One Show Only! 7:00PM and 9:30PM Saturday, October 5 at The North Park Theater

By M. Faust

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This Saturday night, the North Park Theater will present two documentaries that are essential viewing for anyone who grew up with music of the 1960s and 70s. “The Wrecking Crew” is the story of the loose-knit bunch of studio musicians who in the 1960s played on an astonishing number of top ten hits, usually without credit.

“Immediate Family” looks at four musicians who may not have been quite that busy but at least got credit for their work: the names of Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar and Waddy Wachtel appeared on hundreds of albums in the 1970s and 80s by such artists as Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Phil Collins, Keith Richards, Lyle Lovett, Carole King, James Taylor, Don Henley, and Jackson Browne—and that’s just naming the ones who appear in the movie. 

Both films were directed by Denny Tedesco, who will present for both screenings. Here is a modified version of a feature interview I wrote about Tedesco in 2013, when he was trying to raise funding to get “The Wrecking Crew” released on DVD. 

I don’t care how many Grateful Dead shows you saw over the years, how many Jimi Hendrix outtakes you’ve downloaded, or how many Led Zeppelin bootlegs you have. Unless you’ve spent your life listening to them in a cave, the guitarist whose work you have probably heard the most is Tommy Tedesco. 

Though most of the 1960s and 70s, the Niagara Falls native was a Los Angeles session guitarist, part of a loose knit group of about 20 musicians nicknamed the Wrecking Crew that played on an astonishing amount of the music we associate with that era. 

Initially cohering as the studio band who produced Phil Spector’s famous “Wall of Sound,” the Wrecking Crew played on hits by artists from Frank Sinatra to The Monkees, from The Byrds to The Chipmunks, from Simon and Garfunkle to Sonny and Cher. They’re the band on many of the Beach Boys’ albums—and yes, that includes “Pet Sounds.” 

They also did film scores, commercials and TV themes. The twanging themes on TV’s “Bonanza” and “Green Acres” were Tedesco. The players in the Wrecking Crew were valued by producers who had limited amounts of studio time and minimal resources (before the development of multitrack recording systems, when you either did it right or you did it again.) 

Not bad for a guy who, according to his son Denny, was called the worst student he ever had by his guitar teacher in Niagara Falls. 

Denny Tedesco spent 15 years putting together a documentary about the Wrecking Crew, and the result is a DVD that is an absolute must own for fan of popular music of the 60s and 70s. Or would be, if you could purchase it. Although it has been complete since 2008, The Wrecking Crew can’t be legally released until Denny raises the money necessary to license the 130 songs heard in the film. 

“People would always suggest we do this film with fewer songs,” he says by phone from California, “but you can’t tell this story without giving an idea of the scope. Legally I could probably license it to PBS or VH1, but there’s no point without a DVD to sell.” Although he’s had some success negotiating the costs down, the sheer number of rights holders remains a problem. And he is determined to do everything on the up and up, knowing that paying the costs means “getting money into the pockets of the guys whose stories are told here.”

My favorite story about Tommy is one told here by Leon Russell, who Denny spent years convincing to be interviewed. Russell, who was a top studio player before becoming a solo artist, says that he used to amuse himself during breaks on sessions writing complicated parts just to see if Tommy could play them. And he usually could: Tedecso could read music so fluently that he could literally play a sheet upside down. 

“It was his determination to work eight hours a day,” Denny says, “even though it was a lucky break that got him into the music business. You could be the greatest reader in the world, but you still had to make music out of it. Whatever job he had, he said, ‘I’m there to please the leader. If the guy’s not smiling when I’m playing we’re going to be there a long long time.’”

Though Denny, who has worked in the film business since the early 1980s (when he was a set decorator on the cult classic Eating Raoul), had long wanted to document his father’s life, it wasn’t until Tommy was diagnosed with cancer in 1996 that he decided to do so. He sat his father down with drummer Hal Blaine, bass player Carol Kaye and Plas Johnston (the tenor sax soloist on the “Pink Panther” theme) and filmed them reminiscing. From that he built a 15 minute sample reel, but couldn’t get anyone to back the project because of the intimidating music costs. 

“So I just kept going hoping something would happen. Finally in 2006 I had hours of interviews—my wife called it the most expensive home movie ever. That’s when we hired an editor to put it together.” 

While the film is a must-see for music fans for its wealth of stock footage and interviews (including Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell, Cher, Dick Clark, Micky Dolenz, Snuff Garrett, Bones Howe, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, Nancy Sinatra, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson, and Frank Zappa, on whose album “Lumpy Gravy” Tommy played), Denny says some of the best reactions have been from people who were “dragged to it” by musician friends but responded to its depictions of people late in life assessing their pasts. That, he feels, makes up for the occasional angry fan who hates him for pointing out that his favorite band didn’t play on their records. 

Denny Tedesco will be present for both shows.

“Immediate Family” and “The Wrecking Crew” play for one show only, 7:00PM and 9:30PM (respectively) Saturday, October 5, 2024. You can find more information here.

“The Wrecking Crew” is available on streaming services and DVD.

M. Faust is veteran movie critic and a contributor to The Buffalo Hive.