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Matters inside the Wrecking Crew apparently aren’t about to be rebuilt.

Last week, Carol Kaye, the revered and ground-breaking bassist heard on scores of pop hits since the Sixties, posted a since-deleted comment about her upcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In it, she took a shot at the director of a documentary on the “Wrecking Crew,” the gaggle of legendary studio musicians (including Kaye, drummer Hal Blaine, keyboardist Don Randi, guitarist Tommy Tedesco and others), who were given the nickname after concerns from older musicians...

For filmmaker Denny Tedesco, making the 2015 film The Wrecking Crew, about a renowned group of L.A. session musicians that backed everyone from The Mamas & the Papas to The Beach Boys, was personal. He’s the son of Tommy Tedesco, after all — a Wrecking Crew guitarist and one of the prolific axemen in history — and sought to give dad his due.

Now, Tedesco is shining a light on a new, underappreciated group of session musicians in Immediate Family, a group that backed the likes of Steve Nicks, the Rolling Stones,...

Danny Kortchmar with Carole King in Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family states: “We got to meet and play with our heroes.” Photo: Denny Tedesco

Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family (a Doc NYC highlight which includes animation by Lewie Kloster and Noah Kloster), features on-camera in-person interviews with Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Lyle Lovett, Keith Richards, Steve Jordan, Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon), Lou Adler, and Neil Young (on Zoom) on their seminal work with the masterful foursome of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Waddy Wachtel (featured in Morgan Neville’s Keith Richards: Under The Influence) on some of the biggest hits of the Seventies and Eighties. The impact of The Beatles looms large (as it did for Don Letts in Bill Badgley’s Rebel Dread) and a peak at Immediate Family,...

Bill Pitman, a guitarist whose work as part of the legendary recording session group The Wrecking Crew made an invaluable contribution to countless radio hits, TV series and films, died yesterday at his home in La Quinta, California. He was 102.

His death was announced to The New York Times by wife Janet Pitman, who told the publication her husband died after four weeks of hospice care following a fall that fractured his spine.

Pitman’s guitar playing was ubiquitous, if largely anonymous, for decades beginning in the 1950s. Just a sampling of the songs he played on: The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were, The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and The Monkees’ “Papa Gene’s Blues.” He played the ukelele on the B.J. Thomas hit “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,...

Tony Sokol Jun 6, 2019

New Orleans musician Mac Rebennack conjured the best mojo in Dr. John the Night Tripper.

"They call me Dr. John, The Night Tripper," New Orleans voodoo pianist Mac Rebennack sang on the 1969 song "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya." With his sizzling Gris-Gris his hand, he lived and breathed New Orleans. The last of the best, Dr. John the Night Tripper, died of a heart attack "toward the break of day" on Thursday, June 6, according to the New York Times. Like Leon Redbone, who died last week, there is some dispute over Dr. John's age, various reports have him listed as 77 or 78.

"The family thanks all whom have shared his unique musical journey, and requests privacy at this time," a statement from the musician's family said. They did not say where he died, though he reportedly was resting at his Lake Pontchartrain area home, not too far from New Orleans.

It’s taken Denny Tedesco seven years to get a proper theatrical release for his joyful documentary The Wrecking Crew, after years on the festival circuit, but it’s been worth the wait. This is a loving tribute to the studio session musicians who populated hundreds of hit records, primarily in the 1960s. If you lived through that era and remember the pop music, from Nancy Sinatra to the Beach Boys, from the Mamas and the Papas to Sonny and Cher, I think you’ll react to this film as I did, with a smile of warm nostalgia. The filmmaker is the son of Tommy Tedesco, a ubiquitous guitarist whose “twang” heralded the theme song of Bonanza on television. Fortunately, Denny captured his...

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The Oscar-winning doc "20 Feet From Stardom" put a massive limelight onto the singers who helped to back some of the most beloved tracks in popular music history. Similarly, "The Wrecking Crew" aims to celebrate some of the most vaunted session musicians who amplified an important era in the rock 'n' roll annuls and formed what would be called the West Coast Sound. The Wrecking Crew was the group of musicians that played some of the Beach Boys' best known songs on record, for Frank Sinatra, Sonny & Cher, Herb Alpert and the Byrds; for great theme songs and jingles, as part of Phil Spector's "Wall Of Sound" formula and beloved Motown records... As the exclusive TV spot above says, the Wrecking Crew were star-makers by simply being the behind-the-scenes stars themselves. You just may have never met them properly. So extend your hand: "The Wrecking Crew" heads to...

Magnolia Pictures is handling international sales on The Wrecking Crew, Denny Tedesco’s documentary about the group of studio musicians who played with Elvis, The Beach Boys and Frank Sinatra, among others.

The Wrecking Crew’s Tommy Tedesco, the band guitarist and father of the documentary’s director, are among the talking heads alongside Cher, Nancy Sinatra and Brian Wilson.

Magnolia holds worldwide rights and has earmarked a first quarter 2015 Us release. Josh Braun of Submarine represented the filmmakers in the deal.