The Wrecking Crew

Part "Hit Men" and part "Laurel Canyon," this hidden history of rock and roll chronicles the uncredited studio musicians who provided the soundtrack for a generation. If you listened to radio in the 1960s and '70s, you listened to the Wrecking Crew. On hit record after hit record by everyone from The Byrds to the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Simon & Garfunkel, the Fifth Dimension, and Frank Sinatra, this motley group of west coast studio musicians established themselves as the driving force of the pop music industry--sometimes over the objection of actual band members who were forced to make way for Wrecking Crew musicians in the studio. Building off his eye-opening article for "American Heritage," industry insider Kent Hartmann tells the definitive story of the group that dared play "long hair" music before it was socially acceptable. He follows the recording careers of such musicians as drummer Hal Blaine and trailblazing bassist Carol Kaye, as well as those who went on to fame in their own write, including Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, and Jim Gordon (who co-wrote "Layla" with Eric Clapton). "T""he Wrecking Crew" tells the collective, behind-the-scenes stories of the artists who dominated the sounds of Top 40 radio during the most creative era in American music culture.