By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: The Biggest Secret in Rock & Roll

The Beach Boys and the Mamas & the Papas were two of the most popular bands from the 1960’s. But there’s a secret not many know about: they didn’t play their own instruments on any of their albums. It wasn’t just those two groups either. Dozens of bands were secretly replaced with a group of session musicians called The Wrecking Crew.

Kent Hartman is revealing all of these secrets, in his new book, The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best Kept Secret.

“The record labels didn’t want us to know. If the public would have known, for example, that the Beach Boys didn’t play any of their own instruments on any of their hits, the record label was very worried that the public would stop buying their records.”

Basically, The Wrecking Crew is the most popular two dozen musicians that you’ve never heard of.

“I would say 1962 to 1972. There was a full decade there where they were just knocking them out. Hundreds of hits.”

In the book, Kent focuses on three members, including a revolutionary woman named Carol Kay.

“If you listened to The Beat Goes On by Sonny and Cher, that’s Carol on bass. If you listen to Indian Reservation by Paul Revere and the Raiders, that’s Carol on bass. Good Vibrations, Beach Boys, Carol on bass.”

As you can imagine, not all of the bands welcomed them with open arms.

“Usually the bands thought that they were better than they were, like The Association. The Byrds too. On Mr Tambourine Man, The Byrds aren’t playing that, that’s The Wrecking Crew. Those bands, in particular, hated being replaced. They did think they were better than they were. But the producers said ‘No, we’re using the Wrecking Crew, we can’t take chances.”

But they really didn’t have much say in the matter.

“Unlike today, where bands are more in charge of their own destiny, back then producers and the record labels ruled everything. The bands pretty much had to do what they were told. Even if they had a lot of hits, like The Grassroots had many many many top 40 hits in the late 60’s, but they didn’t play on any of those hits. They were cool with it because they knew they’d get the money and the girls.”

The Wrecking Crew certainly wasn’t partying alongside the famous bands.

“They were not partiers. They were coffee drinkers and chain smokers in the studio. But they didn’t take drugs, they didn’t party, they seldom drank. They had to be very professional, they had to be there on time for these sessions. So they didn’t hang out much with the bands.”

With all of their connections, and talent, you might be wondering why these musicians didn’t just break off and form their own bands.

“They were practical and they were well paid. They had great jobs in the studios and they were in-demand virtually 24 hours a day. They used to see bands come and go. You might be hot in a band for one year or six months and then you fade away. The Wrecking Crew saw that every day and they didn’t want to be part of that. They said ‘Hey, we have got the greatest gig in the world; it’s steady and it pays well.'”

Only two of the members earned fame with their own names: Glenn Campbell and Leon Russell. But all of them were paid very well.

“The Mamas and The Papas, we consider them to be one of the most famous bands of the 60’s. But if you look at their heyday, it only lasted two years. The Wrecking Crew had a 10 year run, so over time they made a lot more than The Mamas and the Papas did. They would actually get [paid] double and triple scale by the producers because they had to have them. Hal Blaine, the drummer in the Wrecking Crew, by the late 60’s he ended up living in an 18 room mansion, he drove a Rolls Royce and he had a yacht.”

Kent says the Wrecking Crew was a Los Angeles phenomenon, so none of the British bands used them.

“Paul McCartney idolizes Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys’ best-known album. When that album came out in ’66, that directly spurred the Beatles into recording Sgt. Peppers because they wanted to one-up the Beach Boys. I’ll just bet you that Paul McCartney, at the time that he was working with Lennon creating Sgt. Peppers, I bet you they had no idea that this album by the Beach Boys, that they loved and were trying to top, was actually The Wrecking Crew.”

Who is Rachel Belle?