Not the 2026 Dave Bautista/Jason Momoa action-comedy, not the 1968 spy spoof for Dean Martin’s Matt Helm; not even the 2000 Black Actioner with Ice-T & Ernie Hudson Jr. This WRECKING CREW! (note exclamation point), is a homey documentary charting the ‘60s heyday of a tight group of about 20 or so West Coast studio session musicians whose careers peaked just as the center of Pop music influence shifted from New York to L.A., from the Grill Building to that stack of 45s known as the Capitol Building. Sinatra & Co. to the Beach Boys; and everything in-between. The ‘crew’ played for/with everyone. (Boomers should stick around for the end credits to hear clips from fifty to sixty hits they’ll recall not included in the main film.) There’s a bias in the film since it was put together by Denny Tedesco, son of main guitar player Tommy Tedesco (there’s a better film somewhere inside the clips & fresh interviews), but these nostalgic touchstones offer a lot. Especially if you don’t mind a bit too much of interviewee Dick Clark’s idea of Rock ‘n’ Roll. You might even be surprised to find out the Wrecking Crew played all the music not only for The Monkees, but also for The Byrds, The Association, even a lot of Beach Boys stuff under Brain Wilson. Good vibrations, indeed. On the other hand, imagine the thousand of schlock ‘pop’ they were paid to polish.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Gary Lewis without ‘the Playboys’ a typical interview, speaking on how his band was swapped out for Wrecking Crew musicians at recording sessions. The Playboys’ names on the album, but not a note. BTW Gary’s dad, Jerry Lewis set the bar for passive/aggressive behavior naming his first-born not Jerry Jr., but the near sound-alike Gary. (Later raising the bar by disinheriting him.)
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Their slow ‘70s decline came two ways. From new bands who wrote & played their own stuff; and (as told by Plas Johnson, the crew’s saxophonist famous for laying down The Pink Panther solo in two takes) thru the rise of twenty-four track technology which had them record in sections rather than together with the singer as a band.
DOUBLE-BILL: 20 FEET FROM STARDOM/’13, has a somewhat similar take on the great girl backup singers for some of the best known Black Pop vocalists of roughly the same period.
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