Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew

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Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician is a memoir by and about renowned drummer, Hal Blaine.

In 1990, session drummer and legend Hal Blaine sat down with writer David Goggin and produced Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician. In it, Blaine’s recounts his experiences as a professional drummer, playing with/for such greats as Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Frank Sinatra and a host of other well known artists, beginning in the late 1950s.

Blaine scored his first #1 hit with Elvis Presley’s "Can’t Help Falling in Love With You" in 1961 and after about 40 others in between, earned his last #1 with Diana Ross for the "Theme from Mahogany" in 1976. In his memoirs, Blaine remains the consummate professional, disdaining the opportunity to generate a "kiss and tell" sort of book. Only in discussing his relationship with The Mamas & the Papas driving force John Phillips does Blaine even suggest that all the Rock and Roll greats that he worked with were not.

The name The Wrecking Crew was derived from the impression that Blaine and the younger studio musicians made on the businesses’ older generation who felt that they were going to wreck the music industry. This was not to be the case. Although the Wrecking Crew was in fact a fairly large pool of musicians, not all of whom would play all the dates, Blaine includes in it Joe Osborn, Carol Kaye and Ray Pohlman on Fender basses and Lyle Ritz and Jimmy Bond on upright basses. Guitars might be some combination of Tommy Tedesco (whose book, Tommy Tedesco: Confessions of a Guitar Player is a must read for students of this time and place), Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, Al Casey, Glen Campbell and Bill Pitman and the keyboards might be tickled by Don Randi, Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel, Michael Melvoin and/or Al Delory. When Blaine was not the drummer, or when two were used, as Phil Spector was sometimes inclined to do, the crew was typically driven by Earl Palmer.

The Hal’s Scrapbook chapter is a collection of photographs featuring Blaine with such greats as Ray Charles, George Harrison, Herb Alpert and many more.

Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician was published by MixBooks, a division of Act III Publishing, Emeryville, California in 1990.