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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...

Carol Kaye, one of the most recorded bassists of all time, has declined the invitation to attend this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

“People have been asking: No I won’t be there,” wrote Kaye in a Facebook post shared on Wednesday. “I am declining the rrhof awards show (and denny tedesco process)…..turning it down because it wasn’t something that reflects the work that Studio Musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s Recording Hits.”

During the Sixties and Seventies, Kaye...

Legendary session bassist Carol Kaye has confirmed she won’t be attending the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony later this year. In a Facebook statement, the 90-year-old musician explained that she is turning down the show because it doesn’t accurately capture the spirit of studio musicians during her heyday.

“No I won’t be there,” Kaye wrote. “I am declining the [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] awards show… turning it down because it wasn’t something that reflects the work that Studio Musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s Recording Hits.”

Kaye also took issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describing her as a member of the “Wrecking Crew,” a label used to describe the collective work of studio musicians in the 1960s and 1970s. Kaye has long maintained that the name is an inaccurate and insulting label for session players of her era.

“You...

Farewell to Clem Burke, one of the all-time great rock & roll drummers. The Blondie legend passed away on Sunday, only 70, from cancer. His exuberant energy was as crucial to the Blondie sound as Debbie Harry’s vocals. He combined the chaotic frenzy of his idol Keith Moon with the forward motion of Motown drummers like Benny Benjamin, as his beat took them from CBGBs to conquer the world. “Clem was not just a drummer,” the band said in an official statement. “He was the heartbeat of Blondie.”

To hear what made Clem Burke unique,...

Clem Burke, famed drummer for Blondie, died Sunday. He was 70.

The official Blondie account announced the news of Burke’s death: “It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer.

“Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”

The statement was signed “Debbie, Chris, and the entire Blondie family.”

Burke played on all of Blondie’s albums, from their 1976 self-titled debut to their breakthrough Parallel Lines album in 1978, featuring their chart-topping “Heart of Glass,” 1979’s Eat...

Clem Burke, the longtime drummer for Blondie who played a key role in the New Wave movement and appeared on albums by Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, and Bob Dylan, died Sunday at the age of 70.

“It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer,” the band wrote in a statement. “Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his...

“Be My Baby” is as universal as a pop song can be. It’s the song that made Ronnie Spector a timeless rock & roll legend, a teenage girl from Spanish Harlem who packed a lifetime of raw power into three minutes. Ever she belted out “Be My Baby” in 1963, it’s been the classic that sums up the whole Sixties girl-group era, with Phil Spector’s lavish Wall of Sound production. But it’s never left the airwaves. On Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, “Be My Baby...

Earlier this year, Darlene Love picked up the phone and heard a voice on the other end she didn’t quite recognize at first. “Doll, hi!” she heard. “This is Cher.” Love asked her to repeat who was calling. “Cher, bitch!”

She was calling to see if Love would sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with her on her upcoming holiday album Christmas, revisiting a tune they sang together exactly 60 years ago on A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, one of the greatest Christmas albums in music history.

Jim Gordon, a drummer who played on Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, died Monday at the age of 77. The musician, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was serving a prison sentence for killing his mother in 1983, died in a state-run medical facility in Vacaville, California. Publicist Bob Merlis confirmed Gordon’s death in a statement, adding that Gordon died of natural causes.

In addition to his incredible catalog of recordings, Gordon is also known for sharing a songwriting credit on “Layla” with Eric Clapton,...

Jim Gordon, a Wrecking Crew session drummer and member of Eric Clapton’s band Derek and the Dominos who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after murdering his mother, has died at the age of 77.

In 1983, Gordon murdered his mother in a psychotic episode. He was sentenced to 16 years to life, but never showed up for any of his parole hearings. As of this year, he was serving his sentence at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where he died of natural causes on Wednesday (March 15th), as confirmed by a representative.

Born James Beck Gordon in Southern California, he began playing drums in his early teens and quickly developed a reputation as a talented and versatile musician. His big break came in the late 1960s when he was hired as a session drummer for The Everly Brothers.

With legendary drummer Hal Blaine as his mentor, Gordon became a member of the group...

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,...

Robert Michael Nesmith, who died at the age of 78, is best known as the member of the Monkees who wore the wool cap, but also one of the band’s premiere songwriters. Besides providing several hits, the songs kickstarted the made-for-tv band into a self-producing, songwriting team.

The Monkees played their own instruments. Former child actors Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz weren’t initially proficient but were as eager to learn as any garage band. Musicians Nesmith and Peter Tork were hired as actors who knew how to ape The Beatles look in comedy films like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!.

Nesmith changed that. His song “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” which was the B-side to the top 5 hit “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” was the first song that had all four Monkees playing on it.

Nesmith quit the Monkees four days after Paul McCartney...

Phil Spector, the monumentally influential music producer whose “Wall of Sound” style revolutionized the way rock music was recorded in the early 1960s, died Saturday at the age of 81. Spector’s life was tumultuous and ultimately tragic; as groundbreaking as his studio accomplishments were, those achievements were all but overshadowed by his 2009 conviction for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

Spector’s death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m.

Some viewers might have assumed that Carol Kaye, the legendary studio bassist who was part of the so-called Wrecking Crew in the 1960s, would be flattered by having a character loosely modeled on her, “Carole Keen,” introduced in the latest season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Noting that the real-life Kaye is now 84, Esquire praised the homage and wrote, “Hopefully she’s binging ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season Three proudly, along with the rest of us.”

Well, no. Anyone who knows Kaye’s history of taking issue with documentaries that involve her knew that she probably wouldn’t suffer a fictional portrayal any more lightly. And indeed that has turned out to be the case, as Kaye has vented about “Mrs. Maisel” in an interview with the New York Post.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘That must be you. I love it!’ But I am not a cartoon — and...

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.

In our daily news show, Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos checks in on a few of the headlines everyone is discussing. For today’s episode, watch the video to get a quick take on:

Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman arrested in massive college cheating scheme Big Bang singer Seungri retires, charged with prostitution ring Iconic drummer Hal Blaine died at age 90 Song of the Day: Jonas Brothers, “Sucker”

Tune in each day for a new episode.

It’s a sunny spring day in 2016 and Ronnie Spector is seated at a New York hotel bar. As she looks back on her career, she pinpoints the session she did with the Wrecking Crew for “Be My Baby.” The first time she heard Hal Blaine play the song’s opening rhythm — thump, thump-thump, clap! — she had an out-of-body experience. “It was like I’d gone to heaven,” she said. “It all fit. It all was like a puzzle and once my voice was put on, the puzzle was complete.

When you think of the classic incarnation of the Beach Boys, it’s easy to recall Dennis Wilson holding down the drum kit. In fact, the man supplying the beats for many of their enduring mid-1960s recordings was Hal Blaine, the legendary Los Angeles-based session drummer and member of the Wrecking Crew studio group, who died on March 11th at age 90.

Blaine’s resume — some of the most well-known records made by Frank Sinatra, Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas and the Fifth Dimension; many Phil Spector...

The first time Roger McGuinn met Hal Blaine was in January 1965, at the recording session for “Mr. Tambourine Man.” McGuinn had recently formed his new band, the Byrds, but the full group wasn’t ready to record in a professional studio just yet. Instead, Blaine, the veteran drummer who had already tracked everything from the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” to Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii soundtrack, joined Wrecking Crew bandmates Bill Pitman, Leon Russell, Jerry Cole and Larry Knechtel to back McGuinn on what would become the group’s breakthrough Number One hit.

“Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words,” Brian Wilson wrote on Twitter Monday after news of the legendary session drummer’s death began to circulate. “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success — he was the greatest drummer ever.”

Blaine’s résumé backs up Wilson’s statement: tens of thousands of recording dates, ranging from Simon & Garfunkel to Sam Cooke, and hundreds of hits, often recorded as part of L.A. studio all-star team the Wrecking Crew.

As reported by Billboard, prolific session drummer Hal Blaine—who played on tons of hits throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s as a member of legendary studio band the Wrecking Crew—has died. A cause of death has not been given, but the news was confirmed by a post on Blaine’s Facebook page that noted he was an “inspiration to…...

Hal Blaine, the venerated drummer who played on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and “Good Vibrations,” the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” as a member of the Wrecking Crew, a group of elite Los Angeles session players, died Monday at age 90. The musician’s family confirmed the news in a statement via Facebook.

“May he rest forever on 2 and 4,” they wrote, referencing the backbeat that defines rock & roll. “The family appreciates your outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Hal from around the world,...

Joe Osborn, the bassist in the famed Wrecking Crew, the group of studio musicians who performed on tracks like Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” has died at the age of 81.

Denny Tedesco, the director of the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew, confirmed to Rolling Stone that Osborn died December 14th following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Louisiana-born Osborn entered the music business as a member of Ricky Nelson’s backing band and appeared on the pop singer’s 1961 hit “Travelin...

It’s been a pretty big week on the Cher front. Not only did she receive the Kennedy Center Honors alongside Philip Glass, Reba McEntire, Wayne Shorter and the creators of Hamilton, but her Broadway musical The Cher Show opened on Monday night. The show received fairly mixed reviews, but most of the press focused on actor Jarrod Spector, who plays Sonny Bono, gently admonishing Kanye for being on his phone throughout much of the night. “Please pardon my lack of etiquette,” Kanye wrote in a rare apology. “We have...

In August 1972, 22-year-old Houston-born songwriter Rodney Crowell first arrived in Nashville, a passenger in fellow songwriter Donivan Cowart’s 1965 baby blue Chevy Impala. Much as it is today, the city was experiencing a major growth spurt. Urban renewal, an interstate highway system and the changing face of the Music City skyline were among the factors contributing to Nashville’s growing pains. Music Row, which housed the country-music industry’s record labels and publishing companies, was cashing in on the “Nashville Sound,” the country-meets-pop production style perfected by producers Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins.

On Tuesday, January 9, the recording academy announced this year’s recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards: drummer Hal Blaine, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, country legend Emmylou Harris, late rock-and-roll pioneer Louis Jordan, funk band The Meters, British rock band Queen, and the queen of rock and roll Tina Turner. Blaine was well known as a drummer from the group of session musicians known as The […]...

Exclusive: Best Actress front-runner Julianne Moore playing a victim of early-onset Alzheimer’s in Still Alice has been drawing the lion’s share of attention to that mind-robbing disease this awards season, but it’s a fictional character. There is another Alzheimer’s-related Oscar story that is even more compelling — because it’s real, as one of this year’s most recognizable nominees is deep into his own battle with the horrible disease.

Country superstar Glen Campbell, now living in a facility in Nashville and suffering from an advancing case of Alzheimer’s, received his first Oscar nomination for the remarkable song, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” from the documentary Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me, which chronicles his final concert tour as the disease closed in on him. The song, serving as a goodbye to his loved ones, wryly and knowingly gets to the heart of what it...

The death of Davy Jones should give us pause to remember that the Monkees were one of the great groups of the 1960s

In the Purcell Room in London last night, a panel of pop sages – Jon Savage, Nicky Wire and Alexis Petridis – chose the TV moment that made them realise pop music was the key to their future, something that could open up their lives. Respectively, they picked the Rolling Stones, the Smiths, and Adam & the Ants; all three groups were inspirational but all equally seemed unattainable, otherworldly.

The Monkees were the exact opposite. Two or three generations of musicians will have grown up watching their show on Saturday mornings, or in the summer holidays, thinking: "I want to be like them." Their lifestyle was highly desirable and didn't seem impossible: form a band, move into a ramshackle flat together, meet loads of girls. At least, Davy Jones, who died yesterday,...

In 1966, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys entered the studio to compose Smile, an album that he believed would transform not just the band, but the face of popular music. What happened next – captured by writer Jules Siegel, who had spent months in the Beach Boys’ inner circle – would become legend. “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God,” Siegel’s account of the tortured efforts to complete Smile, ran in Cheetah magazine, helping to create the legacy of Wilson’s madcap genius and the mystique around rock’s greatest lost album. The following...

"Brian Wilson Songwriter 1962 - 1969" will be available on DVD November 23, 2010, showcasing Wilson's songs throughout the '1960's..."while investigating the rich tapestry of music written and produced by this brilliant 20th century composer."

The songs Wilson wrote/recorded with The Beach Boys during the 1960's plays over three hours across two discs, including contributions from fellow Beach Boys, Bruce Johnston, David Marks; Wrecking Crew musicians Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine; Beach Boys manager Fred Vail; producers Russ Titelman, Bill Halverson; Wilson family friends Billy Hinsche, Danny Hutton, biographers Peter Ames Carlin, Domenic Priore and a whole lot more.

Also featured are historical musical performances, rare classic recordings, obscure footage, rare archive interviews, seldom seen photographs and live/studio recordings of numerous Brian Wilson classics.

Extras include extended interviews, Special Features 'The End Of An Era - The Beach Boys in 1970' and 'Pet Sounds Preview - John and Paul hear the record'.

Showtime will get the premiere window of a new documentary about the long-delayed completion of the Brian Wilson album Smile. Scheduled to air Oct. 5, Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of 'Smile' chronicles the former Beach Boys frontman's masterwork from its aborted undertaking 37 years ago to its resumption in February, including a London concert performance. " 'Smile' is among history's great unfinished works, and this extraordinary documentary will explain why," said Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said. "Music fans, as well as the average viewer, will all be able to relate to the story of this remarkable record's birth, demise and triumphant return to life." LSL Prods. (The 100 Greatest Television Characters of All Time) will produce Dreamer in association with Chautauqua Entertainment (Coast to Coast). LSL's David Leaf, Steve Ligerman and John Scheinfeld and Chautauqua's Richard Waltzer will executive produce, with Leaf directing. The documentary includes interviews with Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine.