request to: musicpodcast@mail.com If you're interested in becoming a sponsor for the show, let us know and we'll send you a media / sponsorship kit to you. Contact us at musicpodcast@mail.com The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this show provided by the guest(s), are those of the guest(s) own, and do not necessarily represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the host or producers of this podcast. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The Business Side of Music's name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner (Lotta Dogs Productions LLC), and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service. Copyright © 2023 Lotta Dogs Productions, LLC, All rights reserved.  

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tommy Tedesco is probably the most recorded guitarist in history having played on thousands of recordings from the 1960s-1980s (Many of the them top 20 hits). Tommy's son, filmmaker Denny Tedesco, produced The Wrecking Crew, the highly-acclaimed documentary about his father and the other musicians who made up The Wrecking Crew and is here to tell us the story! Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

R&SRNR_174 – “THEY PLAYED ON THE MOST HITS” There's one group of recording artists that played on more hits than anybody else in the history of rock, pop, and country music. It's the Wrecking Crew – an amorphous collection of studio musicians based in Los Angeles from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. They backed countless acts in a wide variety of genres, including rock, pop, folk, and jazz. You heard them supporting such stars as the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Revere & The Raiders, and the Mamas & Papas. Also, the Byrds, the Monkees, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Ike & Tina Turner, and Simon & Garfunkel, among many others. The Wrecking Crew remained mostly anonymous until a 2008 documentary film by Denny Tedesco, the son of the Wrecking Crew's most prolific guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. Now, Denny Tedesco has even more Wrecking Crew history, and he shares it with our resident Rockologist, Ken Deutsch. We'll sample 30 hit selections from the Wrecking Crew's distinguished discography, along with more of the greatest rock and roll stories on record.  Here it all here.

When trying to put together a Deeper Roots episode that covered the great session masters from the past one hundred years it became exceedingly clear that the show would need to be broken up into multiple parts. Percussion, keyboards, brass, bass and all the rest will follow but this week we're going to focus on the string masters; those guitar stars who account for the bulk of Top 30 hits that graced our lives over the second half of the 20th century. They include Hank Garland, Grady Martin, James Burton, Joe Messina, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Johnson and, of course, Tommy Tedesco. There are many others who deserve the recognition but our show is only a two hour show and, even at that, picking only three or four examples per performer doesn't do it justice. We're going to give credit where it's due…those who stood in the shadows.

Hour 1 -- looking for upside in the Republicans lackluster mid-term election performance, looking more likely that Georgia US Senate race will determine control of the US Senate, what the late arriving ballots say about Republican candidates, the continuing saga about ranked choice voting in Seattle and Alaska, GUEST: Yakima ER doctor, Raul Garcia M.D. , tells KVI that conservatives "have to stand up and say 'its not OK'" when schools are closed for COVID and ferries don't run on time because too many WA voters are showing they're accepting these governmental failures, why one party rule doesn't work (and why WA is suffering from this), new gun control law red tape is colliding with under-staffed police and sheriff's offices in Oregon. Hour 2 -- the over-looked musical history (and impressive resume) of guitarist Tommy Tedesco (part of The Wrecking Crew), shooting murder at Seattle high school revives questions about why Seattle cut-off its program for on-campus police officers (SROs), the status of the two 14-year-olds now charged with the shooting murder of a classmate on campus at Ingraham HS, Seattle Ingraham HS teacher makes bizarre gun control post as murderous shooting plays out on campus, KVI's John Carlson is challenged to read a Gov. Jay Inslee press release about why Inslee's attending the latest international climate change conference in Egypt, MSNBC co-host suggests John Fetterman could be Presidential timber and fellow panelist giggles at the suggestion, Hour 3 -- US Senate status as more election returns trickle in and why the Georgia election will likely decide majority control, three things Donald Trump has done this week that are hurting future chances for Republicans, the incomprehensible Trump attack(s) on Ron DeSantis, MSNBC guest complains about Georgia voter suppression as record amount of voters and African-American voters cast their ballots, Seattle's favorite socialist--Kshama Sawant--wants Amazon to pay for free abortions, a KVI caller sparks a longer conversation about Trump's possible negative impact on the 2024 election, the co-founder and guitarist of Alabama passed away at age 73 at home with family by his side (no cause of death given).

You may not know the musician's names, but The Wrecking Crew was a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles in the 1960s who played on hits for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, The Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Herb Alpert and who were Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound." Director Denny Tedesco, son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco, talks to us about these unsung stars who played on so many records that everyone knows by heart. Tune in to hear more about these amazing, funny, and charming men and women who defined rock'n'roll in Los Angeles in the '60s and '70s.

You may not know the musician's names, but The Wrecking Crew was a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles in the 1960s who played on hits for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, The Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Herb Alpert and who were Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound." Director Denny Tedesco, son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco, talks to us about these unsung stars who played on so many records that everyone knows by heart. Tune in to hear more about these amazing, funny, and charming men and women who defined rock'n'roll in Los Angeles in the '60s and '70s.

An unseen star of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie is guitarist JD Simo, who was tasked with replicating the original parts and tones played by Scotty Moore, James Burton, Hank Garland, Reggie Young, and Tommy Tedesco. In today's special collaboration with Ask Zac, we sit down with Simo, as he tells the tale of how he was asked to take part, and the gear he used to replicate the legendary guitarist's riffs. We also take a look at his soon-to-be-released album Songs From The House Of Grease. Recorded with his trio, the album features his recently acquired Danocaster Singel-Cut, along with an ancient Alamo amp and a venerable 1965 Deluxe Reverb. Simo also shows off his new Xact Tone Solutions built pedal board.

WUCF's July artist for ‘In the Key of Latin Jazz' is Juan Carlos Quintero. Born in Colombia, his music is heavily influenced by the rhythms of his home country. He picked the guitar because it was “cool” and it ended up being the entry to social life. In LA he set out to get a record deal – and by taking bold action because of not knowing – he was able to find success after just a year and a half. While at Berklee, Tommy Tedesco sat in on one of Quintero's guitar lessons and from there took him under his wing. From studying with George Russell to playing with Poncho Sanchez and Gato Barbieri to then making his own records – Quintero has built a career that spans decades.

Unser wöchentlicher Podcast mit Persönlichkeiten aus allen Lebensbereichen, die über ihren Alltag und ihre Musik-Leidenschaft sprechen. Folge 36: Wolfgang Frömberg im Gespräch mit dem Jazz Musiker Bruno Müller, Gitarren Virtuose und Stammgast im King Georg. In der Tradition amerikanischer Live- und Sessionmusiker wie Tommy Tedesco oder Lee Ritenour und inspiriert durch Künstler wie George Benson, Robben Ford, Eric Gale und Johnny Guitar Watson gilt Bruno Müller als einer der etabliertesten Gitarristen in Europa. Das Hauptmerkmal seiner musikalischen Persönlichkeit? Ganz klar sein filigranes Handwerk gepaart mit stilistischer Flexibilität zwischen Pop, Soul, Funk und Jazz. Vor allem aber: sein atemberaubender Groove.

My guest was my dear friend Denny Tedesco, Director of the award winning documentary, "The Wrecking Crew" and son of legendary studio/Wrecking Crew guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. Denny and I discussed "The Wrecking Crew" his dad, Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, and more. We also discussed his latest documentary, "The Immediate Family." 

The History of Rock N Roll  Part VIII - Echo Chamber: Phil Spector's Wall of Sound This week, Mr. Chavez & I continue our exploration of The History of Rock N Roll with a look at one of the most important production figures in the History of Modern Music - Phil Spector. Of course we look at the salacious and tabloid  driven end of Spector's life, but the two of us are far more interested in the revolutionary producing skills of the Bronx born former teen pop star. In order to cover this topic properly we look at David Mamet's HBO produced 2013 docudrama - Phil Spector, as well as the BBC produced, Vikram Jayanti directed, Phil Spector: the agony and the ecstasy (2008). We finish the episode with a great documentary profiling The West Coast/Wall of Sound production that would lay a powerful and transformative foundation to popular music, Danny Tedesco's The Wrecking Crew (2008). This is a touching and enlightening film that introduces audiences to so many of the great session players of the 1960s, including: Tommy Tedesco, Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Glenn Campbell, Plas Johnson, and Carol Kaye, to name just a few. Take a listen - it's a fun and interesting conversation. Questions, Comments, Complaints, & Suggestions can be directed to gondoramos@yahoo.com. As Always, Many Thanks.

It was a long time coming! After meeting Denny Tedesco at NAMM two years ago, having seen his unforgettable, moving, stellar film, The Wrecking Crew, I jumped. Scheduled BC (Before COVID), at long last, here we finally were. Denny had completed most of the interviews (Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt to name but a few icons weighing in on The Section (Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkle, Waddy Wachtel, and Danny Kortchmar), for his upcoming doc on thier The Immediate Family (with relative youngin' Steve Postel), as a sort of followup to his doc, The Wrecking Crew, when we met. He was heading to Sundance just before the pandemic hit. Undeterred by the inerminable shut down, Denny's managing to complete the film, getting a masterfully produced iPhone self tape from Keith Richards, remote interviews with Stevie Nicks and Lyle Lovett, and sitting down, with caution and testing with the boys, themselves. How I can't wait to see it! This collective has played on most of the soundtrack of my life. And I kinda love them all as musicans and peoples. Denny discussed at length his father, famed session guitarist Tommy Tedesco, where he came from, and how he came to be perhaps the most recorded guitarist, ever. We did a deep dive into The Wrecking Crew, and why, when Tommy was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Denny quickly started filming his father, and the rest of the Crew. Sweet side bar for me, Tommy was the guitarist with Happy Kyne And The Mirthmakers on Fernwood 2Night, at the top of my must see TV back in the day. Here, a taste of Tommy Tedesco as Tommy Marranuchi https://bit.ly/3GtPt9N ❤️ We talked about Denny starting out not as a musicain, but as a set director on the film Eating Raoul, producing at Comedy Channel and the 2000 Academy Awards with Billy Crystal and his current producing gig, the 2nd season of Hanging With Doctor Z, featuring Dana Gould, as Dr. Z, who interviews Jeff Garlin, Dave Foley, Bobcat Goldthwait, Patton Oswalt, Steven Webber, Will Forte, Penn Jillett, Maria Emily Bamford, Al Yankovic, Paget Brewster, Hank Azaria, to name some. Denny gave a sneak peek into his next doc, something completely different… ponzi scam, anyone? Warm, fun, and easy, with fabulous tales from the front and back, Denny was a total joy after a particulary rough day. This is gonna be my happy revisit for a long to come. Just thinking about it makes me smile. Broadly. Denny Tedesco Live on Changers with Vicki Abelson Wed, 10/27/21/, 5 pm PT, 8 pm ET Streamed Live on my Facebook Replay here: https://bit.ly/3jFQlOD All BROADcasts, as podcasts, also available on iTunes apple.co/2dj8ld3 Stitcher bit.ly/2h3R1fla tunein bit.ly/2gGeItj Also on iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, Voox, OwlTail, Backtracks, PlayerFM, Himalaya, Podchaser, and Listen Notes Thanks to Rick Smolke of Quik Impressions, the best printers, printing, the best people people-ing. quikimpressions.com Nicole Venables of Ruby Begonia Hair Studio Beauty and Products, for the best dressed. http://www.rubybegoniahairstudio.com/ Blue Microphones and Kevin Walt

Tommy Tedesco was the driving force behind The Wrecking Crew, a loose collective of session musicians based in Los Angeles whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits. John and Heyang welcome Denny Tedesco, who memorializes his father and many of the other musicians in a documentary that took years and serious financial resources to create. Denny talks about the behind-the-scenes making of the movie, and John gets to play DJ again, dropping the needle on some of the songs that hit the top of the charts, due to the backing of these incredible musicians. "The Lonely Bull," "The Beat Goes On," and "Don't Pull Your Love" are included in the playlist.

Denny Tedesco’s long awaited and much heralded film The Wrecking Crew tells the story of his father Tommy Tedesco and all of the unsung studio musicians who created the soundtrack of the sixties. Denny’s next movie, The Immediate Family will document the great players who backed the 70’s singer songwriters like Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. Denny joins us to share his filmmaking story. Plus Fritz and Weezy recommend The Sound of Metal, Biggie: I Gotta Story To Tell, I Care A Lot and Murder Among The Mormons.

Episode 29 Sitars and Synthesizers   Playlist Vincent Bell With Orchestra, “Quiet Village,” from Pop Goes The Electric Sitar (1967 Decca). The Coral Electric Sitar with chorus and orchestra. Coral electric sitar, Vinnie Bell (its inventor). AKA Vincent Gambella, a popular session player, primarily on guitar. Big Jim Sullivan, “Flower Power,” from Sitar Beat (1967 Mercury). Sitar and electric guitar, Jim Sullivan. Ultimate Spinach, “Your Head is Reeling,” from Ultimate Spinach (1968 MGM). Vocals, Lead Guitar, Guitar Feedback, Sitar [Electric], Geoffrey Winthrop. A very brief introduction to this longer track, featuring the Coral Electric Sitar. Enoch Light And The Light Brigade, “Marrakesh Express,” from ‎Permissive Polyphonics (1970 Project 3 Total Sound). Coral Electric Sitar, Vinnie Bell; Moog Modular Synthesizer, Dick Hyman; Electric Alto Sax, Arnie Lawrence; Bass, Julie Ruggiero; Drums, Billy LaVorgna. Ami Dang, “Conch and Crow” from Parted Plains (2019 Leaving Records). Sitar, electronics, audio processing, voice, Ami Dang. Ami Dang, “Souterrain” from Parted Plains (2019 Leaving Records). Sitar, electronics, audio processing, voice, Ami Dang. Ami Dang, “Simplicity Mind Tool” from Meditations Mixtape Vol.1 (2020 Leaving Records). Sitar, electronics, audio processing, voice, Ami Dang. Ananda Shankar, “Dance Indra,” from Ananda Shankar (1970 Reprise). Ananda Shankar is not related to Ravi Shankar, the great classical Indian sitar master. Sitar, Ananda Shankar; Keyboards, Moog Modular Synthesizer, Paul Lewinson; Tabla, Pranish Khan; Drums, Joe Pollard, Michael Botts; Bass, Jerry Scheff, Mark Tulin; Guitar, Dick Rosmini, Drake Levin. Trivia, produced by James Lowe and included Mark Tulin on bass, both members of the Electric Prunes from the late Sixties. Paul Lewison was playing a Moog owned by producer Alex Hassilev. Shankar wanted to combine Western and Indian music into a “new form” as he called it. Melodious, touching, combining modern electronics and traditional sitar. I think he succeeded. I have included two striking examples that stray a bit from the pop rock flavor of many of the tracks. Ananda Shankar, “Raghupati,” from Ananda Shankar (1970 Reprise). Sitar, Ananda Shankar; Keyboards, Moog Modular Synthesizer, Paul Lewinson; Tabla, Pranish Khan; Drums, Joe Pollard, Michael Botts; Bass, Jerry Scheff, Mark Tulin; Guitar, Dick Rosmini, Drake Levin. Okko Bekker, “East Indian Traffic,” Sitar & Electronics (1970 BASF). Sitar, Moog Modular Synthesizer, Tabla, Okko Bekker; Moog Modular Synthesizer, Simon Alcott (alias of British pop pianist Les Humphries); Flute, Herb Geller; Guitar, Peter Haesslein. Bekker is a Dutch sitarist, keyboardist, and producer. Indian influenced psychedelic music from the days of the Moog Modular, recorded in Germany. This came several years after the Beatles and Stones experimented with the sitar but was an early album to combine the sitar with a Moog modular synthesizer. I have no idea where he learned sitar but I do know whose Moog he used for this recording. The producer Simon Alcott had purchased some Moog modular units in 1970. Alcott is also the alias of Les Humphries. Most of the album consists of cover tunes of rock songs, such as The Beatles. I chose one of bolder Moog tunes. Okko Bekker, “Delphin, Makarasana,” from Yoga Für Millionen (1978? Maritim). A German album of yoga instruction with musical soloist Bekker playing Sitar, Tabla, Moog Synthesizer, Flute, and Percussion. The narrator is Ulrich Brockmann. Amon Duul II, “Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Strasse” from Wolf City (1972 United Artists). Bass, Lothar Meid; Drums, D. Secundus Fichelscher; Electric Guitar, John Weinzieri; Sitar, Al Sri Al Gromer; Tabla, Pandit Shankar; Tambura, Liz van Neienhoff; Organ, Synthesizer, Falk-U Rogner; Soprano Saxophone, Olaf Kübler; Timpani, Peter Leopold; Violin, Chris Karrer Paul Heyda. Yves Hayat, “Path to Ascension” from Conversation Between the East and The West (1976 DeWolfe). Composer, sitar, guitars, bass, synthesizers, Yves Hayat; keyboards, vocals, Diane Crisanti. Produced as a record for broadcast libraries. Cosmology, “Out of the Kiva,” from Cosmology (1977 Vanguard). Sitar, congas, percussion, Collin Walcott; Vocals, Percussion; Dawn Thompson; Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Rick Kilburn; Drums, Bells, Bob Jospé; Fender Rhodes, Piano, Oberheim Synthesizer, Armen Donelian; Trombone, Dave Glenn; Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Tin Whistle, Mayan Flute, Flageolet, John D'earth. Clearlight, “Full Moon Raga,” from Visions (1978 Polydor). Bass, Philippe Melkonian; Grand Piano, ARP Odyssey, Gong, Cyrille Verdeaux; Sitar, Patrick Depaumanou; Minimoog, Luc Plouton; Tabla, Mohamed Taha; Drums, Percussion, Jacky Bouladoux; Electric Guitar, Bottleneck Cosmique, Christian Boule; Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Didier Malherbe; Violin, Bass Violin, Didier Lockwood; Vocals, Gérard Aumont, Gérard Gustin. The fourth album from this French progressive rock group headed by Cyrille Verdeaux on keyboards and ARP Odyssey. I have two recordings of this album. The original from 1978 had much less synthesizer. In 1992 they remixed the LP and added more synthesizer and vocals to the tracks. We are hearing the remixed version. Electric Universe and Sitarsonic, “Dub Stanza” from Dub Stanza (2020 Sacred Technology). Electric Universe is an ambient electronic musician who teamed up with sitarist and electronic musician Sitarsonic (Paco Rodriguez) to produce this dub-flavored work. Paco is from Greece. Electric Universe is in Belgium. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO, “Ziggy Sitar Dust Raga,” from Ziggy Sitar Dust Raga (2003 Important Records). Vocals, Sitar, Cotton Casino; Tambura, Kawabata Makoto; Synthesizer, Higashi Hiroshi; Vocals, Tsuyama Atsushi. A psychedelic, trance-inducing treat from this inventive group of Japanese improvisers.       Thanks to Ami Dang for helping me with this episode. You can explore releases of her music as well as check out her podcast at her website. Track played during the opening: The Folkswingers Featuring Harihar Rao ‎, “Paint it Black,” Sitar Beat (1966 Fontana). Sitar, Harihar Rao; Organ, Electric Piano, Larry Knechtel; Bass, Bill Pittman; Fender Bass, Lyle Ritz; Drums, Hal Blaine; 12-string Electric Guitar, Dennis Budimir; Guitar, Herb Ellis, Howard Roberts, Tommy Tedesco.   Track played during the opening: Lord Sitar, “I Am the Walrus,” from Lord Sitar (1968 Columbia). Sitar, Big Jim Sullivan. Track played behind the Ami Dang interview: Ami Dang, “Ajooni” from Meditations Mixtape Vol.1 (2020 Leaving Records). Also from Thom Holmes: My Book: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. My Blog: Noise and Notations.

It was a real pleasure to chat with Denny....his Dad and Mom inspired and taught me a lot through my interactions with them both at music school in California. So, when I had a chance to chat with Tommy's son Denny about the wonderful film - 'The Wrecking Crew' I couldn't wait to hear about some of the interesting history behind how the film came to life as well as some insight into Denny's own cinematic career. Listen in as Denny explains why his film about a legendary group of studio musicians took nearly 20 years to make. His film is all about the legendary group of 1960s Los Angeles session musicians who played on everything from Phil Spector classics and "Good Vibrations" to commercial jingles, Denny explains why the name The Wrecking Crew? Back in those early studio days of the 60s turning up for work in a Hawaiian shirt was not the done thing! Far to casual for the establishment - who  believed that this group of session musicians would 'wreck' the industry by dressing in a casual manner! The movie, started in 1996 with a roundtable conversation featuring his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco (who died in 1997), bassist Carol Kaye,  drummer Hal Blaine and saxophonist Plas Johnson. The film premiered in 2008, starting in film festival and you can currently watch it on Amazon Prime. Denny goes onto explain the  daunting task of clearing 110 songs with 90 plus of them being top 40 hits.  Imagine paying dozens of musicians, publishers and labels residual royalties for their music to be included in the documentary! Denny never gave up and pitched the documentary to many people, he raised enough money to pay 297 session musicians whose names were on contracts for the songs used in the documentary film.  Denny still remains as dedicated as he did in 1996 to telling this very important story about 'The Wrecking Crew' and their invaluable contribution to the music industry told through this insightful and extremely enjoyable documentary film.  We've only really scratched the surface of Denny Tedesco and his own cinematic career - his time at IMAX and his latest documentary in production - 'The Immediate Family', and much, much more...To find out more about Denny Tedesco and connect follow the links below. 'The Wrecking Crew' documentary film on Amazon Denny Tedesco IMBD   A Big thanks to our friends at #AudioGeer and the team @shure for their awesome support! #Shure #MV7 #podcast mic! Please check out our Music Matters podcast on @spotifypodcasts Hey, also check out the New Music Matters Podcast Website- and Music Matters SWAG And a Big Shout and thanks for the support of the following: Rodney Hall FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama Shure microphones Affliction clothing  and Nigel J. my co-producer and voice over talent, all while running - Music Tribes Unite Media for our Podcast - Productions - Please, support, LIKE and helps us grow - check out our Social Media pages:         

  Episode 110 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Be My Baby”, and at the career of the Ronettes and Ronnie Spector.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Little Saint Nick” by the Beach Boys. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Erratum I say Ray Peterson’s version of “Tell Laura I Love Her” was an American number one. It wasn’t — it only made number seven.   Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara Miniskirts and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette by Ronnie Spector and Vince Waldron is Ronnie’s autobiography and was the main source. Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson is a good overview of the Brill Building scene, and provided me with the information on Barry and Greenwich. I’ve referred to two biographies of Spector in this episode, Phil Spector: Out of His Head by Richard Williams and He’s a Rebel by Mark Ribkowsky. And information on the Wrecking Crew largely comes from The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. There are many compilations available with some of the hits Spector produced, but I recommend getting Back to Mono, a four-CD overview of his career containing all the major singles put out by Philles. If you want something just covering Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes, The Very Best of Ronnie Spector  covers all the Ronettes hits and the best of her solo career. And the AFM contract listing the musicians on “Be My Baby” can be found here.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today we’re going to take a look at the record that, more than anything, ensured Phil Spector’s place in popular music history — a record that changed the lives of several people who heard it for the better, and changed the life of its singer for the worse, and one which has the most imitated drum intro in the world. We’re going to look at “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”] Before I start this one, two things need saying. The first is that this episode, by necessity, deals with spousal abuse. As always, I will try to discuss the issue with sensitivity, and touch on it as briefly as possible, but if you worry that it might upset you, please either skip this episode, or read the transcript to see if you’ll be OK listening to it. I imagine that very few people will be upset by anything I say here, but it’s always a possibility. And secondly, I’d like to apologise for this episode being so late. I had a major disruption in my personal life over Christmas — one of those really bad life events that only happens once or twice in most people’s lifetimes — and that made it impossible for me to get any work done at all for the last couple of weeks. I’m now able to work again, and this should not be anything that affects the podcast for the rest of the year. Anyway, enough about that, let’s get on with the story. The story of the Ronettes begins when Ronnie Bennett, a mixed-race girl from Harlem, became obsessed with the sound of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers: [Excerpt: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”] Ronnie became the Teenagers’ biggest fan, and even managed to arrange a meeting between herself and Lymon when they were both thirteen, but had her illusions torn away when he turned up drunk and made a pass at her. But that didn’t stop her from trying her best to imitate Lymon’s vocals, and forming a vocal group with several friends and relatives. That group had a male lead singer, but when they made their first appearance on one of the Harlem Apollo’s talent shows, the lead singer got stage fright and couldn’t start singing when he got on stage. Ronnie stepped forward and took over the lead vocal, and the group went down well enough even with the Apollo’s notoriously hostile audience that a smaller group of them decided to start performing regularly together. The group took the name Ronnie and the Relatives, and consisted of Ronnie, her sister Estelle, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They originally only performed at private parties, bar mitzvahs and the like, but they soon reached the attention of Stu Phillips at Colpix Records, a label owned by the film studio Columbia Pictures. The first single by Ronnie and the Relatives was not a success — “I Want a Boy” came out in August 1961 and didn’t chart: [Excerpt: Ronnie and the Relatives, “I Want a Boy”] And nor did their second, “I’m Gonna Quit While I’m Ahead”: [Excerpt: Ronnie and the Relatives, “I’m Gonna Quit While I’m Ahead”] Those records did apparently sell to at least one person, though, as when Ronnie met President Clinton in 1997, he asked her to sign a record, and specifically got her to sign an album of those early recordings for Colpix. While the girls were not having any commercial success, they did manage to accidentally get themselves a regular gig at the most important nightclub in New York. They went to the Peppermint Lounge, just as the Twist craze was at its height, and as they were underage they dressed up especially well in order to make themselves look more grown up so they could get in. Their ruse worked better than they expected. As they were all dressed the same, the club’s manager assumed they were the dancers he’d booked, who hadn’t shown up. He came out and told them to get on stage and start dancing, and so of course they did what he said, and started dancing to the Twist sounds of Joey Dee and the Starliters: [Excerpt: Joey Dee and the Starliters, “The Peppermint Twist”] The girls’ dancing went down well, and then the band started playing “What’d I Say?”, a favourite song of Ronnie’s and one the group did in their own act, and Ronnie danced over to David Brigati, who was singing lead on the song, and started dancing close to him. He handed her the mic as a joke, and she took over the song. They got a regular spot at the Peppermint Lounge, dancing behind the Starliters for their whole show and joining them on vocals for a few numbers every night. Inspired by the Bobbettes and the Marvelettes, Ronnie and Estelle’s mother suggested changing the group’s name. She suggested “the Rondettes”, and they dropped the “d”, becoming the Ronettes. The singles they released on ColPix under the new name did no better than the others, but they were such an important part of the Peppermint Lounge that when the Lounge’s owners opened a second venue in Florida, the girls went down there with the Starliters and were part of the show.  That trip to Florida gave them two very different experiences. The first was that they got to see segregation firsthand for the first time, and they didn’t like it — especially when they, as light-skinned mixed-race women, were read as tanned white women and served in restaurants which then refused to serve their darker-skinned mothers. But the second was far more positive. They met Murray the K, who since Alan Freed had been driven out of his job had become the most popular DJ in New York. Murray was down in Florida for a holiday, and was impressed enough by the girls’ dancing that he told them if they were ever in New York and wanted a spot on one of his regular shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre they should let him know. They replied that they lived in New York and went to those shows all the time — of course they wanted to perform on his shows. They became regular performers at the Brooklyn Fox, where they danced between the other, bigger, acts, sang backing vocals, did a song or two themselves, and took part in comedy sketches with Murray. It was at these shows, as well, that they developed the look they would become famous with — huge hair piled up on top of their heads, tons of mascara, and tight skirts slit to show their legs. It was a style inspired by street fashion rather than by what the other girl groups were wearing, and it made them incredibly popular with the Fox audience. But the Ronettes, even under their new name, and even with the backing of New York’s most prominent DJ, were still not selling any records. They knew they were good, and the reaction to their stage performances proved as much, so they decided that the problem must be with Colpix. And so in 1963 they made a New Year’s resolution — they were going to get Phil Spector to produce them.  By this time, Spector was becoming very well known in the music industry as a hit maker. We already saw in the recent episode on the Crystals how he was making hits for that group and the Blossoms, but he was also making hits with studio groups like Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, who he took into the top ten with a remake of the old Disney song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”: [Excerpt: Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”] and as well as the records he was putting out on Philles, he was also working as a freelance producer for people like Connie Francis, producing her top ten hit “Second-Hand Love”: [Excerpt: Connie Francis, “Second-Hand Love”] So the Ronettes were convinced that he could make them into the stars they knew they had the potential to be. The group had no idea how to get in touch with Spector, so they tried the direct route — Estelle called directory enquiries, got the number for Philles Records, and called and asked to be put through to Spector. She was as astonished as anyone when he agreed to talk to her — and it turned out that he’d seen the group regularly at the Brooklyn Fox and was interested in working with them.  At their audition for Spector, the group first performed a close-harmony version of “When the Red Red Robin Goes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along”, which they’d been taught by their singing teacher. Spector told them that he wanted to hear what they did when they were singing for themselves, not for a teacher, and so Ronnie launched into “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”  It only took her getting to the second line of the song before Spector yelled at her to stop — “THAT is the voice I’ve been looking for!” The Ronettes’ first recordings for Spector weren’t actually issued as by the Ronettes at all. To start with, he had them record a version of a song by the writing team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, “Why Don’t They Let Us Fall In Love?”, but didn’t release it at the time. It was later released as by “Veronica”, the name under which he released solo records by Ronnie: [Excerpt: Veronica, “Why Don’t They Let Us Fall In Love?”] But at the time, when Ronnie asked him when the record was coming out, Spector answered “Never”. He explained to her that it was a good record, but it wasn’t a number one, and he was still working on their first number one record. Their next few recordings were covers of then-current dance hits, like “The Twist”: [Excerpt, “The Crystals”, “The Twist”] And “The Wah-Watusi”, one of the few times that one of the other Ronettes took the lead rather than Ronnie, as Nedra sang lead: [Excerpt, “The Crystals”, “The Wah-Watusi”] But these, and two other tracks, were released as album tracks on a Crystals album, credited to the Crystals rather than the Ronettes. The song that eventually became the group’s first hit, “Be My Baby”, was mostly written by one of the many husband-and-wife songwriting teams that had developed at the Brill Building, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Barry had started out as a performer who occasionally wrote, putting out records like “It’s Called Rock and Roll”: [Excerpt: Jeff Barry, “It’s Called Rock and Roll”] But while his performing career had gone nowhere, he’d started to have some success as a songwriter, writing “Teenage Sonata” for Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “Teenage Sonata”] And “Tell Laura I Love Her”, which was recorded by several people, but the biggest hit version was the American number one by Ray Peterson: [Excerpt: Ray Peterson, “Tell Laura I Love Her”] Ellie Greenwich had also started as a performer, recording “Silly Isn’t It?” under the name Ellie Gaye: [Excerpt: Ellie Gaye, “Silly, Isn’t It?”] She’d become one of the most important demo singers in New York, and had also started writing songs. She’d first collaborated with Doc Pomus, cowriting songs like “This is It”, which had been a flop single for Jay and the Americans: [Excerpt: Jay and the Americans, “This is It”] She’d then been taken on by Trio Music, Leiber and Stoller’s company, where she had largely collaborated with another writer named Tony Powers. Trio had first refusal on anything the two of them wrote, and if Leiber and Stoller didn’t like it, they could take the song elsewhere. Greenwich and Powers had their biggest successes with songs that Leiber and Stoller rejected, which they sold to Aaron Schroeder. And they’d started up a collaboration with Phil Spector — although Spector and Greenwich’s first meeting had not exactly gone smoothly. He’d gone into her office to hear her play a song that she thought would be suitable for the Paris Sisters, but had kept wandering out of the office, and had kept looking at himself in a mirror and primping himself rather than listen to her song. Eventually she said to him  “Listen to me, you little prick. Did you come to look at yourself or to hear my songs?”, and she didn’t make that sale. But later on, Spector became interested in a song she’d sold to Schroeder, and made an appointment to meet her and talk about her writing some stuff for him — that second meeting, which Spector didn’t realise was with someone he’d already made a bad impression on, Spector turned up four hours late.  But despite that, Greenwich and Powers wrote several songs for Spector, who was also given songwriting credit, and which became big hits in versions he produced — “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry”, a single by Darlene Love: [Excerpt: Darlene Love, “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry”] And “Why Do Lovers Break Each Others’ Hearts?”, released as by Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, but with Love once again on lead vocals: [Excerpt: Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, “Why Do Lovers Break Each Others’ Hearts?”] I say that Spector was also given songwriting credit on those records, because there is some debate about how much he contributed to the songs he’s credited on. Some of his co-writers have said that he would often only change a word or a phrase, and get himself cut in on an already-completed song, while others have said that he contributed a reasonable amount to the songwriting, though he was never the primary writer — for example Barry Mann has said that Spector came up with the middle section for “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”. I tend towards the belief that Spector’s contribution to the writing on those songs he’s co-credited on was minimal — in his whole career, the number of songs he wrote on his own seems to be in the single figures, while those other writers wrote dozens of hit records without any contribution from Spector — and so when I talk about records he produced I’ll tend to use phrasing like “a Goffin and King song co-credited to Phil Spector” rather than “a song by Goffin, King, and Spector”, but I don’t want that to give the impression that I’m certain Spector made no contribution.  But while Greenwich and Powers were a mildly successful team, their partnership ended when Greenwich met Jeff Barry at a family Thanksgiving dinner — Greenwich’s uncle was Barry’s cousin. As Greenwich later put it, when they started talking together about music and realised how much they had in common, “I went ‘ooh’, he went ‘mmmhh’, and his wife went ‘I don’t think I like this'”. Soon their previous partnerships, both romantic and musical, were over, and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich became the third of the great Brill Building husband-and-wife songwriting teams.  Where Goffin and King had a sophisticated edge to their writing, with a hint of sexual subversion and the mingling of pain and pleasure, and Mann and Weill tried to incorporate social comment into their songs, Barry and Greenwich were happy to be silly — they were writing songs like “Hanky Panky”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”,  and “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy”: [Excerpt: Ellie Greenwich “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy (demo)”] This worked extremely well for them, to the extent that after they broke up a few years later, Barry would continue this formula with songs such as “Sugar Sugar”, “Jingle Jangle” and “Bang Shang A Lang”. Barry and Greenwich’s style was to jam in as many hooks as possible, maybe put in a joke or two, keep the lyrics simple, and get out in two minutes. Very few of their songs were masterpieces of songwriting, but they *were* absolutely perfect templates for masterpieces of production. It sounds like I’m damning them with faint praise, but I’m really not. There is a huge skill involved in what they were doing — if you’re writing some heartwrenching masterpiece about the human condition, people will forgive the odd lapse in craft, but if you’re writing “My baby does the hanky panky”, there’s no margin for error, and you’re not going to get forgiven if you mess it up.  Barry and Greenwich were good enough at this that they became the go-to writers for Spector for the next couple of years. He would record songs by most of the Brill Building teams, but when you think of the classic records Spector produced, they’re far more likely than not to be Barry and Greenwich songs — of the twenty-seven Philles singles released after Barry and Greenwich started writing together, fourteen are credited to Barry/Greenwich/Spector, and other than the joke release “Let’s Dance the Screw”, which we talked about back in the episode on the Crystals, there’s a run of eleven singles released on the label between late 1962 and early 1964 which are credited either as Greenwich/Powers/Spector or Barry/Greenwich/Spector. And so it was naturally to Barry and Greenwich that Spector turned to write the first big hit for the Ronettes — and he let Ronnie hear the writing session. By this time, Spector had become romantically involved with Ronnie, and he invited her into his apartment to sit in the next room and listen to them working on the song — usually they got together in hotels rather than at Spector’s home. While she was there, she found several pairs of women’s shoes — Spector hadn’t told her he was married, and claimed to her when she asked that they belonged to his sister. This should probably have been a sign of things to come. Assuming that Spector did contribute to the writing, I think it’s easy to tell what he brought to “Be My Baby”. If you listen to that Connie Francis record I excerpted earlier, on which Spector is also a credited co-writer, the melody line for the line “that you don’t feel the same” leading into the chorus: [Excerpt: Connie Francis, “Second-Hand Love”] is identical to the melody line leading into the chorus of “Be My Baby”: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”] So that transition between the verse and the chorus is likely his work. After rehearsing Ronnie for several weeks in New York, Spector flew her out to LA to make the record in Gold Star Studios, where she spent three days recording the lead vocals. The backing vocals weren’t provided by the other Ronettes, but rather by the Blossoms, with a few extra singers — notably Spector’s assistant Sonny Bono, and his new girlfriend Cher — but what really made the track was not the vocals — although the song was perfect for Ronnie — but Hal Blaine’s drum intro: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”] That intro was utterly simple — Blaine was always a minimalist player, someone who would play for the song rather than play fussy fills — but that simple part, combined with the powerful sound that the engineer Larry Levine got, was enough to make it one of the most memorable intros in rock music history. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys talks to this day about how he had to pull over to the side of the road when he first heard it on his car radio, and he would listen to the record incessantly for hours at a time. Incidentally, since I’m talking about the musicians, a lot of sources credit Carol Kaye for playing the bass on this track, so I’m going to say something once, here, which should be taken as read whenever I’m talking about records made in LA in the sixties — Carol Kaye is not only an unreliable source about what records she played on, she is an utterly dishonest one. For those who don’t know, Ms. Kaye was one of the great bass players of the sixties, and also one of the better session guitarists. She played on hundreds of records in the sixties, including many, many, classics from the Beach Boys, Spector, Frank Zappa, and others, and she was the only woman getting regular session work in LA on a rock instrument — there may have been session orchestral musicians who were women, but when it comes to guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, sax, and so on, she was the only one. For that, she deserves a huge amount of credit. Unfortunately, she has never been happy only being credited for the records she actually played on, and insists she played on many, many, more. Some of this can be reasonably put down to lapses in memory more than fifty years later — if you’re playing two or three sessions a day, and you play on a bunch of Beach Boys records, then it’s easy enough to misremember having played on “Surfin’ USA” when maybe you played on a similar-sounding record, and there are things like her claiming to have played on “Good Vibrations”, where there were multiple sessions for that track, and it happened that the takes eventually used weren’t the ones where she was playing bass, but she had no way of knowing that. That’s completely forgivable. But Ms. Kaye also claims, with no evidence whatsoever on her side and a great deal of evidence against her, to have been responsible for playing almost the entire recorded works of James Jamerson, Motown’s main bass player, claiming tapes were secretly shipped from Detroit to LA — something that has been denied by every single person working at Motown, and which can be easily disproved just by listening to the tapes. She claims to have played the bass on “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees — a track recorded in New York, by New York musicians. And whenever anyone points out the falsehoods, rather than saying “I may have made a mistake” she hurls abuse at them, and in some cases libels them on her website. So, Carol Kaye did not play on this record, and we know that because we have the AFM session sheets, which show that the bass players on the track were Ray Pohlman and Jimmy Bond. I’ll link a PDF of that sheet in the show notes. So in future, when I mention someone other than Carol Kaye playing on a song, and Wikipedia or somewhere says she played on it, bear this in mind. Two people who did play on the record were Bill Pitman and Tommy Tedesco, and this is why the B-side, an instrumental, is named “Tedesco and Pitman”. Spector was enough of a control freak that he didn’t want DJs ever to play the wrong side of his singles, so he stuck instrumental jam sessions by the studio musicians — with the songwriting credited to him rather than to them — on the B-sides. I don’t know about you, but I actually quite like “Tedesco and Pitman”, but then I’ve always had a soft spot for the vibraphone: [Excerpt: “The Ronettes” (The Wrecking Crew), Tedesco and Pitman”] “Be My Baby” was a massive hit — it went to number one on the Cashbox chart, though only number two on the Billboard chart, and sold millions of copies. The group were invited on to Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour, but Spector wanted Ronnie to be in California to record the follow-up, so the girls’ cousin Elaine filled in for her for the first couple of weeks of the tour, while Ronnie recorded another Barry, Greenwich and Spector song, “Baby I Love You”: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “Baby I Love You”] Ronnie didn’t realise it at the time, but Spector was trying to isolate her from the other group members, and from her family. But at first this seemed to her like a sensible way of solving the problem, and she rejoined the tour after the record was made. Soon after this, the group travelled to the UK for a brief tour in early 1964, during which they became friendly with the Beatles — Ronnie had a brief chaste flirtation with John Lennon, and Estelle something a little more with George Harrison. They also got to know their support act on the tour, the Rolling Stones — at least once Ronnie had had a row with Andrew Loog Oldham, as Spector had sent a telegram forbidding the Rolling Stones from spending time with the Ronettes. Once Ronnie pointed out that they were there and Spector wasn’t, the two groups became very friendly — and more than friendly, if Keith Richards’ autobiography is to be believed. On their return to the US, they continued having hits through 1964 — nothing was as big as “Be My Baby”, but they had three more top forty hits that year, with two mediocre records, “The Best Part of Breaking Up” and “Do I Love You?”, co-written by the team of Pete Andreoli and Vini Poncia, and then a return to form with the magnificent “Walking in the Rain”, written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill: [Excerpt: The Ronettes Featuring Veronica, “Walking in the Rain”] But Spector was becoming more and more erratic in his personal life, and more and more controlling. I won’t go into too many details here, because we’re going to see a lot more of Phil Spector over the next year or so, but he recorded many great records with the Ronettes which he refused to release, claiming they weren’t quite right — Ronnie has later realised that he was probably trying to sabotage their career so he could have her all to himself, though at the time she didn’t know that. Neither of the two singles they did release in 1965 made the top fifty, and the one single they released in 1966, a return to songs by Barry and Greenwich, only made number one hundred, for one week: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “I Can Hear Music”] Also in 1966, the Ronettes were invited by the Beatles to be their support act on their last ever tour, but once again Spector insisted that Ronnie couldn’t go, because she needed to be in the studio, so Elaine substituted for her again, much to the Beatles’ disappointment. Nothing from the studio sessions during that tour was released. The group broke up in 1967, and the next year Ronnie married Phil Spector, who became ever more controlling and abusive. I won’t go into details of the way he treated her, which you can read all about in her autobiography, but suffice to say that I was completely unsurprised when he murdered a woman in 2003. You’ll probably get some idea of his behaviours when I talk about him in future episodes, but what Ronnie suffered in the years they were together was something no-one should have to go through. By the time she managed to leave him, in June 1972, she had only released one track in years, a song that George Harrison had written for her called “Try Some, Buy Some”, which Spector had recorded with her at Harrison’s insistence, during a period when Spector was working with several of the ex-Beatles and trying to rebuild his own career on the back of them: [Excerpt: Ronnie Spector, “Try Some, Buy Some”] Neither Ronnie nor Spector were particularly keen on the track, and it was a commercial flop — although John Lennon later said that the track had inspired his “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. Ronnie eventually escaped from Spector’s abuse — leaving the house barefoot, as Spector had stolen her shoes so she couldn’t leave — and started to build a new life for herself, though she would struggle with alcoholism for many years. She got nothing in their divorce settlement, as Spector threatened to hire a hit man to kill her if she tried to get anything from him, and she made a living by touring the nostalgia circuit with various new lineups of Ronettes — the others having given up on their music careers — and while she never had another hit, she did have a recording career. Her solo career got its proper start because of a chance meeting in New York. Her old friend John Lennon saw her on the street and called her over for a chat, and introduced her to the friend he was with, Jimmy Iovine, who was producing an album for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes. Bruce Springsteen had written a song for that band, and Iovine thought it might work well as a duet with Ronnie, and he invited her to the studio that day, and she cut the song with them: [Excerpt: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes, “You Mean So Much To Me”] That song became one of the most popular songs on the album, and so when the Asbury Dukes toured supporting Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, they brought Ronnie along with them to sing on that song and do a couple of her own hits. That led to the E-Street Band themselves backing Ronnie on a single — a version of Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”, a song that Joel had written with her in mind: [Excerpt: Ronnie Spector and the E-Street Band, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”] However, that was a flop, and so were all her later attempts to have comebacks, though she worked with some great musicians over the years. But she was able to continue having a career as a performer, even if she never returned to stardom, and she never made much money from her hits. She did, though, sing on one more top-ten hit, singing backing vocals on Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight”: [Excerpt: Eddie Money, “Take Me Home Tonight”] Phil Spector continued to earn money from his ex-wife for a long time after their divorce. By 1998, when the Ronettes finally sued Spector for unpaid royalties, they had earned, between them, a total of $14,482.30 in royalties from all their hit records — the amount that came from a single 1964 royalty payment. In court, Spector argued that he didn’t owe them any more, and indeed that *they* still owed *him* money, because the cost of recording their singles meant that they had never actually earned more money than they cost. Eventually, after a series of appeals, the group members each got about half a million dollars in 2002 — obviously a great deal of money, but a small fraction of what they actually earned. Spector, who was on the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prevented the Ronettes from being inducted out of spite towards his ex until he was imprisoned, at which point they were finally recognised, in 2007.  Ronnie continues to perform, and seems to have a happy life. Estelle, sadly, did not — she suffered from anorexia and schizophrenia, spent a period of time homeless, and died in 2009. Nedra became a born-again Christian shortly after the group split up, and recorded a couple of unsuccessful albums of Christian music in the seventies, before going off to work in real estate. In September last year, it was announced that a film is going to be made of Ronnie Spector’s life story.  It’s nice to know that there’ll be something out there telling her story with her as the protagonist, rather than as a background character in the story of her abusive husband.

  Episode 110 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Be My Baby", and at the career of the Ronettes and Ronnie Spector.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Erratum I say Ray Peterson's version of "Tell Laura I Love Her" was an American number one. It wasn't -- it only made number seven.   Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara Miniskirts and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette by Ronnie Spector and Vince Waldron is Ronnie's autobiography and was the main source. Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson is a good overview of the Brill Building scene, and provided me with the information on Barry and Greenwich. I've referred to two biographies of Spector in this episode, Phil Spector: Out of His Head by Richard Williams and He's a Rebel by Mark Ribkowsky. And information on the Wrecking Crew largely comes from The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. There are many compilations available with some of the hits Spector produced, but I recommend getting Back to Mono, a four-CD overview of his career containing all the major singles put out by Philles. If you want something just covering Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes, The Very Best of Ronnie Spector  covers all the Ronettes hits and the best of her solo career. And the AFM contract listing the musicians on "Be My Baby" can be found here.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today we're going to take a look at the record that, more than anything, ensured Phil Spector's place in popular music history -- a record that changed the lives of several people who heard it for the better, and changed the life of its singer for the worse, and one which has the most imitated drum intro in the world. We're going to look at "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "Be My Baby"] Before I start this one, two things need saying. The first is that this episode, by necessity, deals with spousal abuse. As always, I will try to discuss the issue with sensitivity, and touch on it as briefly as possible, but if you worry that it might upset you, please either skip this episode, or read the transcript to see if you'll be OK listening to it. I imagine that very few people will be upset by anything I say here, but it's always a possibility. And secondly, I'd like to apologise for this episode being so late. I had a major disruption in my personal life over Christmas -- one of those really bad life events that only happens once or twice in most people's lifetimes -- and that made it impossible for me to get any work done at all for the last couple of weeks. I'm now able to work again, and this should not be anything that affects the podcast for the rest of the year. Anyway, enough about that, let's get on with the story. The story of the Ronettes begins when Ronnie Bennett, a mixed-race girl from Harlem, became obsessed with the sound of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers: [Excerpt: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"] Ronnie became the Teenagers' biggest fan, and even managed to arrange a meeting between herself and Lymon when they were both thirteen, but had her illusions torn away when he turned up drunk and made a pass at her. But that didn't stop her from trying her best to imitate Lymon's vocals, and forming a vocal group with several friends and relatives. That group had a male lead singer, but when they made their first appearance on one of the Harlem Apollo's talent shows, the lead singer got stage fright and couldn't start singing when he got on stage. Ronnie stepped forward and took over the lead vocal, and the group went down well enough even with the Apollo's notoriously hostile audience that a smaller group of them decided to start performing regularly together. The group took the name Ronnie and the Relatives, and consisted of Ronnie, her sister Estelle, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They originally only performed at private parties, bar mitzvahs and the like, but they soon reached the attention of Stu Phillips at Colpix Records, a label owned by the film studio Columbia Pictures. The first single by Ronnie and the Relatives was not a success -- "I Want a Boy" came out in August 1961 and didn't chart: [Excerpt: Ronnie and the Relatives, "I Want a Boy"] And nor did their second, "I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead": [Excerpt: Ronnie and the Relatives, "I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead"] Those records did apparently sell to at least one person, though, as when Ronnie met President Clinton in 1997, he asked her to sign a record, and specifically got her to sign an album of those early recordings for Colpix. While the girls were not having any commercial success, they did manage to accidentally get themselves a regular gig at the most important nightclub in New York. They went to the Peppermint Lounge, just as the Twist craze was at its height, and as they were underage they dressed up especially well in order to make themselves look more grown up so they could get in. Their ruse worked better than they expected. As they were all dressed the same, the club's manager assumed they were the dancers he'd booked, who hadn't shown up. He came out and told them to get on stage and start dancing, and so of course they did what he said, and started dancing to the Twist sounds of Joey Dee and the Starliters: [Excerpt: Joey Dee and the Starliters, "The Peppermint Twist"] The girls' dancing went down well, and then the band started playing "What'd I Say?", a favourite song of Ronnie's and one the group did in their own act, and Ronnie danced over to David Brigati, who was singing lead on the song, and started dancing close to him. He handed her the mic as a joke, and she took over the song. They got a regular spot at the Peppermint Lounge, dancing behind the Starliters for their whole show and joining them on vocals for a few numbers every night. Inspired by the Bobbettes and the Marvelettes, Ronnie and Estelle's mother suggested changing the group's name. She suggested "the Rondettes", and they dropped the "d", becoming the Ronettes. The singles they released on ColPix under the new name did no better than the others, but they were such an important part of the Peppermint Lounge that when the Lounge's owners opened a second venue in Florida, the girls went down there with the Starliters and were part of the show.  That trip to Florida gave them two very different experiences. The first was that they got to see segregation firsthand for the first time, and they didn't like it -- especially when they, as light-skinned mixed-race women, were read as tanned white women and served in restaurants which then refused to serve their darker-skinned mothers. But the second was far more positive. They met Murray the K, who since Alan Freed had been driven out of his job had become the most popular DJ in New York. Murray was down in Florida for a holiday, and was impressed enough by the girls' dancing that he told them if they were ever in New York and wanted a spot on one of his regular shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre they should let him know. They replied that they lived in New York and went to those shows all the time -- of course they wanted to perform on his shows. They became regular performers at the Brooklyn Fox, where they danced between the other, bigger, acts, sang backing vocals, did a song or two themselves, and took part in comedy sketches with Murray. It was at these shows, as well, that they developed the look they would become famous with -- huge hair piled up on top of their heads, tons of mascara, and tight skirts slit to show their legs. It was a style inspired by street fashion rather than by what the other girl groups were wearing, and it made them incredibly popular with the Fox audience. But the Ronettes, even under their new name, and even with the backing of New York's most prominent DJ, were still not selling any records. They knew they were good, and the reaction to their stage performances proved as much, so they decided that the problem must be with Colpix. And so in 1963 they made a New Year's resolution -- they were going to get Phil Spector to produce them.  By this time, Spector was becoming very well known in the music industry as a hit maker. We already saw in the recent episode on the Crystals how he was making hits for that group and the Blossoms, but he was also making hits with studio groups like Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, who he took into the top ten with a remake of the old Disney song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah": [Excerpt: Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"] and as well as the records he was putting out on Philles, he was also working as a freelance producer for people like Connie Francis, producing her top ten hit "Second-Hand Love": [Excerpt: Connie Francis, "Second-Hand Love"] So the Ronettes were convinced that he could make them into the stars they knew they had the potential to be. The group had no idea how to get in touch with Spector, so they tried the direct route -- Estelle called directory enquiries, got the number for Philles Records, and called and asked to be put through to Spector. She was as astonished as anyone when he agreed to talk to her -- and it turned out that he'd seen the group regularly at the Brooklyn Fox and was interested in working with them.  At their audition for Spector, the group first performed a close-harmony version of "When the Red Red Robin Goes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along", which they'd been taught by their singing teacher. Spector told them that he wanted to hear what they did when they were singing for themselves, not for a teacher, and so Ronnie launched into "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"  It only took her getting to the second line of the song before Spector yelled at her to stop -- "THAT is the voice I've been looking for!" The Ronettes' first recordings for Spector weren't actually issued as by the Ronettes at all. To start with, he had them record a version of a song by the writing team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love?", but didn't release it at the time. It was later released as by "Veronica", the name under which he released solo records by Ronnie: [Excerpt: Veronica, "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love?"] But at the time, when Ronnie asked him when the record was coming out, Spector answered "Never". He explained to her that it was a good record, but it wasn't a number one, and he was still working on their first number one record. Their next few recordings were covers of then-current dance hits, like "The Twist": [Excerpt, "The Crystals", "The Twist"] And "The Wah-Watusi", one of the few times that one of the other Ronettes took the lead rather than Ronnie, as Nedra sang lead: [Excerpt, "The Crystals", "The Wah-Watusi"] But these, and two other tracks, were released as album tracks on a Crystals album, credited to the Crystals rather than the Ronettes. The song that eventually became the group's first hit, "Be My Baby", was mostly written by one of the many husband-and-wife songwriting teams that had developed at the Brill Building, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Barry had started out as a performer who occasionally wrote, putting out records like "It's Called Rock and Roll": [Excerpt: Jeff Barry, "It's Called Rock and Roll"] But while his performing career had gone nowhere, he'd started to have some success as a songwriter, writing "Teenage Sonata" for Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "Teenage Sonata"] And "Tell Laura I Love Her", which was recorded by several people, but the biggest hit version was the American number one by Ray Peterson: [Excerpt: Ray Peterson, "Tell Laura I Love Her"] Ellie Greenwich had also started as a performer, recording "Silly Isn't It?" under the name Ellie Gaye: [Excerpt: Ellie Gaye, "Silly, Isn't It?"] She'd become one of the most important demo singers in New York, and had also started writing songs. She'd first collaborated with Doc Pomus, cowriting songs like "This is It", which had been a flop single for Jay and the Americans: [Excerpt: Jay and the Americans, "This is It"] She'd then been taken on by Trio Music, Leiber and Stoller's company, where she had largely collaborated with another writer named Tony Powers. Trio had first refusal on anything the two of them wrote, and if Leiber and Stoller didn't like it, they could take the song elsewhere. Greenwich and Powers had their biggest successes with songs that Leiber and Stoller rejected, which they sold to Aaron Schroeder. And they'd started up a collaboration with Phil Spector -- although Spector and Greenwich's first meeting had not exactly gone smoothly. He'd gone into her office to hear her play a song that she thought would be suitable for the Paris Sisters, but had kept wandering out of the office, and had kept looking at himself in a mirror and primping himself rather than listen to her song. Eventually she said to him  "Listen to me, you little prick. Did you come to look at yourself or to hear my songs?", and she didn't make that sale. But later on, Spector became interested in a song she'd sold to Schroeder, and made an appointment to meet her and talk about her writing some stuff for him -- that second meeting, which Spector didn't realise was with someone he'd already made a bad impression on, Spector turned up four hours late.  But despite that, Greenwich and Powers wrote several songs for Spector, who was also given songwriting credit, and which became big hits in versions he produced -- "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry", a single by Darlene Love: [Excerpt: Darlene Love, "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry"] And "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others' Hearts?", released as by Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, but with Love once again on lead vocals: [Excerpt: Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others' Hearts?"] I say that Spector was also given songwriting credit on those records, because there is some debate about how much he contributed to the songs he's credited on. Some of his co-writers have said that he would often only change a word or a phrase, and get himself cut in on an already-completed song, while others have said that he contributed a reasonable amount to the songwriting, though he was never the primary writer -- for example Barry Mann has said that Spector came up with the middle section for "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". I tend towards the belief that Spector's contribution to the writing on those songs he's co-credited on was minimal -- in his whole career, the number of songs he wrote on his own seems to be in the single figures, while those other writers wrote dozens of hit records without any contribution from Spector -- and so when I talk about records he produced I'll tend to use phrasing like "a Goffin and King song co-credited to Phil Spector" rather than "a song by Goffin, King, and Spector", but I don't want that to give the impression that I'm certain Spector made no contribution.  But while Greenwich and Powers were a mildly successful team, their partnership ended when Greenwich met Jeff Barry at a family Thanksgiving dinner -- Greenwich's uncle was Barry's cousin. As Greenwich later put it, when they started talking together about music and realised how much they had in common, "I went 'ooh', he went 'mmmhh', and his wife went 'I don't think I like this'". Soon their previous partnerships, both romantic and musical, were over, and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich became the third of the great Brill Building husband-and-wife songwriting teams.  Where Goffin and King had a sophisticated edge to their writing, with a hint of sexual subversion and the mingling of pain and pleasure, and Mann and Weill tried to incorporate social comment into their songs, Barry and Greenwich were happy to be silly -- they were writing songs like "Hanky Panky", "Da Doo Ron Ron",  and "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy": [Excerpt: Ellie Greenwich "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy (demo)"] This worked extremely well for them, to the extent that after they broke up a few years later, Barry would continue this formula with songs such as "Sugar Sugar", "Jingle Jangle" and "Bang Shang A Lang". Barry and Greenwich's style was to jam in as many hooks as possible, maybe put in a joke or two, keep the lyrics simple, and get out in two minutes. Very few of their songs were masterpieces of songwriting, but they *were* absolutely perfect templates for masterpieces of production. It sounds like I'm damning them with faint praise, but I'm really not. There is a huge skill involved in what they were doing -- if you're writing some heartwrenching masterpiece about the human condition, people will forgive the odd lapse in craft, but if you're writing "My baby does the hanky panky", there's no margin for error, and you're not going to get forgiven if you mess it up.  Barry and Greenwich were good enough at this that they became the go-to writers for Spector for the next couple of years. He would record songs by most of the Brill Building teams, but when you think of the classic records Spector produced, they're far more likely than not to be Barry and Greenwich songs -- of the twenty-seven Philles singles released after Barry and Greenwich started writing together, fourteen are credited to Barry/Greenwich/Spector, and other than the joke release "Let's Dance the Screw", which we talked about back in the episode on the Crystals, there's a run of eleven singles released on the label between late 1962 and early 1964 which are credited either as Greenwich/Powers/Spector or Barry/Greenwich/Spector. And so it was naturally to Barry and Greenwich that Spector turned to write the first big hit for the Ronettes -- and he let Ronnie hear the writing session. By this time, Spector had become romantically involved with Ronnie, and he invited her into his apartment to sit in the next room and listen to them working on the song -- usually they got together in hotels rather than at Spector's home. While she was there, she found several pairs of women's shoes -- Spector hadn't told her he was married, and claimed to her when she asked that they belonged to his sister. This should probably have been a sign of things to come. Assuming that Spector did contribute to the writing, I think it's easy to tell what he brought to “Be My Baby”. If you listen to that Connie Francis record I excerpted earlier, on which Spector is also a credited co-writer, the melody line for the line “that you don't feel the same” leading into the chorus: [Excerpt: Connie Francis, “Second-Hand Love”] is identical to the melody line leading into the chorus of “Be My Baby”: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”] So that transition between the verse and the chorus is likely his work. After rehearsing Ronnie for several weeks in New York, Spector flew her out to LA to make the record in Gold Star Studios, where she spent three days recording the lead vocals. The backing vocals weren't provided by the other Ronettes, but rather by the Blossoms, with a few extra singers -- notably Spector's assistant Sonny Bono, and his new girlfriend Cher -- but what really made the track was not the vocals -- although the song was perfect for Ronnie -- but Hal Blaine's drum intro: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "Be My Baby"] That intro was utterly simple -- Blaine was always a minimalist player, someone who would play for the song rather than play fussy fills -- but that simple part, combined with the powerful sound that the engineer Larry Levine got, was enough to make it one of the most memorable intros in rock music history. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys talks to this day about how he had to pull over to the side of the road when he first heard it on his car radio, and he would listen to the record incessantly for hours at a time. Incidentally, since I'm talking about the musicians, a lot of sources credit Carol Kaye for playing the bass on this track, so I'm going to say something once, here, which should be taken as read whenever I'm talking about records made in LA in the sixties -- Carol Kaye is not only an unreliable source about what records she played on, she is an utterly dishonest one. For those who don't know, Ms. Kaye was one of the great bass players of the sixties, and also one of the better session guitarists. She played on hundreds of records in the sixties, including many, many, classics from the Beach Boys, Spector, Frank Zappa, and others, and she was the only woman getting regular session work in LA on a rock instrument -- there may have been session orchestral musicians who were women, but when it comes to guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, sax, and so on, she was the only one. For that, she deserves a huge amount of credit. Unfortunately, she has never been happy only being credited for the records she actually played on, and insists she played on many, many, more. Some of this can be reasonably put down to lapses in memory more than fifty years later -- if you're playing two or three sessions a day, and you play on a bunch of Beach Boys records, then it's easy enough to misremember having played on "Surfin' USA" when maybe you played on a similar-sounding record, and there are things like her claiming to have played on "Good Vibrations", where there were multiple sessions for that track, and it happened that the takes eventually used weren't the ones where she was playing bass, but she had no way of knowing that. That's completely forgivable. But Ms. Kaye also claims, with no evidence whatsoever on her side and a great deal of evidence against her, to have been responsible for playing almost the entire recorded works of James Jamerson, Motown's main bass player, claiming tapes were secretly shipped from Detroit to LA -- something that has been denied by every single person working at Motown, and which can be easily disproved just by listening to the tapes. She claims to have played the bass on "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees -- a track recorded in New York, by New York musicians. And whenever anyone points out the falsehoods, rather than saying "I may have made a mistake" she hurls abuse at them, and in some cases libels them on her website. So, Carol Kaye did not play on this record, and we know that because we have the AFM session sheets, which show that the bass players on the track were Ray Pohlman and Jimmy Bond. I'll link a PDF of that sheet in the show notes. So in future, when I mention someone other than Carol Kaye playing on a song, and Wikipedia or somewhere says she played on it, bear this in mind. Two people who did play on the record were Bill Pitman and Tommy Tedesco, and this is why the B-side, an instrumental, is named "Tedesco and Pitman". Spector was enough of a control freak that he didn't want DJs ever to play the wrong side of his singles, so he stuck instrumental jam sessions by the studio musicians -- with the songwriting credited to him rather than to them -- on the B-sides. I don't know about you, but I actually quite like "Tedesco and Pitman", but then I've always had a soft spot for the vibraphone: [Excerpt: "The Ronettes" (The Wrecking Crew), Tedesco and Pitman"] "Be My Baby" was a massive hit -- it went to number one on the Cashbox chart, though only number two on the Billboard chart, and sold millions of copies. The group were invited on to Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars tour, but Spector wanted Ronnie to be in California to record the follow-up, so the girls' cousin Elaine filled in for her for the first couple of weeks of the tour, while Ronnie recorded another Barry, Greenwich and Spector song, "Baby I Love You": [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "Baby I Love You"] Ronnie didn't realise it at the time, but Spector was trying to isolate her from the other group members, and from her family. But at first this seemed to her like a sensible way of solving the problem, and she rejoined the tour after the record was made. Soon after this, the group travelled to the UK for a brief tour in early 1964, during which they became friendly with the Beatles -- Ronnie had a brief chaste flirtation with John Lennon, and Estelle something a little more with George Harrison. They also got to know their support act on the tour, the Rolling Stones -- at least once Ronnie had had a row with Andrew Loog Oldham, as Spector had sent a telegram forbidding the Rolling Stones from spending time with the Ronettes. Once Ronnie pointed out that they were there and Spector wasn't, the two groups became very friendly -- and more than friendly, if Keith Richards' autobiography is to be believed. On their return to the US, they continued having hits through 1964 -- nothing was as big as "Be My Baby", but they had three more top forty hits that year, with two mediocre records, "The Best Part of Breaking Up" and "Do I Love You?", co-written by the team of Pete Andreoli and Vini Poncia, and then a return to form with the magnificent "Walking in the Rain", written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill: [Excerpt: The Ronettes Featuring Veronica, "Walking in the Rain"] But Spector was becoming more and more erratic in his personal life, and more and more controlling. I won't go into too many details here, because we're going to see a lot more of Phil Spector over the next year or so, but he recorded many great records with the Ronettes which he refused to release, claiming they weren't quite right -- Ronnie has later realised that he was probably trying to sabotage their career so he could have her all to himself, though at the time she didn't know that. Neither of the two singles they did release in 1965 made the top fifty, and the one single they released in 1966, a return to songs by Barry and Greenwich, only made number one hundred, for one week: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "I Can Hear Music"] Also in 1966, the Ronettes were invited by the Beatles to be their support act on their last ever tour, but once again Spector insisted that Ronnie couldn't go, because she needed to be in the studio, so Elaine substituted for her again, much to the Beatles' disappointment. Nothing from the studio sessions during that tour was released. The group broke up in 1967, and the next year Ronnie married Phil Spector, who became ever more controlling and abusive. I won't go into details of the way he treated her, which you can read all about in her autobiography, but suffice to say that I was completely unsurprised when he murdered a woman in 2003. You'll probably get some idea of his behaviours when I talk about him in future episodes, but what Ronnie suffered in the years they were together was something no-one should have to go through. By the time she managed to leave him, in June 1972, she had only released one track in years, a song that George Harrison had written for her called "Try Some, Buy Some", which Spector had recorded with her at Harrison's insistence, during a period when Spector was working with several of the ex-Beatles and trying to rebuild his own career on the back of them: [Excerpt: Ronnie Spector, "Try Some, Buy Some"] Neither Ronnie nor Spector were particularly keen on the track, and it was a commercial flop -- although John Lennon later said that the track had inspired his "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". Ronnie eventually escaped from Spector's abuse -- leaving the house barefoot, as Spector had stolen her shoes so she couldn't leave -- and started to build a new life for herself, though she would struggle with alcoholism for many years. She got nothing in their divorce settlement, as Spector threatened to hire a hit man to kill her if she tried to get anything from him, and she made a living by touring the nostalgia circuit with various new lineups of Ronettes -- the others having given up on their music careers -- and while she never had another hit, she did have a recording career. Her solo career got its proper start because of a chance meeting in New York. Her old friend John Lennon saw her on the street and called her over for a chat, and introduced her to the friend he was with, Jimmy Iovine, who was producing an album for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes. Bruce Springsteen had written a song for that band, and Iovine thought it might work well as a duet with Ronnie, and he invited her to the studio that day, and she cut the song with them: [Excerpt: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes, "You Mean So Much To Me"] That song became one of the most popular songs on the album, and so when the Asbury Dukes toured supporting Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, they brought Ronnie along with them to sing on that song and do a couple of her own hits. That led to the E-Street Band themselves backing Ronnie on a single -- a version of Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", a song that Joel had written with her in mind: [Excerpt: Ronnie Spector and the E-Street Band, "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"] However, that was a flop, and so were all her later attempts to have comebacks, though she worked with some great musicians over the years. But she was able to continue having a career as a performer, even if she never returned to stardom, and she never made much money from her hits. She did, though, sing on one more top-ten hit, singing backing vocals on Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight": [Excerpt: Eddie Money, "Take Me Home Tonight"] Phil Spector continued to earn money from his ex-wife for a long time after their divorce. By 1998, when the Ronettes finally sued Spector for unpaid royalties, they had earned, between them, a total of $14,482.30 in royalties from all their hit records -- the amount that came from a single 1964 royalty payment. In court, Spector argued that he didn't owe them any more, and indeed that *they* still owed *him* money, because the cost of recording their singles meant that they had never actually earned more money than they cost. Eventually, after a series of appeals, the group members each got about half a million dollars in 2002 -- obviously a great deal of money, but a small fraction of what they actually earned. Spector, who was on the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prevented the Ronettes from being inducted out of spite towards his ex until he was imprisoned, at which point they were finally recognised, in 2007.  Ronnie continues to perform, and seems to have a happy life. Estelle, sadly, did not -- she suffered from anorexia and schizophrenia, spent a period of time homeless, and died in 2009. Nedra became a born-again Christian shortly after the group split up, and recorded a couple of unsuccessful albums of Christian music in the seventies, before going off to work in real estate. In September last year, it was announced that a film is going to be made of Ronnie Spector's life story.  It's nice to know that there'll be something out there telling her story with her as the protagonist, rather than as a background character in the story of her abusive husband.

Episode 104 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “He’s a Rebel”, and how a song recorded by the Blossoms was released under the name of the Crystals.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Sukiyaki” by Kyu Sakamoto. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. The material on Gene Pitney mostly comes from his page on This is My Story. Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson is a good overview of the Brill Building scene. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era, including articles on both The Crystals and the Blossoms. I’ve referred to two biographies of Spector in this episode, Phil Spector: Out of His Head by Richard Williams and He’s a Rebel by Mark Ribkowsky. And information on the Wrecking Crew largely comes from The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. There are many compilations available with some of the hits Spector produced, but I recommend getting Back to Mono, a four-CD overview of his career containing all the major singles put out by Philles.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A brief note — there are some very brief mentions of domestic abuse here. Nothing I think will upset anyone, but you might want to check the transcript if you’re at all unsure. Up to this point, whenever we’ve looked at a girl group, it’s been at one that had, to a greater or lesser extent, some control over their own career. Groups like the Marvelettes, the Chantels, and the Bobbettes all wrote their own material, at least at first, and had distinctive personalities before they ever made a record. But today, we’re going to look at a group whose identity was so subsumed in that of their producer that the record we’re looking at was released under the name of a different group from the one that recorded it. We’re going to look at “He’s a Rebel”, which was recorded by the Blossoms and released by the Crystals. [Excerpt: “The Crystals” (The Blossoms), “He’s a Rebel”] The Crystals, from their very beginnings, were intended as a vehicle for the dreams of men, rather than for their own ambitions. Whereas the girl groups we’ve looked at so far all formed as groups of friends at school before they moved into professional singing, the Crystals were put together by a man named Benny Wells. Wells had a niece, Barbara Alston, who sang with a couple of her schoolfriends, Mary Thomas and Myrna Giraud. Wells put those three together with two other girls, Dee Dee Kenniebrew and Patsy Wright, to form a five-piece vocal group. Wells seems not to have had much concept of what was in the charts at the time — the descriptions of the music he had the girls singing talk about him wanting them to sound like the Modernaires, the vocal group who sang with Glenn Miller’s band in the early 1940s. But the girls went along with Wells, and Wells had good enough ears to recognise a hit when one was brought to him — and one was brought to him by Patsy Wright’s brother-in-law, Leroy Bates. Bates had written a song called “There’s No Other Like My Baby”, and Wells could tell it had potential. Incidentally, some books say that the song was based on a gospel song called “There’s No Other Like My Jesus”, and that claim is repeated on Wikipedia, but I can’t find any evidence of a song of that name other than people talking about “There’s No Other Like My Baby”. There is a gospel song called “There’s No Other Name Like Jesus”, but that has no obvious resemblance to Bates’ song, and so I’m going to assume that the song was totally original. As well as bringing the song, Bates also brought the fledgling group a name — he had a daughter, Crystal Bates, after whom the group named themselves. The newly-named Crystals took their song to the offices of Hill and Range Music, which as well as being a publishing company also owned Big Top Records, the label that had put out the original version of “Twist and Shout”, which had so annoyed Bert Berns. And it was there that they ended up meeting up with Phil Spector. After leaving his role at Atlantic, Spector had started working as a freelance producer, including working for Big Top. According to Spector — a notorious liar, it’s important to remember — he worked during this time on dozens of hits for which he didn’t get any credit, just to earn money. But we do know about some of the records he produced during this time. For example, there was one by a new singer called Gene Pitney. Pitney had been knocking around for years, recording for Decca as part of a duo called Jamie and Jane: [Excerpt: Jamie and Jane, “Faithful Our Love”] And for Blaze Records as Billy Bryan: [Excerpt: Billy Bryan, “Going Back to My Love”] But he’d recently signed to Musicor, a label owned by Aaron Schroeder, and had recorded a hit under his own name. Pitney had written “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away”, and had taken advantage of the new multitracking technology to record his vocals six times over, creating a unique sound that took the record into the top forty: [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away”] But while that had been a hit, his second single for Musicor was a flop, and so for the third single, Musicor decided to pull out the big guns. They ran a session at which basically the whole of the Brill Building turned up. Leiber and Stoller were to produce a song they’d written for Pitney, the new hot husband-and-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were there, as was Burt Bacharach, and so were Goffin and King, who wrote the song that *Spector* was to produce for Pitney. All of them were in the control booth, and all of them were chipping in ideas. As you might expect with that many cooks, the session did not go smoothly, and to make matters worse, Pitney was suffering from a terrible cold. The session ended up costing thirteen thousand dollars, at a time when an average recording session cost five hundred dollars. On the song Spector was producing on that session, Goffin and King’s “Every Breath I Take”, Pitney knew that with the cold he would be completely unable to hit the last note in full voice, and went into falsetto. Luckily, everyone thought it sounded good, and he could pretend it was deliberate, rather than the result of necessity: [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, “Every Breath I Take”] The record only went to number forty-two, but it resuscitated Pitney’s singing career, and forged a working relationship between the two men. But soon after that, Spector had flown back to LA to work with his old friend Lester Sill. Sill and producer/songwriter, Lee Hazelwood, had been making records with the guitarist Duane Eddy, producing a string of hits like “Rebel Rouser”: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, “Rebel Rouser”] But Eddy had recently signed directly to a label, rather than going through Sill and Hazelwood’s company as before, and so Sill and Hazelwood had been looking for new artists, and they’d recently signed a group called the Paris Sisters to their production company. Sill had decided to get Spector in to produce the group, and Spector came up with a production that Sill was sure would be a hit, on a song called “I Love How You Love Me”, written by Barry Mann with another writer called Jack Keller: [Excerpt: The Paris Sisters, “I Love How You Love Me”] Spector was becoming a perfectionist — he insisted on recording the rhythm track for that record at one studio, and the string part at another, and apparently spent fifty hours on the mix — and Sill was spending more and more time in the studio with Spector, fascinated at his attitude to the work he was doing. This led to a breakup between Sill and Hazelwood — their business relationship was already strained, but Hazelwood got jealous of all the time that Sill was spending with Spector, and decided to split their partnership and go and produce Duane Eddy, without Sill, at Eddy’s new label. So Sill was suddenly in the market for a new business partner, and he and Spector decided that they were going to start up their own label, Philles, although by this point everyone who had ever worked with Spector was warning Sill that it was a bad idea to go into business with him. But Spector and Sill kept their intentions secret for a while, and so when Spector met the Crystals at Hill and Range’s offices, everyone at Hill and Range just assumed that he was still working for them as a freelance producer, and that the Crystals were going to be recording for Big Top. Freddie Bienstock of Hill & Range later said, “We were very angry because we felt they were Big Top artists. He was merely supposed to produce them for us. There was no question about the fact that he was just rehearsing them for Big Top—hell, he rehearsed them for weeks in our offices. And then he just stole them right out of here. That precipitated a breach of contract with us. We were just incensed because that was a terrific group, and for him to do that shows the type of character he was. We felt he was less than ethical, and, obviously, he was then shown the door.” Bienstock had further words for Spector too, ones I can’t repeat here because of content rules about adult language, but they weren’t flattering. Spector had been dating Bienstock’s daughter, with Bienstock’s approval, but that didn’t last once Spector betrayed Bienstock. But Spector didn’t care. He had his own New York girl group, one that could compete with the Bobbettes or the Chantels or the Shirelles, and he was going to make the Crystals as big as any of them, and he wasn’t going to cut Big Top in. He slowed down “There’s No Other Like My Baby” and it became the first release on Philles Records, with Barbara Alston singing lead: [Excerpt: The Crystals, “There’s No Other Like My Baby”] That record was cut late at night in June 1961. In fact it was cut on Prom Night — three of the girls came straight to the session from their High School prom, still wearing their prom dresses. Spector wrote the B-side, a song that was originally intended to be the A-side called “Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby”, but everyone quickly realised that “There’s No Other Like My Baby” was the hit, and it made the top twenty. While Spector was waiting for the money to come in on the first Philles record, he took another job, with Liberty Records, working for his friend Snuff Garrett. He got a thirty thousand dollar advance, made a single flop record with them with an unknown singer named Obrey Wilson, and then quit, keeping his thirty thousand dollars. Once “There’s No Other” made the charts, Spector took the Crystals into the studio again, to record a song by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that he’d got from Aldon Music. Spector was becoming increasingly convinced that he’d made a mistake in partnering with Lester Sill, and he should really have been working with Don Kirshner, and he was in discussions with Kirshner which came to nothing about them having some sort of joint project. While those discussions fell through, almost all the songs that Spector would use for the next few years would come from Aldon songwriters, and “Uptown” was a perfect example of the new kind of socially-relevant pop songwriting that had been pioneered by Goffin and King, but which Mann and Weil were now making their own. Before becoming a professional songwriter, Weil had been part of the Greenwich Village folk scene, and while she wasn’t going to write anything as explicitly political as the work of Pete Seeger, she thought that songs should at least try to be about the real world. “Uptown” was the first example of a theme which would become a major motif for the Crystals’ records — a song about a man who is looked down upon by society, but who the singer believes is better than his reputation. Mann and Weil’s song combined that potent teen emotion with an inspiration Weil had had, seeing a handsome Black man pushing a hand truck in the Garment District, and realising that even though he was oppressed by his job, and “a nobody” when he was working downtown, he was still somebody when he was at home. They originally wrote the song for Tony Orlando to sing, but Spector insisted, rightly, that the song worked better with female voices, and that the Crystals should do it. Spector took Mann and Weil’s song and gave it a production that evoked the Latin feel of Leiber and Stoller’s records for the Drifters: [Excerpt: The Crystals, “Uptown”] By the time of this second record, the Crystals had already been through one lineup change. As soon as she left school, Myrna Giraud got married, and she didn’t want to perform on stage any more. She would still sing with the girls in the studio for a little while — she’s on every track of their first album, though she left altogether soon after this recording — but she was a married woman now and didn’t want to be in a group.  The girls needed a replacement, and they also needed something else — a lead singer. All the girls loved singing, but none of them wanted to be out in front singing lead. Luckily, Dee Dee Kenniebrew’s mother was a secretary at the school attended by a fourteen-year-old gospel singer named La La Brooks, and she heard Brooks singing and invited her to join the group. Brooks soon became the group’s lead vocalist on stage. But in the studio, Spector didn’t want to use her as the lead vocalist. He insisted on Barbara singing the lead on “Uptown”, but in a sign of things to come, Mann and Weil weren’t happy with her performance — Spector had to change parts of the melody to accommodate her range — and they begged Spector to rerecord the lead vocal with Little Eva singing. However, Eva became irritated with Spector’s incessant demands for more takes and his micromanagement, cursed him out, and walked out of the studio. The record was released with Barbara’s original lead vocal, and while Mann and Weil weren’t happy with that, listeners were, as it went to number thirteen on the charts: [Excerpt: The Crystals, “Uptown”] Little Eva later released her own version of the song, on the Dimension Dolls compilation we talked about in the episode on “The Loco-Motion”: [Excerpt: Little Eva, “Uptown”] It was Little Eva who inspired the next Crystals single, as well — as we talked about in the episode on her, she inspired a truly tasteless Goffin and King song called “He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss”, which I will not be excerpting, but which was briefly released as the Crystals’ third single, before being withdrawn after people objected to hearing teenage girls sing about how romantic and loving domestic abuse is. There seems to be some suggestion that the record was released partly as a way for Spector to annoy Lester Sill, who by all accounts was furious at the release. Spector was angry at Sill over the amount of money he’d made from the Paris Sisters recordings, and decided that he was being treated unfairly and wanted to force Sill out of their partnership. Certainly the next recording by the Crystals was meant to get rid of some other business associates. Two of Philles’ distributors had a contract which said they were entitled to the royalties on two Crystals singles. So the second one was a ten-minute song called “The Screw”, split over two sides of a disc, which sounded like this: [Excerpt: The Crystals, “The Screw”] Only a handful of promotional copies of that were ever produced. One went to Lester Sill, who by this point had been bought out of his share of the company for a small fraction of what it was worth. The last single Spector recorded for Philles while Sill was still involved with the label was another Crystals record, one that had the involvement of many people Sill had brought into Spector’s orbit, and who would continue working with him long after the two men stopped working together. Spector had decided he was going to start recording in California again, and two of Sill’s assistants would become regular parts of Spector’s new hit-making machine. The first of these was a composer and arranger called Jack Nitzsche, who we’ll be seeing a lot more of in this podcast over the next couple of years, in some unexpected places. Nitzsche was a young songwriter, whose biggest credit up to this point was a very minor hit for Preston Epps, “Bongo, Bongo, Bongo”: [Excerpt: Preston Epps, “Bongo Bongo Bongo”] Nitzsche would become Spector’s most important collaborator, and his arrangements, as much as Spector’s production, are what characterise the “Wall of Sound” for which Spector would become famous.  The other assistant of Sill’s who became important to Spector’s future was a saxophone player named Steve Douglas. We’ve seen Douglas before, briefly, in the episode on “LSD-25” — he played in the original lineup of Kip and the Flips, one of the groups we talked about in that episode. He’d left Kip and the Flips to join Duane Eddy’s band, and it was through Eddy that he had started working with Sill, when he played on many of Eddy’s hits, most famously “Peter Gunn”: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, “Peter Gunn”] Douglas was the union contractor for the session, and for most of the rest of Spector’s sixties sessions. This is something we’ve not talked about previously, but when we look at records produced in LA for the next few years, in particular, it’s something that will come up a lot. When a producer wanted to make records at the time, he (for they were all men) would not contact all the musicians himself. Instead, he’d get in touch with a trusted musician and say “I have a session at three o’clock. I need two guitars, bass, drums, a clarinet and a cello” (or whatever combination of instruments), and sometimes might say, “If you can get this particular player, that would be good”. The musician would then find out which other musicians were available, get them into the studio, and file the forms which made sure they got paid according to union rules. The contractor, not the producer, decided who was going to play on the session. In the case of this Crystals session, Spector already had a couple of musicians in mind — a bass player named Ray Pohlman, and his old guitar teacher Howard Roberts, a jazz guitarist who had played on “To Know Him is to Love Him” and “I Love How You Love Me” for Spector already. But Spector wanted a *big* sound — he wanted the rhythm instruments doubled, so there was a second bass player, Jimmy Bond, and a second guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. Along with them and Douglas were piano player Al de Lory and drummer Hal Blaine. This was the first session on which Spector used any of these musicians, and with the exception of Roberts, who hated working on Spector’s sessions and soon stopped, this group put together by Douglas would become the core of what became known as “The Wrecking Crew”, a loose group of musicians who would play on a large number of the hit records that would come out of LA in the sixties. Spector also had a guaranteed hit song — one by Gene Pitney. While Pitney wrote few of his own records, he’d established himself a parallel career as a writer for other people. He’d written “Today’s Teardrops”, the B-side of Roy Orbison’s hit “Blue Angel”: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Today’s Teardrops”] And had followed that up with a couple of the biggest hits of the early sixties, Bobby Vee’s “Rubber Ball”: [Excerpt: Bobby Vee, “Rubber Ball”] And Ricky Nelson’s “Hello Mary Lou”: [Excerpt: Ricky Nelson, “Hello, Mary Lou”] Pitney had written a song, “He’s a Rebel”, that was very strongly inspired by “Uptown”, and Aaron Schroeder, Pitney’s publisher, had given the song to Spector. But Spector knew Schroeder, and knew that when he gave you a song, he was going to give it to every other producer who came knocking as well. “He’s a Rebel” was definitely going to be a massive hit for someone, and he wanted it to be for the Crystals. He phoned them up and told them to come out to LA to record the song. And they said no. The Crystals had become sick of Spector. He’d made them record songs like “He Hit Me and it Felt Like a Kiss”, he’d refused to let their lead singer sing lead, and they’d not seen any money from their two big hits. They weren’t going to fly from New York to LA just because he said so. Spector needed a new group, in LA, that he could record doing the song before someone else did it. He could use the Crystals’ name — Philles had the right to put out records by whoever they liked and call it the Crystals — he just needed a group. He found one in the Blossoms, a group who had connections to many of the people Spector was working with. Jack Nitzsche’s wife sometimes sang with them on sessions, and they’d also sung on a Duane Eddy record that Lester Sill had worked on, “Dance With the Guitar Man”, where they’d been credited as the Rebelettes: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, “Dance With the Guitar Man”] The Blossoms had actually been making records in LA for nearly eight years at this point. They’d started out as the Dreamers one of the many groups who’d been discovered by Johnny Otis, back in the early fifties, and had also been part of the scene around the Penguins, one of whom went to school with some of the girls. They started out as a six-piece group, but slimmed down to a quartet after their first record, on which they were the backing group for Richard Berry: [Excerpt: Richard Berry, “At Last”] The first stable lineup of the Dreamers consisted of Fanita James, Gloria Jones (not the one who would later record “Tainted Love”), and the twin sisters Annette and Nanette Williams. They worked primarily with Berry, backing him on five singles in the mid fifties, and also recording songs he wrote for them under their own name, like “Do Not Forget”, which actually featured another singer, Jennell Hawkins, on lead: [Excerpt: The Dreamers, “Do Not Forget”] They also sang backing vocals on plenty of other R&B records from people in the LA R&B scene — for example it’s them singing backing vocals, with Jesse Belvin, on Etta James’ “Good Rocking Daddy”: [Excerpt: Etta James, “Good Rocking Daddy”] The group signed to Capitol Records in 1957, but not under the name The Dreamers — an executive there said that they all had different skin tones and it made them look like flowers, so they became the Blossoms. They were only at Capitol for a year, but during that time an important lineup change happened — Nanette quit the group and was replaced by a singer called Darlene Wright. From that point on The Blossoms was the main name the group went under, though they also recorded under other names, for example using the name The Playgirls to record “Gee But I’m Lonesome”, a song written by Bruce Johnston, who was briefly dating Annette Williams at the time: [Excerpt: The Playgirls, “Gee But I’m Lonesome”] By 1961 Annette had left the group, and they were down to a trio of Fanita, Gloria, and Darlene. Their records, under whatever name, didn’t do very well, but they became the first-call session singers in LA, working on records by everyone from Sam Cooke to Gene Autry.  So it was the Blossoms who were called on in late 1962 to record “He’s a Rebel”, and it was Darlene Wright who earned her session fee, and no royalties, for singing the lead on a number one record: [Excerpt: The “Crystals” (The Blossoms), “He’s a Rebel”] From that point on, the Blossoms would sing on almost every Spector session for the next three years, and Darlene, who he renamed Darlene Love, would become Spector’s go-to lead vocalist for records under her own name, the Blossoms, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, and the Crystals. It was lucky for Spector that he decided to go this route rather than wait for the Crystals, not only because it introduced him to the Blossoms, but because  he’d been right about Aaron Schroeder. As Spector and Sill sat together in the studio where they were mastering the record, some musicians on a break from the studio next door wandered in, and said, “Hey man. we were just playing the same goddam song!” Literally in the next room as Spector mastered the record, his friend Snuff Garrett was producing Vicki Carr singing “He’s a Rebel”: [Excerpt: Vicki Carr, “He’s a Rebel”] Philles got their version out first, and Carr’s record sank without trace, while “The Crystals” went to number one, keeping the song’s writer off the top spot, as Gene Pitney sat at number two with a Bacharach and David song, “Only Love Can Break a Heart”: [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, “Only Love Can Break a Heart”] The Crystals were shocked that Spector released a Crystals record without any of them on it, but La La Brooks had a similar enough voice to Darlene Love’s that they were able to pull the song off live. They had a bit more of a problem with the follow-up, also by the Blossoms but released as the Crystals: [Excerpt: “The Crystals”/The Blossoms, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”] La La could sing that fine, but she had to work on the spoken part — Darlene was from California and La La had a thick Brooklyn accent. She managed it, just about. As La La was doing such a good job of singing Darlene Love’s parts live — and, more importantly, as she was only fifteen and so didn’t complain about things like royalties — the Crystals finally did get their way and have La La start singing the leads on their singles, starting with “Da Doo Ron Ron”. The problem is, none of the other Crystals were on those records — it was La La singing with the Blossoms, plus other session singers. Listen out for the low harmony in “Da Doo Ron Ron” and see if you recognise the voice: [Excerpt: The Crystals, “Da Doo Ron Ron”] Cher would later move on to bigger things than being a fill-in Crystal. “Da Doo Ron Ron” became another big hit, making number three in the charts, and the follow-up, “Then He Kissed Me”, with La La once again on lead vocals, also made the top ten, but the group were falling apart — Spector was playing La La off against the rest of the group, just to cause trouble, and he’d also lost interest in them once he discovered another group, The Ronettes, who we’ll be hearing more about in future episodes. The singles following “Then He Kissed Me” barely scraped the bottom of the Hot One Hundred, and the group left Philles in 1964. They got a payoff of five thousand dollars, in lieu of all future royalties on any of their recordings. They had no luck having hits without Spector, and one by one the group members left, and the group split up by 1966. Mary, Barbara, and Dee Dee briefly reunited as the Crystals in 1971, and La La and Dee Dee made an album together in the eighties of remakes of the group’s hits, but nothing came of any of these. Dee Dee continues to tour under the Crystals name in North America, while La La performs solo in America and under the Crystals name in Europe. Barbara, the lead singer on the group’s first hits, died in 2018. Darlene Love continues to perform, but we’ll hear more about her and the Blossoms in future episodes, I’m sure. The Crystals were treated appallingly by Spector, and are not often treated much better by the fans, who see them as just interchangeable parts in a machine created by a genius. But it should be remembered that they were the ones who brought Spector the song that became the first Philles hit, that both Barbara and La La were fine singers who sang lead on classic hit records, and that Spector taking all the credit for a team effort doesn’t mean he deserved it. Both the Crystals and the Blossoms deserved better than to have their identities erased in return for a flat session fee, in order to service the ego of one man.

Episode 104 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "He's a Rebel", and how a song recorded by the Blossoms was released under the name of the Crystals.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. The material on Gene Pitney mostly comes from his page on This is My Story. Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson is a good overview of the Brill Building scene. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era, including articles on both The Crystals and the Blossoms. I've referred to two biographies of Spector in this episode, Phil Spector: Out of His Head by Richard Williams and He's a Rebel by Mark Ribkowsky. And information on the Wrecking Crew largely comes from The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. There are many compilations available with some of the hits Spector produced, but I recommend getting Back to Mono, a four-CD overview of his career containing all the major singles put out by Philles.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A brief note -- there are some very brief mentions of domestic abuse here. Nothing I think will upset anyone, but you might want to check the transcript if you're at all unsure. Up to this point, whenever we've looked at a girl group, it's been at one that had, to a greater or lesser extent, some control over their own career. Groups like the Marvelettes, the Chantels, and the Bobbettes all wrote their own material, at least at first, and had distinctive personalities before they ever made a record. But today, we're going to look at a group whose identity was so subsumed in that of their producer that the record we're looking at was released under the name of a different group from the one that recorded it. We're going to look at "He's a Rebel", which was recorded by the Blossoms and released by the Crystals. [Excerpt: “The Crystals” (The Blossoms), "He's a Rebel"] The Crystals, from their very beginnings, were intended as a vehicle for the dreams of men, rather than for their own ambitions. Whereas the girl groups we've looked at so far all formed as groups of friends at school before they moved into professional singing, the Crystals were put together by a man named Benny Wells. Wells had a niece, Barbara Alston, who sang with a couple of her schoolfriends, Mary Thomas and Myrna Giraud. Wells put those three together with two other girls, Dee Dee Kenniebrew and Patsy Wright, to form a five-piece vocal group. Wells seems not to have had much concept of what was in the charts at the time -- the descriptions of the music he had the girls singing talk about him wanting them to sound like the Modernaires, the vocal group who sang with Glenn Miller's band in the early 1940s. But the girls went along with Wells, and Wells had good enough ears to recognise a hit when one was brought to him -- and one was brought to him by Patsy Wright's brother-in-law, Leroy Bates. Bates had written a song called "There's No Other Like My Baby", and Wells could tell it had potential. Incidentally, some books say that the song was based on a gospel song called "There's No Other Like My Jesus", and that claim is repeated on Wikipedia, but I can't find any evidence of a song of that name other than people talking about "There's No Other Like My Baby". There is a gospel song called "There's No Other Name Like Jesus", but that has no obvious resemblance to Bates' song, and so I'm going to assume that the song was totally original. As well as bringing the song, Bates also brought the fledgling group a name -- he had a daughter, Crystal Bates, after whom the group named themselves. The newly-named Crystals took their song to the offices of Hill and Range Music, which as well as being a publishing company also owned Big Top Records, the label that had put out the original version of "Twist and Shout", which had so annoyed Bert Berns. And it was there that they ended up meeting up with Phil Spector. After leaving his role at Atlantic, Spector had started working as a freelance producer, including working for Big Top. According to Spector -- a notorious liar, it's important to remember -- he worked during this time on dozens of hits for which he didn't get any credit, just to earn money. But we do know about some of the records he produced during this time. For example, there was one by a new singer called Gene Pitney. Pitney had been knocking around for years, recording for Decca as part of a duo called Jamie and Jane: [Excerpt: Jamie and Jane, "Faithful Our Love"] And for Blaze Records as Billy Bryan: [Excerpt: Billy Bryan, "Going Back to My Love"] But he'd recently signed to Musicor, a label owned by Aaron Schroeder, and had recorded a hit under his own name. Pitney had written "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away", and had taken advantage of the new multitracking technology to record his vocals six times over, creating a unique sound that took the record into the top forty: [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away"] But while that had been a hit, his second single for Musicor was a flop, and so for the third single, Musicor decided to pull out the big guns. They ran a session at which basically the whole of the Brill Building turned up. Leiber and Stoller were to produce a song they'd written for Pitney, the new hot husband-and-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were there, as was Burt Bacharach, and so were Goffin and King, who wrote the song that *Spector* was to produce for Pitney. All of them were in the control booth, and all of them were chipping in ideas. As you might expect with that many cooks, the session did not go smoothly, and to make matters worse, Pitney was suffering from a terrible cold. The session ended up costing thirteen thousand dollars, at a time when an average recording session cost five hundred dollars. On the song Spector was producing on that session, Goffin and King's "Every Breath I Take", Pitney knew that with the cold he would be completely unable to hit the last note in full voice, and went into falsetto. Luckily, everyone thought it sounded good, and he could pretend it was deliberate, rather than the result of necessity: [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, "Every Breath I Take"] The record only went to number forty-two, but it resuscitated Pitney's singing career, and forged a working relationship between the two men. But soon after that, Spector had flown back to LA to work with his old friend Lester Sill. Sill and producer/songwriter, Lee Hazelwood, had been making records with the guitarist Duane Eddy, producing a string of hits like “Rebel Rouser”: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Rebel Rouser"] But Eddy had recently signed directly to a label, rather than going through Sill and Hazelwood's company as before, and so Sill and Hazelwood had been looking for new artists, and they'd recently signed a group called the Paris Sisters to their production company. Sill had decided to get Spector in to produce the group, and Spector came up with a production that Sill was sure would be a hit, on a song called "I Love How You Love Me", written by Barry Mann with another writer called Jack Keller: [Excerpt: The Paris Sisters, "I Love How You Love Me"] Spector was becoming a perfectionist -- he insisted on recording the rhythm track for that record at one studio, and the string part at another, and apparently spent fifty hours on the mix -- and Sill was spending more and more time in the studio with Spector, fascinated at his attitude to the work he was doing. This led to a breakup between Sill and Hazelwood -- their business relationship was already strained, but Hazelwood got jealous of all the time that Sill was spending with Spector, and decided to split their partnership and go and produce Duane Eddy, without Sill, at Eddy's new label. So Sill was suddenly in the market for a new business partner, and he and Spector decided that they were going to start up their own label, Philles, although by this point everyone who had ever worked with Spector was warning Sill that it was a bad idea to go into business with him. But Spector and Sill kept their intentions secret for a while, and so when Spector met the Crystals at Hill and Range's offices, everyone at Hill and Range just assumed that he was still working for them as a freelance producer, and that the Crystals were going to be recording for Big Top. Freddie Bienstock of Hill & Range later said, "We were very angry because we felt they were Big Top artists. He was merely supposed to produce them for us. There was no question about the fact that he was just rehearsing them for Big Top—hell, he rehearsed them for weeks in our offices. And then he just stole them right out of here. That precipitated a breach of contract with us. We were just incensed because that was a terrific group, and for him to do that shows the type of character he was. We felt he was less than ethical, and, obviously, he was then shown the door.” Bienstock had further words for Spector too, ones I can't repeat here because of content rules about adult language, but they weren't flattering. Spector had been dating Bienstock's daughter, with Bienstock's approval, but that didn't last once Spector betrayed Bienstock. But Spector didn't care. He had his own New York girl group, one that could compete with the Bobbettes or the Chantels or the Shirelles, and he was going to make the Crystals as big as any of them, and he wasn't going to cut Big Top in. He slowed down "There's No Other Like My Baby" and it became the first release on Philles Records, with Barbara Alston singing lead: [Excerpt: The Crystals, "There's No Other Like My Baby"] That record was cut late at night in June 1961. In fact it was cut on Prom Night -- three of the girls came straight to the session from their High School prom, still wearing their prom dresses. Spector wrote the B-side, a song that was originally intended to be the A-side called "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby", but everyone quickly realised that "There's No Other Like My Baby" was the hit, and it made the top twenty. While Spector was waiting for the money to come in on the first Philles record, he took another job, with Liberty Records, working for his friend Snuff Garrett. He got a thirty thousand dollar advance, made a single flop record with them with an unknown singer named Obrey Wilson, and then quit, keeping his thirty thousand dollars. Once "There's No Other" made the charts, Spector took the Crystals into the studio again, to record a song by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that he'd got from Aldon Music. Spector was becoming increasingly convinced that he'd made a mistake in partnering with Lester Sill, and he should really have been working with Don Kirshner, and he was in discussions with Kirshner which came to nothing about them having some sort of joint project. While those discussions fell through, almost all the songs that Spector would use for the next few years would come from Aldon songwriters, and "Uptown" was a perfect example of the new kind of socially-relevant pop songwriting that had been pioneered by Goffin and King, but which Mann and Weil were now making their own. Before becoming a professional songwriter, Weil had been part of the Greenwich Village folk scene, and while she wasn't going to write anything as explicitly political as the work of Pete Seeger, she thought that songs should at least try to be about the real world. "Uptown" was the first example of a theme which would become a major motif for the Crystals' records -- a song about a man who is looked down upon by society, but who the singer believes is better than his reputation. Mann and Weil's song combined that potent teen emotion with an inspiration Weil had had, seeing a handsome Black man pushing a hand truck in the Garment District, and realising that even though he was oppressed by his job, and "a nobody" when he was working downtown, he was still somebody when he was at home. They originally wrote the song for Tony Orlando to sing, but Spector insisted, rightly, that the song worked better with female voices, and that the Crystals should do it. Spector took Mann and Weil's song and gave it a production that evoked the Latin feel of Leiber and Stoller's records for the Drifters: [Excerpt: The Crystals, "Uptown"] By the time of this second record, the Crystals had already been through one lineup change. As soon as she left school, Myrna Giraud got married, and she didn't want to perform on stage any more. She would still sing with the girls in the studio for a little while -- she's on every track of their first album, though she left altogether soon after this recording -- but she was a married woman now and didn't want to be in a group.  The girls needed a replacement, and they also needed something else -- a lead singer. All the girls loved singing, but none of them wanted to be out in front singing lead. Luckily, Dee Dee Kenniebrew's mother was a secretary at the school attended by a fourteen-year-old gospel singer named La La Brooks, and she heard Brooks singing and invited her to join the group. Brooks soon became the group's lead vocalist on stage. But in the studio, Spector didn't want to use her as the lead vocalist. He insisted on Barbara singing the lead on "Uptown", but in a sign of things to come, Mann and Weil weren't happy with her performance -- Spector had to change parts of the melody to accommodate her range -- and they begged Spector to rerecord the lead vocal with Little Eva singing. However, Eva became irritated with Spector's incessant demands for more takes and his micromanagement, cursed him out, and walked out of the studio. The record was released with Barbara's original lead vocal, and while Mann and Weil weren't happy with that, listeners were, as it went to number thirteen on the charts: [Excerpt: The Crystals, "Uptown"] Little Eva later released her own version of the song, on the Dimension Dolls compilation we talked about in the episode on "The Loco-Motion": [Excerpt: Little Eva, "Uptown"] It was Little Eva who inspired the next Crystals single, as well -- as we talked about in the episode on her, she inspired a truly tasteless Goffin and King song called "He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss", which I will not be excerpting, but which was briefly released as the Crystals' third single, before being withdrawn after people objected to hearing teenage girls sing about how romantic and loving domestic abuse is. There seems to be some suggestion that the record was released partly as a way for Spector to annoy Lester Sill, who by all accounts was furious at the release. Spector was angry at Sill over the amount of money he'd made from the Paris Sisters recordings, and decided that he was being treated unfairly and wanted to force Sill out of their partnership. Certainly the next recording by the Crystals was meant to get rid of some other business associates. Two of Philles' distributors had a contract which said they were entitled to the royalties on two Crystals singles. So the second one was a ten-minute song called "The Screw", split over two sides of a disc, which sounded like this: [Excerpt: The Crystals, "The Screw"] Only a handful of promotional copies of that were ever produced. One went to Lester Sill, who by this point had been bought out of his share of the company for a small fraction of what it was worth. The last single Spector recorded for Philles while Sill was still involved with the label was another Crystals record, one that had the involvement of many people Sill had brought into Spector's orbit, and who would continue working with him long after the two men stopped working together. Spector had decided he was going to start recording in California again, and two of Sill's assistants would become regular parts of Spector's new hit-making machine. The first of these was a composer and arranger called Jack Nitzsche, who we'll be seeing a lot more of in this podcast over the next couple of years, in some unexpected places. Nitzsche was a young songwriter, whose biggest credit up to this point was a very minor hit for Preston Epps, "Bongo, Bongo, Bongo": [Excerpt: Preston Epps, "Bongo Bongo Bongo"] Nitzsche would become Spector's most important collaborator, and his arrangements, as much as Spector's production, are what characterise the "Wall of Sound" for which Spector would become famous.  The other assistant of Sill's who became important to Spector's future was a saxophone player named Steve Douglas. We've seen Douglas before, briefly, in the episode on "LSD-25" -- he played in the original lineup of Kip and the Flips, one of the groups we talked about in that episode. He'd left Kip and the Flips to join Duane Eddy's band, and it was through Eddy that he had started working with Sill, when he played on many of Eddy's hits, most famously "Peter Gunn": [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Peter Gunn"] Douglas was the union contractor for the session, and for most of the rest of Spector's sixties sessions. This is something we've not talked about previously, but when we look at records produced in LA for the next few years, in particular, it's something that will come up a lot. When a producer wanted to make records at the time, he (for they were all men) would not contact all the musicians himself. Instead, he'd get in touch with a trusted musician and say "I have a session at three o'clock. I need two guitars, bass, drums, a clarinet and a cello" (or whatever combination of instruments), and sometimes might say, "If you can get this particular player, that would be good". The musician would then find out which other musicians were available, get them into the studio, and file the forms which made sure they got paid according to union rules. The contractor, not the producer, decided who was going to play on the session. In the case of this Crystals session, Spector already had a couple of musicians in mind -- a bass player named Ray Pohlman, and his old guitar teacher Howard Roberts, a jazz guitarist who had played on "To Know Him is to Love Him" and "I Love How You Love Me" for Spector already. But Spector wanted a *big* sound -- he wanted the rhythm instruments doubled, so there was a second bass player, Jimmy Bond, and a second guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. Along with them and Douglas were piano player Al de Lory and drummer Hal Blaine. This was the first session on which Spector used any of these musicians, and with the exception of Roberts, who hated working on Spector's sessions and soon stopped, this group put together by Douglas would become the core of what became known as "The Wrecking Crew", a loose group of musicians who would play on a large number of the hit records that would come out of LA in the sixties. Spector also had a guaranteed hit song -- one by Gene Pitney. While Pitney wrote few of his own records, he'd established himself a parallel career as a writer for other people. He'd written "Today's Teardrops", the B-side of Roy Orbison's hit "Blue Angel": [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Today's Teardrops"] And had followed that up with a couple of the biggest hits of the early sixties, Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball": [Excerpt: Bobby Vee, "Rubber Ball"] And Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou": [Excerpt: Ricky Nelson, "Hello, Mary Lou"] Pitney had written a song, "He's a Rebel", that was very strongly inspired by "Uptown", and Aaron Schroeder, Pitney's publisher, had given the song to Spector. But Spector knew Schroeder, and knew that when he gave you a song, he was going to give it to every other producer who came knocking as well. "He's a Rebel" was definitely going to be a massive hit for someone, and he wanted it to be for the Crystals. He phoned them up and told them to come out to LA to record the song. And they said no. The Crystals had become sick of Spector. He'd made them record songs like "He Hit Me and it Felt Like a Kiss", he'd refused to let their lead singer sing lead, and they'd not seen any money from their two big hits. They weren't going to fly from New York to LA just because he said so. Spector needed a new group, in LA, that he could record doing the song before someone else did it. He could use the Crystals' name -- Philles had the right to put out records by whoever they liked and call it the Crystals -- he just needed a group. He found one in the Blossoms, a group who had connections to many of the people Spector was working with. Jack Nitzsche's wife sometimes sang with them on sessions, and they'd also sung on a Duane Eddy record that Lester Sill had worked on, "Dance With the Guitar Man", where they'd been credited as the Rebelettes: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Dance With the Guitar Man"] The Blossoms had actually been making records in LA for nearly eight years at this point. They'd started out as the Dreamers one of the many groups who'd been discovered by Johnny Otis, back in the early fifties, and had also been part of the scene around the Penguins, one of whom went to school with some of the girls. They started out as a six-piece group, but slimmed down to a quartet after their first record, on which they were the backing group for Richard Berry: [Excerpt: Richard Berry, "At Last"] The first stable lineup of the Dreamers consisted of Fanita James, Gloria Jones (not the one who would later record "Tainted Love"), and the twin sisters Annette and Nanette Williams. They worked primarily with Berry, backing him on five singles in the mid fifties, and also recording songs he wrote for them under their own name, like "Do Not Forget", which actually featured another singer, Jennell Hawkins, on lead: [Excerpt: The Dreamers, "Do Not Forget"] They also sang backing vocals on plenty of other R&B records from people in the LA R&B scene -- for example it's them singing backing vocals, with Jesse Belvin, on Etta James' "Good Rocking Daddy": [Excerpt: Etta James, "Good Rocking Daddy"] The group signed to Capitol Records in 1957, but not under the name The Dreamers -- an executive there said that they all had different skin tones and it made them look like flowers, so they became the Blossoms. They were only at Capitol for a year, but during that time an important lineup change happened -- Nanette quit the group and was replaced by a singer called Darlene Wright. From that point on The Blossoms was the main name the group went under, though they also recorded under other names, for example using the name The Playgirls to record "Gee But I'm Lonesome", a song written by Bruce Johnston, who was briefly dating Annette Williams at the time: [Excerpt: The Playgirls, "Gee But I'm Lonesome"] By 1961 Annette had left the group, and they were down to a trio of Fanita, Gloria, and Darlene. Their records, under whatever name, didn't do very well, but they became the first-call session singers in LA, working on records by everyone from Sam Cooke to Gene Autry.  So it was the Blossoms who were called on in late 1962 to record "He's a Rebel", and it was Darlene Wright who earned her session fee, and no royalties, for singing the lead on a number one record: [Excerpt: The "Crystals" (The Blossoms), "He's a Rebel"] From that point on, the Blossoms would sing on almost every Spector session for the next three years, and Darlene, who he renamed Darlene Love, would become Spector's go-to lead vocalist for records under her own name, the Blossoms, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, and the Crystals. It was lucky for Spector that he decided to go this route rather than wait for the Crystals, not only because it introduced him to the Blossoms, but because  he'd been right about Aaron Schroeder. As Spector and Sill sat together in the studio where they were mastering the record, some musicians on a break from the studio next door wandered in, and said, "Hey man. we were just playing the same goddam song!" Literally in the next room as Spector mastered the record, his friend Snuff Garrett was producing Vicki Carr singing "He's a Rebel": [Excerpt: Vicki Carr, "He's a Rebel"] Philles got their version out first, and Carr's record sank without trace, while "The Crystals" went to number one, keeping the song's writer off the top spot, as Gene Pitney sat at number two with a Bacharach and David song, "Only Love Can Break a Heart": [Excerpt: Gene Pitney, "Only Love Can Break a Heart"] The Crystals were shocked that Spector released a Crystals record without any of them on it, but La La Brooks had a similar enough voice to Darlene Love's that they were able to pull the song off live. They had a bit more of a problem with the follow-up, also by the Blossoms but released as the Crystals: [Excerpt: "The Crystals"/The Blossoms, "He's Sure the Boy I Love"] La La could sing that fine, but she had to work on the spoken part -- Darlene was from California and La La had a thick Brooklyn accent. She managed it, just about. As La La was doing such a good job of singing Darlene Love's parts live -- and, more importantly, as she was only fifteen and so didn't complain about things like royalties -- the Crystals finally did get their way and have La La start singing the leads on their singles, starting with "Da Doo Ron Ron". The problem is, none of the other Crystals were on those records -- it was La La singing with the Blossoms, plus other session singers. Listen out for the low harmony in "Da Doo Ron Ron" and see if you recognise the voice: [Excerpt: The Crystals, "Da Doo Ron Ron"] Cher would later move on to bigger things than being a fill-in Crystal. "Da Doo Ron Ron" became another big hit, making number three in the charts, and the follow-up, "Then He Kissed Me", with La La once again on lead vocals, also made the top ten, but the group were falling apart -- Spector was playing La La off against the rest of the group, just to cause trouble, and he'd also lost interest in them once he discovered another group, The Ronettes, who we'll be hearing more about in future episodes. The singles following "Then He Kissed Me" barely scraped the bottom of the Hot One Hundred, and the group left Philles in 1964. They got a payoff of five thousand dollars, in lieu of all future royalties on any of their recordings. They had no luck having hits without Spector, and one by one the group members left, and the group split up by 1966. Mary, Barbara, and Dee Dee briefly reunited as the Crystals in 1971, and La La and Dee Dee made an album together in the eighties of remakes of the group's hits, but nothing came of any of these. Dee Dee continues to tour under the Crystals name in North America, while La La performs solo in America and under the Crystals name in Europe. Barbara, the lead singer on the group's first hits, died in 2018. Darlene Love continues to perform, but we'll hear more about her and the Blossoms in future episodes, I'm sure. The Crystals were treated appallingly by Spector, and are not often treated much better by the fans, who see them as just interchangeable parts in a machine created by a genius. But it should be remembered that they were the ones who brought Spector the song that became the first Philles hit, that both Barbara and La La were fine singers who sang lead on classic hit records, and that Spector taking all the credit for a team effort doesn't mean he deserved it. Both the Crystals and the Blossoms deserved better than to have their identities erased in return for a flat session fee, in order to service the ego of one man.

The drum chair and he who sits in it. A barrelhouse of polkas, stripper gigs, game shows, jingles and soundtracks. It's about feel. The terms that have come about are nothing more then playing behind in front or on the beat. When my guest hit the studio scene he was ingratiated by Earl Palmer who was feeling the groove to many grooves in fact that he recommended my guest to all the Producers, like Phil Spector who hired jazzers like Conte Condoli, Plas Johnson, Pete Jolly and my guest. Baja Marimba, Psychedelic Percussion, Three's Company, (Come and Knock on my Door) Dawg Grass with David Grisman, stone Jazz gigs with Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco playing Dee Dee's Dilemma into a little boss's into a ballad into a funky blues. My guest felt his way through the music because he knows that songs tell a story and the drums have to envelop that story. Some stories are happy or sad, some speak to regions of our country some don't make sense at all. Some stories go on for decades with the same performers like John Lennon and others were a one shot deal. He is an master drummer just like Elvin Jones, Jo Jones and Philly Joe Jones and Benny Benjamin He is the most recorded studio drummer in the history of modern recorded music. He's given others opportunities because not all enter from the same entrance. Hal Blaine, welcome to the JFS --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jake-feinberg/support

Christian “Big New York” de Mesones has been playing bass guitar for over 40 years.  He was only 18 years old when he graduated from the world-famous Bass Institute of Technology (now the Musician’s Institute) in Hollywood, California where he had the opportunity to study and workshop with greats such as Abe Laboriel, Louis Johnson, Tim Bogart, Howard Alden, Steve Morse, Pat Metheny, and the late Tommy Tedesco and Ray Brown.  By personal request from visiting guitar faculty member and legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino, he performed an original composition for his graduation ceremony. On his new release, Christian has returned to his roots, focusing on the deeply personal Latin, funk, and rock influences that shaped his love for musical composition.  He spent 2018 performing locally and composing and recording additional material to round out his long-awaited, debut solo release, “They Call Me Big New York”.   Follow Christian on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Integrity, service, skill, passion, enthusiasm, and care are a few words that describe Dave Cleveland. Dave can light up a room with his smile, kind words and world class guitar parts. He has played live or in the studio for Steven Curtis Chapman, Rich Mullins, Rebecca St. James, FFH, Natalie Grant, Joy Williams, Jaci Velasquez, Little Big Town, Sara Groves, Ty Herndon, The Gettys, Gordon Mote, Phillips Craig and Dean, Matt Maher and so many more. Dave and Jacob talk about his musical parents, how he overcame some struggles in his life, his move to Nashville, and Tommy Tedesco. For more about Dave go to www.DaveCleveland.com Follow Dave on Instagram @dave_cleveland1 Follow Jacob on Instagram @JacobLoweryMusic Follow us on Instagram @TheSidemanChronicles Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review!

Probably the least stressful thing for John Williams in 1984 was composing the score to "The River," which reunited him with director Mark Rydell for the fourth and final time. Williams employed the talents of longtime collaborator Tommy Tedesco for the score's wonderful guitar solos, and created an Oscar-nominated score light years from the work he had done on his previous two films. The work kept his mind off the drama that unfolded earlier in the summer when he abruptly resigned as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra over reactions from musicians. And after working on "The River," Williams found himself quite busy in 1985 though he had zero film commitments that year. Host Jeff Commings talks about the story behind Quincy Jones taking over as composer on "The Color Purple," Williams' return to television and the concerto he composed for the Boston Pops after the relationship was rekindled.

But wait, there's more. At 3 1/2 hours podcast 34 was hardly short. Don't even ask how we left this out of that podcast but we did, we found it and now you can listen to even more of Dan's stories. Included in this podcast are his stories of interviewing George Harrison and more about his father's record collection and Tommy Tedesco. We think it will be many moons before Dan's record for length of podcast and number of entertaining stories is equaled. Enjoy.

Esteemed guitar virtuoso and educator DANIEL GILBERT plugs a Suhr guitar into a Suhr amp and demonstrates the mighty power of triads and other handy guitar shapes. Gilbert also reflects on his 30+ years of teaching at Musicians Institute, as well as shares hilarious and inspiring stories of those magical days back when he, Tommy Tedesco, Pat Hicks, Howard Roberts, Beth Marlis, Frank Gambale, Paul Gilbert, Jennifer Batten, Don Mock, Ron Escheté, Steve Lynch, and many other famous alumni and teachers all roamed the halls and performance rooms of GIT together. Hosted by JUDE GOLD. Presented by Guitar Player magazine and guitarplayer.com.

John Carruthers has established himself as a leading expert on guitars and amplifiers as a designer, builder and repairman. Working along side Leo Fender at Music Man, John helped improve the quality of the product line and years later helped establish a series of instruments for Yamaha including their electric bass and acoustic guitar line. John’s reputation grew in part due to a decade long column he wrote for Guitar Player Magazine, and his dedication to teaching.Over the years John has worked on instruments for artists including the Rolling Stones, Byrds, Doors, Eagles, CSNY, Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Lee Sklar, Chuck Rainey, Jimmy Johnson, Alphonso Johnson, Bob Weir, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Lee Ritenour, Larry Coryel, Kenny Loggins, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, James Burton, Heart, Rick Springfield, Tom Petty, James Taylor, Devo and many more. John’s amazing career as a master luthier has spanned nearly 50 plus years.

Bill and Brian continue having fun on their summer vacation, but in the meantime, we won't leave you without an episode. So we hung out and spent some time chatting about the legendary musicians that ruled the rock and roll studios in the 60s, the Wrecking Crew. We talk about the film based on this loose collection of musicians, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass, Hal Blaine on drums, a host of other musicians, some of the songs they contributed to, the producers they collaborated with like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, and even a little bit about the Monkees as we talk about about what made these people great! 

The son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco pays tribute to his late father and a core group of studio musicians who played on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s and '70s, including "California Girls" and "Mrs. Robinson.The Wrecking Crew was a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles in the 1960s who played on 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 and were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The amount of work that they were involved in was tremendous.  They were also involved in groups that I like to call the Milli Vanillis of the day. A producer would get the guys in and lay down some instrumental tracks. If it became a hit, they would record an album and put a group together to go on the road. This happened many times with groups like the Marketts, Routers, and T-Bones. The next day they would do the same thing and call it another name. Same musicians, but different group name.

MAKE MOVES 11 feat. Denny Tedesco, Producer of The Wrecking Crew! tells us how he made a movie that nobody thought he could make… with his own money… in his own way. The end result was an award winning documentary about an elite crew of Los Angeles studio musicians – including his father, Tommy Tedesco, one of the most recorded guitar players in history – who played on literally all of the hits to come from the West Coast music scene during the 1960’s. But Denny explains that he had to invest almost two decades of his life and be willing to take huge personal risks to finish the movie on his own terms. He discusses how he did it, why he couldn’t stop, the ramifications for his family, his personal connection to the movie’s story, and he reveals his ability to generate creative solutions. With permission, this episode features four songs off of The Wrecking Crew! sound track: Be My Baby by the Ronettes, God Only Knows by the Beachboys, Danke Shoen by Wayne Newton, and The Beat Goes On by Sonny & Cher. MM 11 Blogpost:  http://bit.ly/2tjDN7j  MM 11 on iTunes: http://apple.co/2tjvkRj  MM 11 on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2sj3T5k  MM 11 Download: http://bit.ly/2thgD0Q  MAKE MOVES website: www.makemoveswithjohn.com  MAKE MOVES Facebook Page: @makemoveswithjohn MAKE MOVES EXCLUSIVES Group: http://bit.ly/2t75JqK  MAKE MOVES on Instagram @makemoveswithjohn

This is part 2 of our conversation with filmmaker and crowdfunder Denny Tedesco. Denny has a direct link to some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. Throughout the 50s and 60s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles – known as The Wrecking Crew – became the go-to musicians for producers and musicians including Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beach Boys and dozens (if not hundreds) of others. Their phenomenal contribution to pop music was largely uncredited by record labels who may have been too embarrassed to put the same names on so many records. At the centre of The Wrecking Crew was guitarist Tommy Tedesco and in this episode we’re talking with his son Denny who directed and produced an incredible documentary that tells the whole story. Denny released his documentary – also titled “The Wrecking Crew” – back in 2008 and it did fantastically well in film festivals around the world. But to release the film to wider audience he needed to raise enough money to pay the licensing fees for the 120 classic songs featured in the film. Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, he was still short. So Denny turned to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise a further quarter of a million dollars to cover the rest of the fees. Happily, more than 4,000 music-loving backers shared his vision…

Our guest on this edition of Crowd Scene has a direct link to some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. Throughout the 50s and 60s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles – known as The Wrecking Crew – became the go-to musicians for producers and musicians including Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beach Boys and dozens (if not hundreds) of others. Their phenomenal contribution to pop music was largely uncredited by record labels who may have been too embarrassed to put the same names on so many records. At the centre of The Wrecking Crew was guitarist Tommy Tedesco and in this episode we’re talking with his son Denny who directed and produced an incredible documentary that tells the whole story. Denny released his documentary – also titled “The Wrecking Crew” – back in 2008 and it did fantastically well in film festivals around the world. But to release the film to wider audience he needed to raise enough money to pay the licensing fees for the 120 classic songs featured in the film. Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, he was still short. So Denny turned to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise a further quarter of a million dollars to cover the rest of the fees. Happily, more than 4,000 music-loving backers shared his vision…

Om Maya Angelou, författare, dansare och sångerska. Med tonsättaren Renée Baker och ljudkonstnären Yvette Jackson. Tredje delen av "När vinden vänder". Birgitta Tollans nya programserie "När vinden vänder" handlar om människor som lyckades förverkliga sig och sina musikaliska drömmar mot alla odds.Medverkar gör dirigenten och tonsättaren Renée Baker från Chicago och ljudkonstnären Yvette Jackson från San Diego.Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud Försök att vara en regnbåge i någon annans moln. Ja, så lyder ett av Maya Angelous motton. Ett annat är: Jag har lärt mig att människor glömmer vad du sa och vad du gjorde, men människor glömmer aldrig hur du fick dem att känna.Maya Angelou skrev dikter, författade sju självbiografier, dansade, skådespelade, skrev filmmanus, sjöng och reciterade. Hon arbetade också under en kort period som servitris, som prostituerad och som hallick.Maya Angelous första självbiografi har titieln I know why the caged bird sings Jag vet varför burfågeln sjunger. Den är tillägnad hennes son och alla löftets starka svarta fåglar som trotsar underläge och gudar och sjunger sina sånger. I sitt poem Caged Bird Burfågel skriver Maya Angelou bland annat: En burfågel kan sällan se ut genom gallret av ilska. Hans vingar är klippta och fötterna bundna, så han öppnar sin strupe och sjunger. Burfågeln sjunger om frihet.Maya Angelou föds 1928 som Marguerite Johnson i St. Louis, Missouri, USA, och dör 2014. Sitt förnamn tar hon efter sin brors smeknamn på henne, "My-a sister". Angelou väljer hon ur sin första makes namn, en grekisk musiker som heter Enistasios Angelos.Hon har kallats en renässanskvinna, karismatisk, passionerad, varm, vis och formidabel. Och elegant. En som kämpade för jämlikhet, tolerans och fred. En medborgarrättsaktivist som arbetade både med Malcolm X och Martin Luther King Jr. En förebild som förmedlade sina erfarenheter av att vara svart i USA.Vinden vänder första gången när Mayas far försvinner från hemmet och modern lämnar barnen till farmodern Anne Henderson i Stamps, Arkansas. Maya tillbringar sina tio första år där, i en av USAs fattigaste regioner, och får djupa erfarenheter av rasåtskillnad och fördomar.Sju år gammal blir hon våldtagen av sin mors pojkvän. Mayas morbror dödar då våldtäktsförbrytaren. Detta blir ett djupt trauma för Maya. Hon blir stum och talar inte -under fem år! De här erfarenheterna skildrar hon i sin första bok: Jag vet varför burfågeln sjunger. Hon skriver:Jag var frivilligt stum. Jag hade en röst men vägrade att använda den. För när jag hörde att mammas pojkvän mördats så trodde jag att min stämma hade dödat en man och då vore det farligt att tala.Romanen Jag vet varför burfågeln sjunger ges ut 1969. Det är hennes vän, den svarte, homosexuelle författaren James Baldwin, som uppmanar henne att börja skriva romaner.- Jag tror att Maya Angelou valde att vara stum av ren självbevarelsedrift. Vi vet alla att tungan är ett mäktigt vapen, säger tonsättaren och dirigenten Renée Baker från Chicago. Även om Maya Angelou aldrig hade öppnat munnen igen så hade hennes röst varit lika stark, och med det menar jag hennes budskap. Allt i hennes liv togs ifrån henne som liten. Ibland återhämtar sig människor aldrig från sådana upplevelser. Hennes kvinnostämma tonade dock aldrig bort.Vinden vänder igen när Maya under andra världskriget flyttar till San Francisco i Kalifornien. Hon får ett stipendium och studerar dans och skådespeleri vid California Labor School. Här tjatar Maya på ett av San Franciscos spårvagnsföretag så ihärdigt att de låter henne bli stadens första kvinnliga spårvagnskonduktör. Hon är endast 15 år och ett år senare föder hon sin son Guy efter ett one-night-stand med en kille i High School. Älskogen var ett forsknings-experiment, skriver hon senare.Maya Angelou börjar sjunga och dansa på olika nattklubbar i San Francisco och får förfrågan om att medverka i en ny Broadwayshow i New York. Ödet vill att hon samtidigt blir erbjuden en plats som rollfiguren/sopranen Clara i operan Porgy and Besssom är på väg till Europa.Maya Angelou väljer Porgy och Bess och vinden vänder igen! Londonpremiären går av stapeln på Stoll Theatre den 9 oktober 1952. Operan spelas till februari 1953 i Europa.Leontyne Price sjunger Bess, William Warfield sjunger Porgy och Cab Calloway gör kokainhandlaren Sporting Life.Den här operan, Porgy and Bess hade haft urpremiär i Boston 1935. Och sin Europa-premiär hade den vid Det Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 1943. Nazisterna ockuperar då Danmark så vid denna uppsättning spelas alla roller av vita artister med svartmålade ansikten, sk blackfaces. Efter 22 utsålda föreställningar lägger nazisterna ner Porgy and Bess i Köpenhamn. Helvita föreställningar spelas även 1945 och 1950 i Zürich och 1948 i Göteborg och Stockholm.Upplevelserna från Europaturnéen gestaltar Maya Angelou i tredje delen i sviten av självbiografier, Sång för livet. Hon skriver: Musiken är min tillflykt. Jag kan krypa in i mellanrummet mellan noterna och kröker min rygg mot ensamheten.1957 medverkar Maya Angelou i filmen Calypso Heat Wave och ger ut albumet Miss Calypso där hon sjunger. Billie Holiday säger året efter till Maya Angelou: Du kommer att bli berömd, men det blir inte för din sång.Maya Angelou återvänder till USA, sjunger in flera skivor och vinner tre Grammys för sina album. 1961 spelar hon en av karaktärerna i Jean Genets off-Broadway-pjäs The Blacks tillsammans med bl a Abbey Lincoln och Cicely Tyson. De gästspelar i Berlin och Genéve.Maya Angelou flyttar med den sydafrikanske frihetskämpen Vusumzi Make till Kairo där hon fungerar som redaktör vid veckomagasinet The Arab Observer.Efter ett år bosätter hon sig med sonen Guy i Accra i Ghana. Vinden vänder igen då sonen, efter en bilolycka blir förlamad och rullstolsburen. De stannar i Ghana under några år och Maya Angelou arbetar vid universitetet, hon är aktiv i den afroamerikanska utlandskolonin, hon är redaktör för The African Review, frilansskribent för Ghana Times, jobbar för Radio Ghana och skådespelar på Ghanas Nationalteater.Angelou var så uppskattad att hon fick sitt eget frimärke i Ghana. Där möter hon medborgarrätts-aktivisten Malcolm X. Han ber henne komma med hem till USA för att bygga upp Organisationen för afro-amerikansk enighet, OAAU.Strax efter hemkomsten till USA mördas Malcolm X av en av sina egna.Några år senare ber Martin Luther King Jr Maya Angelou att organisera en marsch. Marschen skjut upp. På hennes 40-årsdag, den 4 april 1968, skjuts Martin Luther King Jr till döds. Hon blir så chockad att hon slutar fira sina födelsedagar under flera år. Vinden vänder ånyo på ett brutalt sätt.My guilt made music with the tears läser Maya Angelou i sin dikt My guilt - Min skuld,där hon nämner Malcolm X, och Martin Luther King Jr They fought too hard, they loved too well. My crime is Im alive to tell. De kämpade för hårt, de älskade för väl. Mitt brott är att jag lever och kan berätta.Maya Angelou skriver det första filmmanus som någonsin skrivits av en svart kvinna. Filmens titel är Georgia, Georgia och den produceras 1972 av ett svenskt filmbolag och regisseras av svenske regissören och filmkritikern Stig Björkman.Maya Angelou författar även en TV-serie i tio delar om bluesen och det afroamerikanska kulturarvet och 1977 spelar hon Kinta Kuntes farmor Yaisa i den banbrytande TV-serien Roots - Rötter av Alex Hayley.När Bill Clinton svärs in i Vita huset 1993 reciterar Maya Angelou sin dikt On the pulse of morning under ceremonien.Ljudkonstnären Yvette Jackson möter Maya Angelou i highschool. Angelou läser ur sina diktsamlingar och håller ett inspirerande tal. Yvette är en av få elever som får möta henne efteråt.Som 15-åring kände sig Yvette illa till mods efter att ha läst boken Jag vet varför burfågeln sjunger.- Varför måste Maya Angelou berätta sanningen om alla dessa tragiska och plågsamma upplevelser hon haft? Det frågade sig Yvette Jackson förbittrat. Men efter att ha fått höra och möta Maya Angelou personligen blev Yvette lugnad och fick t o m en kram av poeten efter samtalet.Yvette Jacksons egna musikaliska kompositioner är mycket inspirerade av Maya Angelous inställning till sanning och verklighet. Även om hon ännu inte använt Angelous egen röst i sina ljudspel så använder Yvette dokumentärt material; röster och ljud från dagsaktuella, politiska eller sociala teman.I Radiospelet Invisible People komponerade Yvette Jackson in svarta prästers och professorers hate speech, där de skrev och uttalade sig föraktfullt angående president Obamas stöd till samkönade äktenskap. Obama kallades bl a the first gay president och afroamerikaner uppmanades att inte rösta på Obama.- Ett annat ämne var det faktum att flera afroamerikanska kvinnor hade blivit mördade då de antogs vara lesbiska, säger Yvette Jackson.- Maya Angelous röst har en alldeles egen timbre; det är ett mycket distinkt och unikt instrument. Hennes sätt att läsa; pauserna mellan fraserna och rummet mellan orden. Det är musik, säger Yvette Jackson.- För Maya Angelou var musik mycket viktigt. Fast, jag tror inte på den där stereotypen att alla svarta människor kan sjunga, säger tonsättaren och dirigenten Renée Bakeroch lägger upp ett gapskratt. Men det råkar faktiskt vara sant när det gäller Maya Angelou, säger hon. Inte bara sjöng hon bra, hon var också en professionell dansare. En helt igenom fullfjädrar artist med musik i sin själ.- Hennes poetiska uttryck glider av tungan likt en musikalisk fras. Det sker en mjukhetnär en poet, en musiker eller en dansare, när människor som Maya Angelou, kommer fram i världen. När du upplever den här mjukheten så förändras du och meningen med ditt liv, säger Renée Baker.När President Obama 2011 hedrade henne med Presidentens Frihetsmedalj, USAs främsta civila pris, sa Obama: Barndomens lidanden och övergrepp fick henne att sluta prata men stämman hon senare fann hjälpte generationer av amerikaner att finna sin regnbåge bland molnen och inspirerade resten av oss att få fram det bästa i oss.Själv sa Maya Angelou: Det spännande är inte att endast överleva, utan att blomstra med lidelse, medkänsla, humor och elegans.Maya Angelou avled efter flera års sjukdom den 28 maj 2014 i sitt hem i North Carolina.Flera rappare och andra musiker har genom årens lopp samplat Maya Angelou eller nämnt henne i sina texter, t ex Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco,Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj och The Roots.Låtlista:12:03 Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind Album: Don'T Let Me Be Misunderstood Kompositör: Dimitri Tiomkin Bolag: MERCURY 12:05 Maya Angelou, Buckshot Lefonque - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Album: Urban Soul Kompositör: Branford Marsalis Bolag: EPIC 12:07 Maya Angelou, Buckshot Lefonque - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Album: Urban Soul Kompositör: Branford Marsalis Bolag: EPIC 12:09 Maya Angelou, Buckshot Lefonque - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Album: Urban Soul Kompositör: Branford Marsalis Bolag: EPIC 12:10 Maya Angelou - Tears Album: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:15 Maya Angelou, Az Yet - Still I RiseAlbum: Caged Bird Song Kompositör: Van Jewell, Shawn Rivera Bolag: SMOOCH MUSIC 12:19 Maya Angelou, Az Yet - Still I RiseAlbum: Caged Bird Song Kompositör: Van Jewell, Shawn Rivera Bolag: SMOOCH MUSIC 12:21 Maya Angelou - When You Come To MeAlbum: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:22 Alexander Smallens, Leontyne Price, Helen Colbert, Helen Thigpen, Helen Dowdy, Cab Calloway, Howard Roberts, Ray Yates, William Warfield, John Mccurry, Joseph James, William Weasy, Moses Lamar, The Ev - Porgy And BessAlbum: Porgy & Bess Kompositör: George Gershwin Bolag: GUILD 12:25 Maya Angelou, Tommy Tedesco, Al Bello - Pusch Ka Pici PiAlbum: Miss Calypso Kompositör: Louis Jordan, Walt Merrick, Joe Willoughby Bolag: LIBERTY 12:27 Maya Angelou - Harlem HopscotchAlbum: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:29 Maya Angelou - AfricaAlbum: Caged Bird Song Kompositör: Van Jewell, Shawn Rivera Bolag: SMOOCH MUSIC 12:32 Maya Angelou - My GuiltAlbum: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:39 Maya Angelou - The Thirteens (Black)Album: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:40 Yvette Jackson - Invisible People DeliveranceKompositör: Yvette Jackson 12:44 Maya Angelou - Black OdeAlbum: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS 12:45 Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, Renee Baker - Itadakimasu (I Humbly Receive)Kompositör: Reneé Baker 12:49 Maya Angelou - Phenomenal WomanAlbum: In Their Own Voices (3) Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO 12:53 Maya Angelou - On AgingAlbum: Caged Bird Song Kompositör: Van Jewell, Shawn Rivera Bolag: SMOOCH MUSIC 12:56 Talib Kweli - Get By Album: Quality Kompositör: Talib Kweli Greene, K West Bolag: MCA RECORDS 12:56 Alicia Keys - Caged Bird Album: Songs In A Minor Kompositör: Alicia Keys Bolag: J RECORDS 12:57 Maya Angelou - Poem 3 Album: Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou Kompositör: ? Bolag: RHINO RECORDS

Episode 20 - Denny Tedesco, Director of "The Wrecking Crew"   On today's episode, Jamie, Angelo, and Michael are joined by director and producer Denny Tedesco to talk about his recently released film "The Wrecking Crew" which takes a in-depth look at the lives and careers of the studio musicians who made up the legendary group of session artists in Los Angeles during the late 50s' through the early 1970's know as The Wrecking Crew. Denny and the gang discuss the legacy of these musicians and their incredible impact during the infancy of rock and roll music. Playing on songs by artists like The Beach Boys, The Righteous Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Simon & Garfunkel, The Ronettes, The Mamas and the Papas, and countless others, the musicians that became known as The Wrecking Crew unknowingly influenced every artist that came after them. Musicians like Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, and dozens more paved the way for the rock musicians who followed. Join the KCRO team for this trip through rock and roll history with their special guest, Denny Tedesco. All this and much much more on this week's Keep Calm and Rock On Experience.  

Interview With: Albert and Gage, guests for Strings on Grass November 13, 2015 RSVP here.Listen here or podcast here.Interview Conducted By: Will TaylorWill: Christine Albert & Chris Gage are appearing with Strings Attached at our Strings on Grass series, coming up on November 13th—after being rescheduled two times because of rain in Austin!—So, we’re here to talk a little bit about the two of them, and some questions that I have pulled together, as well as some reflections that they have on working with Strings Attached. I hope this interview will get people excited about the show.The special thing about Strings Attached and our concerts, is that we have this one-time experience when we get together with singer-songwriters, and reimagine their music… sometimes to an extreme level. For instance, when we do Beatles tribute shows, we might reimagine the music in a completely different way than the original versions. Along with our ever popular cover shows, we love to collaborate with singer-songwriters in the Austin area,—like Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves—which was the original direction our band took in the beginning, years ago. We bring to the table, certain things like jazz improvisation, or different vocal sounds, adding some color to the arrangements. We try to create a unique experience for people to come out and be intrigued. That’s the first thing that I wanted to talk about. If I remember correctly, we had a show about 10-15 years ago. Chris: Has is been that long?Christine: Yeah, I think so, I think it has.Will: Yeah, and it was at Saint David’s church, which is a beautiful space. Yeah, it’s a distant memory for me. I’m curious to see if you remember anything specifically about working with us… or anything in general about what we do. So yeah, my first question is: Was there anything notable about that performance?Chris: I just remember being thrilled to hear our songs envisioned by someone else. Like you said, everyone has a different take on music. Some people come from a more classical background, and some people have a little more jazz. You know, I do this gig at Strange Brew every week where I’m playing with somebody different every each time… it’s a lot of time the same songs, but each person is going to bring something different to it. And what you do with Strings Attached, is real inventive. And plus, you have a core group of people that do this a lot. And so they know what you’re thinking when you write an arrangement, and they can help you bring it to life. It’s just real exciting for me.Christine: Yeah, I think every artist has sort of a fantasy of hearing their music with strings or with an orchestra… more arranged in that way. For me, it brings an elegance to the music that we try to bring that to our performances at Don’s Depot. It’s not always there. Chris: Well, I turn on the string machine sometimes. (Christine laughs.)Christine: So especially at Saint Davids, and in that beautiful environment, it was almost mystical. And I imagine the Strings on Grass is a different kind of environment, but also brings a sort of natural, organic beauty to it that really compliments the music. Will: Exactly! Yes, that’s the same approach that we were taking with the original Strings Attached series in the church; was that context where people walk into it. It’s not just about hearing the music directly, but it’s the environment that you’re in. It really affects the emotional receiving of the song, or the music. So same thing, you’re right! With Strings on Grass, we’re in this beautiful, gorgeous yard with large trees, and there’s lights shining in the trees, along with the stars above. There’s something about hearing music in a natural setting. It’s very different from Saint David’s, but I think it’s very natural. You know, for instance, Karen and I love Kerrville (The folk festival). So there’s a little bit of a being-around-the-campfire feeling, and we really enjoy it. So people are coming for the experience. The full on music in nature experience. So we look forward to hearing your songs. It makes me think, are there in nature songs in there? (Will chuckles.) Maybe we should pick out a song that’s fitting for that setting.Christine: Yeah, we’ll have to look at that.Chris: How many of these have you done, Will?Will: We’ve been doing them for about a year, just over a year. So we’re probably at 12 or 13. Chris: Oh cool!Will: We’ve done one every month, and we take off the winter months, obviously. And yeah, I’m really enjoying putting these shows on. People enjoy bringing kids, but still are able to really enjoy the music. Some outdoor events, you know, people start to talk, and then the music becomes the background to conversations. So we’re still trying to bring over that respect for listening, which is what we started with at Saint David’s. Chris: Well we’re really looking forward to it.Will: That sounds great. So, okay, onto the other questions. There’s an artist whom I really respect, and I have been studying his book called Effortless Mastery. You may have heard about it when I sent you the list of questions. Kenny Warner talks about the idea of just getting out of the way of yourself and your ability to grow and thrive as an artist. It has a relation to mindfulness work, meditation, you know, the idea of just letting things happen. Like the song “Let it Be” that the Beatles wrote. So I’ve been very attracted to this idea of getting out of the way of myself, as a performer, as a creative person. There’s this quote in here, I’ll read it quickly: “Ultimately, musicians of the world must come to realize their potential of their calling. Like Shamans, we may service  healers, metaphysicians, inciters, exciters, spiritual guides, and sources of inspiration. So if the musician is illuminated from within, he becomes a lamp that lights other lamps.” And it goes on. I was very attracted to that idea, and the fact that we could relate this to you, for instance how you have the swan songs organization. How do you resonate with this? Christine: Well, most of it does. In fact, all of that resonates with me especially because I do practice mindfulness meditation. Recently my mind has been very busy because I’m so active in other things. So I’m in a different mindset most of the day, and then I get to the performance, walk onstage, and start singing. When I find my mind racing, and I’m not really present, I actually close my eyes and practice meditation, in between the lines of the song. That’s by focusing on my breath, and being in the moment, it brings me back to why I’m there, and then it starts to become a gift to me when I can really get out of my own way.  It’s certainly hard for me, because there’s so much going on in my life and in my brain. But that’s the technique that I use. And I have my own personal prayer that I wrote years and years ago that I say. For instance, every morning, or especially before a performance. One of the phrases in there is: “My life is a vehicle for divine love, and my music is the instrument of expression.” So I believe that the quote you just read resonates with me because of what I say to myself.Will: Mhm. And so you still find that you have to remind yourself when you get up there on stage.Christine: Totally. It doesn’t come naturally, but the more you do it, the more years you sing, as a performer, and I think just as a person who’s connected to why I do this, it’s obvious to me when I’m not connected, I’m like whoops! oops! oops! It’s kind of like when you’re meditating, and your thoughts start to take off, and thinking, and you have to bring it back to the breath. When I’m doing that on stage, I realize “Oh, I am really not here. I just created an agenda in my mind while I’m trying to sing a song. “ And that of course is not going to work for the entire performance. And I think I can feel it when I shift back. And I think Chris can feel it too, he’s like “okay! you’re here with me now.” He knows exactly when I’m not. And even if I’m singing all of the right notes, and getting all of the lyrics, it’s obvious when I’m not present.”Chris: Well it’s amazing how much you can think about while you play. And I look at it this way: We spend our whole lives learning, and preparing, but when you step on stage, and that one person has come because they love your music, or they need something out of that evening, well then it’s time to just let it seep out, explode out. And I know that when I totally forget that I’m taking a piano solo, for example, if I just let it fly, those are the ones that get responded to the most. Not if I’m trying to play like Fats Waller, or if I’m trying to make sure that my left hand is in time, you know. If I just explode, those are the ones that people react to. Will: I was going to ask you a question, related to that comment, actually. What does a great solo feel like, or look like to you? And part of what you’re saying, is you’re so out of the way, you really don’t even notice it. So that’s what you’re saying?Chris: Well it’s come from years of doing it, you know. There are solos that musicians have a term for, that you’re very aware of. It’s called noodling. And it’s just you know what notes go on the scale, and so you play some. But to me, a solo is like a whole song itself. It’s a whole competition. It has a beginning, and it has a rise, and it has to resolve itself at just the right time. It has to be emotional, it has to be clever at times, you know, but it more than anything, it has to just fit the mood of the piece that you’re in. Will: So I’ve got a little follow up question with something related to that. I’ve always wondered: For me, I’ve studied the jazz traditional method, and if you look at Charlie Parker, or even Louis Armstrong, when they take a solo, they take certain approaches. With Louis, he takes the melodic approach, always relating his solo to the main melody. Whereas Charlie Parker and some of those main cats, you know, the bee-boppers, completely are going way off. So how much are you actually improvising? Do you consciously go off completely from the melody? Or do you generally always try to work off of the melody?Chris: You know, in the studio, when I’m trying to get something out of a soloist, I refer to it as “melody plus”. Which is an odd thing. Will: Okay.Gage: I don’t like to get too far away from the melody. And I’m totally happy with a baritone guitar solo that plays the melody, I think that’s beautiful. One of the coolest solos on record—and this also relates to you mentioning “What’s your favorite song?”—there’s a Glenn Campbell recording of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman”. And when the solo comes in, its just the melody, and it is so satisfying to hear that. It’s better than any hot lick that could ever have been picked by Tommy Tedesco, or another guitar player. It’s just the melody. (Chris starts humming.) And it’s just gorgeous. So there’s a lot of songs that I will just play the melody, and others, “melody plus”, as I call it. You’ve got to sneak off and do something exciting, two-thirds of the way through. Bring it back to the home base at the end of a solo. Will: So it’s like those little shuttle inflections on the melody that make it your own. It really brings it into the moment. This particular melody you’re talking about, he pretty much states it the way it is?Chris & Christine: Yeah.Will: Nice. Okay, this is from a musician standpoint. I’m always interested to hear other musicians’ approach to that. Because the jazz players sometimes will be like: “Oh, well that’s boring. I don’t want to hear the melody over and over and over again.” But then if I listen to some folk or pop records, that’s all they do! And it’s like you said, it’s actually very pleasing to hear the melody. I don’t want to get too far off on that, but I’ve come from a jazz position, and then for the last 15-20 years have been around people like Eliza, and you guys, and been pulled back toward “this”, kind of stating simplicity, and roots music. And so it’s an interesting journey for me to get back to being grounded; what naturally comes up as opposed to—. You know as you were talking about earlier, I’ve got this classical background, but I’ve spent a lot of times in the last 25 years just coming back to the roots music. Which is an oral tradition, it’s not a written tradition. So I love it. I love staying with the melody.Christine: It’s interesting, as a singer, I’ve found, that because I’m playing with so many different players now at Mystery Monday, (Monday nights at El Mercado) lead players jump up there without hearing most of the songs we’re doing. And so I’m really struck by how a soloist impacts the way I sing, and what I get from that and the way we interact. Chris was saying there’s a beginning, a middle, a rise and end, and really the whole solo can be a mess, but if you end it in a way that really leads into what I’m about to say or sing, I’m always like “Yes that was awesome!” There’s something about setting up what the singer’s about to do next that is part of the role of the solo. If it’s a certain kind of solo, I bring that excitement and that energy, or that tenderness or that folk. Whatever it is, it so compliments what the singer is about to do. And feeds into it. So I really appreciate that.Chris: Well and I think that’s the role of the soloist… especially in a vocal group. The role is to not draw the attention away from the song, not to be all “Look at me look at what I can do!” That’s when they’re not considerate of the melody, or the vocalist, that’s about to come back and deliver the song. And it has to relate to the song itself. I’m a jazz fan, and I love the older stuff. I used to love the Miles Davis Quintet records, and I would just get lost in them because half the time I couldn’t follow what they were doing. On a heart-level, it doesn’t get me, but just washing through my brain, and giving me exciting musical experiences it does that. But on a heart-level, I would much rather just hear a great country song, actually. I’d rather hear Lefty Frizzell sing about forgetting to shave that day. Will: Yeah, I get that. And from working with singer-songwriters for the last 15-20 years, I enjoy the sideman aspect. I enjoy the simple art of laying out and finding where to fill, to compliment the song. Because from my standpoint, a great song exists with simply the melody and the lyrics. Even without a rhythm part, you can just sing it a cappella . So then therefore everything that I’m bringing to the table has got to be supportive. Essentially, I’m not really needed. So I’ve got to find this beautiful space where I can just slide my creativity in, and so I’ve really enjoyed that, because I originally came from playing instrumental jazz. In that, i was playing all of the material. What I’m trying to do is bring what I’m learning from this—playing with singer-songwriters—back to the instrumental music. Bring the heart back.Chris: And that’s exactly right. And when Christine and I do a show, and we have a new musician with us, including y’all, we always say, find your spots, but don’t forget, we do this all the time without you. You know, it’s all there. It just needs a little spice and seasoning. Will: Exactly, okay now to the next question. That was good, nice organic flow. So, do you have a preferred question? Chris: Well you asked what we do on date nights. We went to see the Martian in 3-D the other night. That was a good date. Christine: Yeah, at the Alamo. We actually don’t get many date nights, we’re just always so busy. We play so many weekly things. He plays every Sunday morning at Riverbend, and we both play Mondays at different venues. He plays every Wednesday, we’re almost always working on weekends, and we spend a lot of time doing studio sessions during the day. So date night, usually we opt for a movie or if we have a night off, we always want to be with our kids, and grandchildren, so we do family dinners a lot. That’s our indulgent time is to get the entire family over, and cook together. And they’re all great cooks, so I get to take advantage of that, because I’m not. (Laughs.) Our evenings are late. Chris doesn’t usually come out of the studio, and I’m not usually home until 9:30 or 10, so we have late evenings together. That’s our down time too, if we’re not working. Will: Yeah, with Karen and I, I always dreamed of having a musical family. We kind of do, like with Coralina, we have some music that we play with her. But it’s not like there’s music being played all the time in the house, because we try to take a break from that. Is that kind of what it looks like in your household?Chris: Yeah, we actually have one album that we play every time we cook, and it’s Paolo Conte’s greatest hits! It’s all in Italian, and we all sing along, even though we don’t know the words. (Christine chuckles.) But it’s just the perfect kitchen music.Will: That’s funny.Christine: Yeah you had asked also about practicing, and what that looks like. And we really don’t, we really don’t practice. When we have new songs, we sort of learn them as we go on stage. Although, I need practice more than Chris does, I’ll say. I’ll be like, “We really need to sit down and go over this, if it’s a new one that we’ve released.” I really need to get it in my brain, and go over what the arrangement is. But quite often it’s just as we go because we’re playing so much. And then there’s so much business to take care of during the day. And with all of my nonprofit work, I’m just like an office person everyday. It’s just regular office hours and then I play gigs. Will: Oh, I’ve got a great follow up question to this. It’ll help me to hear your answer to this, because I myself spend so much time taking care of my business as well. And in the Western world, we’re so focused on time, and doing. And after all, we’re actually not “human doings”, we’re “human beings”. Sometimes I just think: Okay, well if I didn’t have to do all of those business oriented tasks, what would you do if you had more time available. Let’s say if you had four more hours in the day, is there anything you’d want to do in regards to practicing and taking your music to the next level? Christine: If it was musically, I would relearn to play the piano, and to write with it. I enjoy  writing with piano, but I hardly ever do it. Piano was actually my first instrument as a child, but I haven’t really played in two years. So if I really was going to spend indulgent time on the music part, I would reconnect with piano, and I would get my flute fixed, because my flute has such old pads, that I can’t event play it. I would revive my flute because I also used to play that for many years. And I love to play it I just haven’t put the focus onto it. And just creatively in general, I really want to write more books and essays. I would spend more time writing, which means you have to spend a lot of time unplugged, in solitude. Nature helps me, gardening helps me, to get into that space. And I am so far from that right now. Chris: Yeah we don’t have time for that right now. I haven’t written a song in a long time because I’m so busy working on other people’s songs. All day every day. And then I take 30 minutes to try to think about what I’m going to do for example, I’ve got a show tonight at 6 o’clock with a guitar player I’ve never played with. And I’ve got to think about what might work between us when I don’t have even a clue of what his style is. So I’ll take some time and put a little thought into that. Christine: And he’s in the studio now working on someone else’s music all afternoon.Chris: Right, now if I had four hours a day, I’m sure I would be composing, and working on some tracks for t.v placement, and writing a new song for Albert and Gage. Will: Nice, well this was great. We took a little extra time, so thank you guys. I wish we could go on, I just love it. I’m trying to do these little interviews to create some interesting content where it’s from the point of view of us as musicians. I think it could create some interesting conversations. And this could be content that you could have up for years. This feels kind of like as if I was Terry Gross, except for Will Taylor with Fresh Air. So I appreciate y’all for being guinea pigs for my new idea, I really appreciate it. I enjoyed you guys.Christine: Thank you, it was a good conversation.RSVP to the show here.

Denny Tedesco is the award winning director of the film The Wrecking Crew. The son of legendary session guitarist, Tommy Tedesco, who was one of the main members of the incredible collection of session musicians who played on some of the most iconic recordings of all time. From Sinatra to the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas to early Frank Zappa. And stay tuned to the end of the podcast for exclusive outtakes from the film!

Denny Tedesco (The Wrecking Crew) stops by Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend to talk about his 19 year labor of love, the documentary The Wrecking Crew and what it was like growing up the son of famed musician Tommy Tedesco. We also talked about his experience interviewing luminaries like Cher, Dick Clark, Nancy Sinatra, Brian Wilson and more plus crowdfunding, losing his father to cancer, "no smoking, no Tedesco," controversy with Carol Kaye, conflict between Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine, growing up in the valley and so much more. We also did a round of Just Me Or Everyone.

Alternative Country duo Crimson Calamity,  Lauren Harding and past Music FridayLive! guest Mallory Trunnell are no strangers to intricate songwriting and the bright lights of the stage on their own, but together, they deliver firecracker lyrics and glistening harmonies.Crimson Calamity was born from an initial songwriting experiment that turned out the hard hitting single, “Line ‘em Up and Shoot ‘em Down.” which became the catalyst that inspired them to take their collaborative style to the next level.  Their debut EP, “All in the Cards” is built on  country-rock with a little blues for color. They just released their CD so this interview from March will re-acquaint everyone to these two hot talents Denny Tedesco joins us for the  opening of his documentary film, The Wrecking Crew,  about a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles in the  60s and 70's who played on 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 and were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. They were led by Tommy Tedesco, Denny's father, and became the sound of rock and roll in its birth years, playing on literally thousands of recordings, regardless of whose name was on the cover. The film is now out and playing nationwide, so listen to this interview from a few months ago and then go see the film.

Denny Tedesco joins us for the  opening of his documentary film, The Wrecking Crew,  about a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles in the  60s and 70's who played on 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 and were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. They were led by Tommy Tedesco, Denny's father, and became the sound of rock and roll in its birth years, playing on literally thousands of recordings, regardless of whose name was on the cover. Doña Oxford is an extraordinary, soulful and passionate singer, songwriter and keyboardist who’s old school soul vocals and high octane keyboard piano infuses create music crowds off all ages go wild for. Doña has played with legends including Keith Richards, Bob Weir, Levon Helm, Albert Lee, Buddy Guy, Son Seals, Shemekia Copeland and her idol, former Chuck Berry sideman and Father of Rock & Roll Piano, Johnnie Johnson! She has played keyboard forf Van Morrison in his latest studio recording. Doña is on tour with Albert Lee in the UK.  This is a classic recording from June.  

Denny Tedesco has been on a quest to tell a story for 18 years. His father, Tommy Tedesco, was a member of The Wrecking Crew, a group of studio musicians who went unrecognized while recording some of the biggest records in history. Denny tells Marc the story of The Wrecking Crew as well as his own struggle to get the documentary made. Plus, Marc recounts the worst day of his life in a story he has never told before. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast.

Good November Day. This week features two guests: DENNY TEDESCO, who made a documentary about The Wrecking Crew, has a personal connection to that iconic troupe of '60s studio musicians because his dad, Tommy Tedesco, was one of the greatest guitarists of all time in that group. Julie chats with Denny about Cher, the Three's Company theme song, and the woman who came up with the bass line for WICHITA LINEMAN: Her name is Carol Kaye and she's a badass. Then, JILL SOLOWAY is here to chat about her various television, film and web projects, strippers and prozzies, what it's like to be a "food Jew" and to have a gay sister, and what kind of tweets make her jealous. Also: Julie is coming for Alec Baldwin's job! Charles Manson is getting married! Two ladies who love Sandra Bullock and what Julie wants from them! And Happy JFK Assassination Day to all. A heady show full of suds and studs and iconic things with which you need to grapple.

Denny Tedesco, son of legendary session guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and filmmaker of The Wrecking Crew, interviewed by Wayne Birt on Sonic Saturday. The Wrecking Crew is a currently undistributed film about session musicians in LA, the secret story of some of Rock Music's greatest hits. .The film screens 09/29 at The Flicks at 4:45 and 7pm and benefits Boise Rock School. http://wreckingcrew.tv/

Join Freda as she hosts her talk show dedicated to introducing listeners to hot new talent seeking to enter the entertainment business or newly signed artists who would like to showcase and promote their work. Each week Freda will feature new guests, showcase their work, keep you informed and entertained by dishing you the latest "Honey" and take calls from listeners. Gather your friends, family, co-workers and tell them to check out Freda's New Talent New Talk Radio... the Hottest New Talk Show hitting the internet air waves! This week's guests will be... Christian "Big New York" de Mesones! As the founder of, and bassist for Groove Skool Band, Christian "Big New York" de Mesones continues a more than thirty year musical journey that includes authoring, performing, and recording original music. Christian graduated from the Bass Institute of Technology in 1980. As an 18-year-old student, he had the opportunity to workshop and perform with Louis Johnson, Abraham Laboriel, Pat Martino, Tim Bogart, Stanley Clarke, and the late great Ray Brown and Tommy Tedesco.

Join Freda as she hosts her talk show dedicated to introducing listeners to hot new talent seeking to enter the entertainment business or newly signed artists who would like to showcase and promote their work. Each week Freda will feature new guests, showcase their work, keep you informed and entertained by dishing you the latest "Honey" and take calls from listeners. Gather your friends, family, co-workers and tell them to check out Freda's New Talent New Talk Radio... the Hottest New Talk Show hitting the internet air waves! This week's guests will be... Christian "Big New York" de Mesones! As the founder of, and bassist for Groove Skool Band, Christian "Big New York" de Mesones continues a more than thirty year musical journey that includes authoring, performing, and recording original music. Christian graduated from the Bass Institute of Technology in 1980. As an 18-year-old student, he had the opportunity to workshop and perform with Louis Johnson, Abraham Laboriel, Pat Martino, Tim Bogart, Stanley Clarke, and the late great Ray Brown and Tommy Tedesco.