the wrecking crew movie reviews

The Wrecking Crew

The number of important, enduring 1960s and early ‘70s songs that a group of studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew brought to life is staggering.

The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'." Nancy Sinatra 's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (and her dad's "Strangers in the Night"). The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man." The entire, groundbreaking Beach Boys album "Pet Sounds" and pretty much everything recorded through Phil Spector 's famous Wall of Sound, including The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."

Director Denny Tedesco has lined up all these rock and pop tunes and many more, along with years' worth of interviews with the unsung musicians and the far more famous acts they supported, in his documentary "The Wrecking Crew." While a lot of filmmakers say their works are labors of love, Tedesco's truly is in every sense of the term. His late father, Tommy Tedesco, was a hugely talented and versatile guitarist who was at the center of a core group of about 20 session musicians who became known as The Wrecking Crew for their ragged style.

The younger Tedesco's film is an effort to honor his father—which he's done with great affection and respect—as well as his dad's colleagues, who were crucial at a particular place and time in musical history. They worked anonymously but seamlessly together in a variety of genres, taking notes on the page, jazzing them up and making them fly in ways the artists and songwriters themselves couldn't have imagined.

But Tedesco also labored to get the rights to this vast library of hits, delaying the film's release for seven years. (It premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2008 and is just now seeing the light of day theatrically.) The eerie upshot of that is, we get to see interviews with the late Dick Clark in all his richly polished glory prior to his 2004 stroke as well as a lively and lucid Glen Campbell , who was a Wrecking Crew guitarist before launching a solo career and who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011. (In a reflection of the range these players had, other celebrity interviews include Herb Alpert , Cher and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees.)

"The Wrecking Crew" is mostly about uplift, however—almost monotonously so. Following in the footsteps of the superior music documentaries " Standing in the Shadows of Motown " (2002), " Muscle Shoals " and "20 Feet From Stardom" (both 2013), it aims to enlighten and inspire by shining a spotlight on the folks who toiled in the background for too long. Tedesco depicts Los Angeles in the early ‘60s as a mecca for musicians—a place where work was plentiful and siren song of surf culture was irresistible.

And the players themselves have a bounty of anecdotes to share, which Tedesco mixes with a vast library of archival photos. But there are so many stories and so many people and so much music, it's almost too much for Tedesco (who also narrates) to get his arms around. The result is brisk and entertaining but also scattered and repetitive. Only toward the end does he touch on how these folks felt about famous acts taking credit for their work time and time again. They all look back with fond recollections, which can get a little dull. And only through one player—the prolific drummer Hal Blaine —does he explore the economic downfall some of them experienced once musical tastes changed and the work dried up.

But Tedesco also unearths further evidence of Brian Wilson's genius as members of The Wrecking Crew recall him walking them through each of their parts individually during the recording of "Pet Sounds." It'll make you listen to "Good Vibrations," a song you've heard a million times, with fresh ears.

And he devotes a substantial amount of time to group's main bass player, Carol Kaye. She was a rare woman in this realm—playing studio gigs all day and night at a time when women were expected to stay home and raise a family. Interviews here reveal her to be as cool and sharp as ever—and as it turns out, she's the one who played the famous bass line on the " Mission: Impossible " television theme. Maybe she'll get her own documentary next.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Sammy Davis Jr. as Himself
Hal Blaine as Himself
James Burton as Himself
Glen Campbell as Himself
Dick Clark as Himself
Sam Cooke as Himself
The Beach Boys as Themselves
Lou Adler as Himself
Herb Alpert as Himself
Sonny Bono as Himself
Al Casey as Himself
Denny Tedesco

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‘the wrecking crew’: film review.

Denny Tedesco’s tribute to the unheralded, chart-topping studio musicians of the '60s and '70s reveals how they crafted the signature pop styles of the era.

By Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe

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They were the musical group nobody had ever heard of, the uncredited stars of hundreds of recordings from the heyday of rock and roll, the backbone and backbeat to some of the biggest hits of the era: they were known as the Wrecking Crew. As a loose, informal affiliation of session players, these musicians rarely received recognition before Denny Tedesco ’s irresistibly involving new documentary.

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The Wrecking Crew Reviews

... it's satisfying to learn the stories behind the songs that defined a decade and the musicians who never got their due credit for providing the soundtrack of a generation.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2023

For the sheer joy of the music...

Full Review | Dec 6, 2021

In this fascinating, eclectic look at this musical period, The Wrecking Crew brings out the essential solidarity and practicality of the group.

Full Review | Feb 26, 2021

A heartfelt and interesting peak into an unexplored part of our collective musical history and it has a good beat and you can dance to it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2021

What the director [Denny Tedesco] lacks in technical chops and narrative clarity, he more than makes up for in enthusiasm and heart, and that's what make The Wrecking Crew an exceptional documentary.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2020

Requiem for a studio musician.

Full Review | Aug 19, 2019

Tedesco doesn't shy from the harsh realities of the session player's life. However, this isn't an angry or bitter film by any means. The goal, almost to a fault, is to celebrate these musicians and the songs they created.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 19, 2019

Denny Tedesco not only creates a vivid look at this special moment in history with The Wrecking Crew but finally gives these hardworking, extremely talented musicians, their turn in the spotlight.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2018

If it moves from personal history to pop culture study, it also moves in the other direction, instilling a sense of urgency in documenting our own personal histories.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2018

Putting a star rating on this kind of movie is a little pointless: If you grew up on fizzy baby-boom pop music, you're going to want to see it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 6, 2016

Worth the wait, it delivers a lot of laughter and generous helpings of dearly licensed grooviness.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 24, 2016

Danny Tedesco's joyous documentary The Wrecking Crew is a personal, heartfelt tribute to those unsung heroes.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2016

Did you love all those mid-60s American rock and roll bands? Turns out the Byrds, the Association, even the Beach Boys weren't playing their own instruments.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2015

Patchy but endearing, The Wrecking Crew is both a sonorous scrapbook and a loquacious love letter.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2015

Encyclopedic rocktrospective chronicling the contributions of a group of unheralded studio musicians who anonymously created the soundtrack of an entire generation.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 28, 2015

This well-produced documentary rescues the talented but unsung group from obscurity, who were mostly known only to industry insiders.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Nov 8, 2015

A fascinating story that deserves to be seen -- and most importantly, heard -- on the big screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 1, 2015

There is a lot of great music in this film, and many bittersweet stories told by musicians who had a big part in recording that great music.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 16, 2015

The documentary makes fascinating connections between the fledgling high-showbiz days of rock 'n' roll and the rise of more versatile singer-songwriters in the 1970s.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 26, 2015

The fact it's directed by the son of guitar ace Tommy Tedesco adds a defining sense of purpose, and a bit more heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 25, 2015

Film Review: ‘The Wrecking Crew’

The unsung heroes who played on stacks of wax during the '60s pop era are celebrated in a hugely entertaining documentary.

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

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Seven years after its premiere gigs at the 2008 SXSW and Nashville film festivals (when it was originally reviewed by Variety ), “The Wrecking Crew” finally has a fair chance to chart on theatrical and VOD turntables. Slightly expanded with a handful of new interviews, not unlike an extra-added-tracks CD edition of a classic LP, this nostalgia-drenched rockumentary remains a hugely entertaining treasure trove of witness-at-creation anecdotes and enduringly potent ’60s pop hits.

Stuffed with samplings of golden oldies, the movie is a well-nigh irresistible treat for auds old enough to recall the era when acts like the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, the Association, Nancy Sinatra and the Monkees loomed large on AM radio-station playlists. But even younger folks more attuned to streaming their favorite music may be fascinated by director Denny Tedesco’s examination and celebration of the title subjects, a loose-knit group of largely unknown (except by industry insiders) session musicians, many of whom supplied the defining licks and backbeats — and, in some cases, actually played instruments for band members — on legendary recordings.

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Tedesco began work on the project shortly before the 1997 death of his father, Tommy Tedesco, one of two dozen or so exceptionally versatile session musicians known collectively during their mid-century heyday as the Wrecking Crew. Most of these unsung heroes of the ‘60s L.A. music scene had jazz or classical backgrounds before they started playing for rock, pop and R&B artists. (A few, the movie pointedly notes, made the transition only with extreme reluctance.) And all of them, judging from the testimonies of the elder Tedesco and other interviewees, had the time of their lives while enjoying steady employment and, occasionally, making musical history.

Popular on Variety

“They were the ones with all the spirit and all the know-how,” recalls an admiring Brian Wilson, who admits using Wrecking Crew members instead of fellow Beach Boys on “Good Vibrations” and other key recordings. Phil Spector used them to create his much-vaunted “Wall of Sound,” and Herb Albert employed what he calls the “established groove machine” to establish the trademark sound of his Tijuana Brass. And a few instrumental hits (including the chart-topping “Surfer’s Stomp”) credited to acts who were pictured on album covers — and eventually sent out to perform on tour — actually were recorded by uncredited Wrecking Crew artists.

Bassist Carol Kaye, the only female in the group, emerges as the most entertaining of the Wrecking Crew vets in terms of animated storytelling, whether she’s remembering her initial reaction to Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On” — “Oh-oh! We need to pull a rabbit out of a hat on this one!” — or proudly reporting that, when she was at the top of her game, she made more money than the U.S. president. (Please: Someone get this lady her own biopic, ASAP.)

On the other hand: Former Monkee Peter Tork still sounds slightly miffed as he recalls being more or less shuttled aside by the Wrecking Crew pros during the recording of early Monkee albums — because, as even Tork admits, he and his three “bandmates” did not yet know how to play their instruments. Wilson says he didn’t encounter quite so much resentment when he used the Wrecking Crew for recording much of “Pet Sounds” and “Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)” The other Beach Boys conceded, albeit grudgingly, that Wilson was right: The Wrecking Crew sounded better than they did.

Tork and Leon Russell are two of the new interviewees who have been added to the mix during the lengthy stretch since “The Wrecking Crew” first screened at SXSW and Nashville. The documentary’s release date reportedly was delayed while Denny Tedesco and his producers conducted negotiations, and raised additional funds, to nail down music rights. Not surprisingly, the passage of time has added an element of poignancy to the colorful recollections of Tommy Tedesco and other Wreckers who are now deceased — and to stories spun by the late Dick Clark, who was interviewed before his debilitating stroke.

It is especially affecting to hear and see clips of an interview with Glen Campbell, a Wrecking Crew regular who played for everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Mamas and Papas, and eventually toured with the Beach Boys — as a temporary replacement for Wilson! — before his solo stardom. The Rhinestone Cowboy sounds hale and hearty during most of his time on screen. But there is a fleeting moment when he pauses, visibly strains to recall a detail, and then casually admits, “I forget what it was.” And that moment is all it takes to remind a viewer that the Campbell of today is a man tragically incapacitated by Alzheimer’s disease. There are more than a few similarly melancholy moments throughout “The Wrecking Crew,” moments that emphasize that the past so joyfully celebrated here is — well, past. But the beat goes on.

Archival footage, still photos and interviews shot in various formats over several years are neatly assembled in a technically polished package.

Reviewed on DVD, Houston, March 10, 2015. Running time: 102 MIN.

Production: (Documentary) A Magnolia Pictures release of a Lunch Box Entertainment production. Produced by Denny Tedesco, Suzie Greene Tedesco, Claire Scanlon, Jon Leonudakis, Mitchell Linden, Damon Tedesco, Chris Hope. Executive producers, Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss, Cliff Burnstein, Dennis Joyce.
Crew: Directed by Denny Tedesco. Camera (color/B&W), Rodney Taylor, Trish Govoni; editor, Claire Scanlon; music supervisors, Micki Stern, Suzanne Coffman, Julie Houlihan; sound, Bob Bronow; associate producers, Michelle Sullivan, Randy Kirk.
With: Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell, Cher, Dick Clark, Mickey Dolenz, Carol Kaye, Leon Russell, Nancy Sinatra, Tommy Tedesco, Peter Tork, Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa.

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Review: ‘The Wrecking Crew’ affectionate tribute to hit-backing musicians

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To Beach Boys guru Brian Wilson, “they were the ones with all the spirit and all the know-how.” To Nancy Sinatra, they were “unsung heroes,” to Herb Alpert, “an established groove machine.” And to celebrated songwriter Jimmy Webb, they were simply “stone cold rock and roll professionals.”

If the history of rock music means anything to you, you know the individuals in question could only be the Wrecking Crew, a legendary group of Los Angeles-based studio musicians, and though their story has taken decades to reach the screen, it has been worth the wait.

Providing backup on hundreds if not thousands of songs, the Wrecking Crew was responsible for the musical DNA for so many of the anthems that ruled the airwaves from the 1960s through the early 1970s that it makes your head spin.

That list includes the Phil Spector-produced “Be My Baby,” the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” If you listened to the radio during that period, these musicians created your world.

Which is one reason why “The Wrecking Crew” has taken so long to appear. A version of it played extensively at film festivals in 2008, but for it to be shown in commercial movie theaters, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of licensing fees had to be paid for the use of those hit songs, and until that money could be raised (via donations and a Kickstarter campaign, as it turned out) this movie could not be seen.

The Wrecking Crew was a fluid group — no one seems to know exactly how many people were considered members (20 is a rough guess), but key among them was Tommy Tedesco, a.k.a. “The King of L.A. Session Guitarists.”

Tedesco’s son, director Denny Tedesco, made putting this film together a years-long labor of love. Though a few of the resulting personal moments feel extraneous, Tedesco’s heritage gave him special access to producers and musicians, and he has used it well.

Tedesco began filming in 1996, when his father was diagnosed with cancer; seven of the people whose memories he recorded, including his father’s, have since died, making this genial, unpretentious film an invaluable record of a kind of rock golden age.

Something like a “Twenty Feet From Stardom” for session musicians, “The Wrecking Crew” contains its share of surprises, including that many of these individuals came from a jazz background and didn’t necessarily care for rock, at least at first.

The Wrecking Crew started to get a reputation inside the music business after Spector used the musicians as the key component of his celebrated Wall of Sound.

That success so impressed Wilson (he recalls pulling off the road and stopping his car the first time he heard the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”) that, once his Beach Boys compositions got more musically complex and the group’s touring commitments grew, he used the Wrecking Crew to anonymously record the tracks for the Beach Boys albums.

That kind of clandestine work became the Wrecking Crew’s bread and butter. The musicians recorded for the Association, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and with the exception of former studio musician Roger McGuinn, they recorded for the Byrds on their breakthrough cut “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which, McGuinn recalls, made everyone else “livid.”

Though Wrecking Crew alumni Glen Campbell and Leon Russell went on to major solo careers, most were more than content with musical lives outside the spotlight, and some of the film’s best moments are brief biographical segments on key members.

We meet ace drummer Hal Blaine, one of the busiest in rock history, and we learn that Tommy Tedesco played the opening notes on the theme for TV’s “Bonanza” and that saxophonist Plas Johnson did the same for “The Pink Panther.”

Perhaps the most intriguing member of the Wrecking Crew was its only female, nonpareil bassist Carol Kaye, who made more money than the president in her best years and demonstrates how she souped up the bass line for Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On.”

Once the singer-songwriter model became the norm for the rock business, the Wrecking Crew’s star began to wane, but seeing this film makes it clear what its members accomplished in their prime. As Tommy Tedesco said to his colleagues when the topic of writers came up, “They put notes on paper. That’s not music. You make the music.”

Twitter: @KennethTuran

--------------------------------

‘The Wrecking Crew’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

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Review: ‘The Wrecking Crew’ Hails the Music Behind the Faces

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By Jon Caramanica

March 12, 2015

THE WRECKING CREW

Opens on Friday

Directed by Denny Tedesco

1 hour 41 minutes

For a stretch in the 1960s, those faces beaming from album covers were lying to you: The music inside was often played by others. Those others were usually members of the Wrecking Crew, a loose cabal of versatile Los Angeles session musicians fluent in rock, soul, country and getting out of the way.

This sentimental documentary is directed by Denny Tedesco, whose father, Tommy, was a lauded guitar player of that era. (He died in 1997.) Mostly, it’s hagiography, with stars like Cher and Brian Wilson used as character witnesses to the players’ greatness. The musicians themselves speak most eloquently when joking about the people whose parts they were playing or, in some places, when speaking through their instruments. (The bassist Carol Kaye shines in these moments.)

“ The Wrecking Crew ” arrives in the wake of the success of the 2013 documentary “ 20 Feet From Stardom ,” about underappreciated backup singers. (This film has been in the making for much longer, though, with interviews dating back to the 1990s — licensing the music took significant time and money).

“20 Feet” was about music, but really about how gender and, especially, race were used to hold artists back, often privileging white men on the backs of black women. “Wrecking Crew” doesn’t have as fertile a struggle at its core, but it does raise the question of why players of this caliber — often, they didn’t even want their names printed in the credits of the records they worked on, but some have since been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — were so content in the shadows. JON CARAMANICA

“The Wrecking Crew” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Salty musician talk.

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The Wrecking Crew Review

26 Jun 2015

101 minutes

Wrecking Crew, The

Entertaining, poignant and ridiculously catchy, this tells the story of the band of session musicians whose genius lit up history’s greatest pop music: Sinatra, Elvis, The Beach Boys — they did them all. Guitarist Tommy Tedesco (his son directed the film) is the court jester, drummer Hal Blaine talks movingly about working as a security guard when the gigs dried up, but best of all is bassist Carol Kaye who proudly boasts she used to make more money than the US President. It won’t win awards for innovation, but like 20 Feet From Stardom, a compelling story about music’s unsung heroes.

COMMENTS

The Wrecking Crew movie review (2015) - Roger Ebert
"The Wrecking Crew" is mostly about uplift, however—almost monotonously so. Following in the footsteps of the superior music documentaries " Standing in the Shadows of Motown " (2002), " Muscle Shoals " and "20 Feet From Stardom" (both 2013), it aims to enlighten and inspire by shining a spotlight on the folks who toiled in the background for ...
The Wrecking Crew - Rotten Tomatoes
Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/10/23 Full Review Audience Member The Wrecking Crew is best watched with your boomer parents, as it takes a nostalgic stroll through the birth of...
The Wrecking Crew - Rotten Tomatoes
Rated: 1.5/5 Aug 26, 2019 Full Review Nick Johnston Vanyaland The Wrecking Crew is a ghastly end to its franchise, the kind of ugly spy-spoof that time rightfully left far back in the past.
‘The Wrecking Crew’: Film Review - The Hollywood Reporter
‘The Wrecking Crew’: Film Review. Denny Tedesco’s tribute to the unheralded, chart-topping studio musicians of the '60s and '70s reveals how they crafted the signature pop styles of the era.
The Wrecking Crew Reviews - Metacritic
As a love letter to the director’s late father, The Wrecking Crew sparkles. As a potentially comprehensive, context-rich chronicle of one of pop music’s most inspired engines of rhythm and melody, it mostly sticks to one note.
The Wrecking Crew - Movie Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes
Danny Tedesco's joyous documentary The Wrecking Crew is a personal, heartfelt tribute to those unsung heroes. Full Review | Jan 1, 2016
Film Review: ‘The Wrecking Crew’ - Variety
Stuffed with samplings of golden oldies, the movie is a well-nigh irresistible treat for auds old enough to recall the era when acts like the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, the Association, Nancy...
Review: 'The Wrecking Crew' is affectionate tribute to hit ...
If the history of rock music means anything to you, you know the individuals in question could only be the Wrecking Crew, a legendary group of Los Angeles-based studio musicians, and though...
Review: ‘The Wrecking Crew’ Hails the Music Behind the Faces
For a stretch in the 1960s, those faces beaming from album covers were lying to you: The music inside was often played by others. Those others were usually members of the Wrecking Crew, a loose...
The Wrecking Crew Review | Movie - Empire
Entertaining, poignant and ridiculously catchy, this tells the story of the band of session musicians whose genius lit up history’s greatest pop music: Sinatra, Elvis, The Beach Boys — they did...