In the book “The Wrecking Crew” a chapter is devoted to many pop songs that came out of LA, including “Wichita Lineman”. Studio bass player extrordinaire Carol Kaye suggested the opening riff to GLen and he loved it. But he also loved the tone of her Danelectro bass, which had a solid masonite body and thus a higher sound than a standard Fender electric or upright bass. Since Jimmy Webb was protesting that the song wasn’t done because “there’s no middle part”, Glen asked Carol if he could borrow her Danelectro bass, on which he played the wonderful “guitar” solo in the “middle part”.
Amazing book, highly recommended for anyone with interest in the greatest group of studio musicians of all time that didn’t come out of Motown.
I think it was an interview with Coral Kaye in which she said they didn’t call themselves The Wrecking Crew.
It was free for a while, but you have to now pay $2.99 to watch on YouTube. It is really excellent with lots of interviews of the stars of the era plus the musicians. Lots of stories about where the songs and tunes came from, who worked on what. The director is Denny Tedesco, son of Tommy Tedesco. The documentary is a loving tribute by Denny to his dad. Tommy has an incredible list of achievements including guitarist for The Wrecking Crew. Here are a few of the songs on which he played guitar: "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys; "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers; opening theme music for the TV series Batman; theme music for Field of Dreams; theme music for The Godfather; and theme music for the TV series Green Acres; theme music for the TV series Bonanza.
Having grown up in that era, I had NO IDEA that the famous bands at the time didn't record their own songs. No wonder the bands in concert often didn't sound at all like their hit records!
The Wrecking Crew was just incredible.
I have read much about them, via Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, but I missed that one.
Carol once said that, when applying for a job and being asked what she had done, when she said she played on the Pet Sounds sessions, it was ‘nuff said.
Do you know it was Carol Kaye on the Barney Miller theme?