If you like 1960s-era rock & popular music, as I generally do, you might know about "the Wrecking Crew," the loose-knit Los Angeles group of "first call" studio musicians who played on most of the great hits coming out of LA in those days, almost never credited. Some of them, like Leon Russel, Sonny & Cher and Glen Campbell, went on to separate careers (before they went on their own, Sonny had started as Phil Spector's production assistant, and Cher had regular work as a studio backup singer).
Did you know (many of you do, I'm sure) that the bass player who played bass on the Beach Boys' biggest hits---and many other bands' Top Ten hits---was a woman? Her name is Carol Kaye.
Anyway, I grew up with that music and find the history fascinating. I thought of putting this in the Laurel Canyon thread but it's pretty dark there, and, to me, the wrecking crew were about the sheer joy of music. (And making good money, of course; Carol Kaye bragged about making "more money than the President of the United States.")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecki ... 28music%29
The Wrecking Crew was a nickname coined by the drummer Hal Blaine for a group of session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who earned wide acclaim in the 1960s. They backed dozens of popular singers, and were one of the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history.[1] The Wrecking Crew was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame on November 26, 2007.[2]
The Wrecking Crew's members typically had backgrounds in jazz or classical music, but were highly versatile. The talents of this group of 'first call' players were used on almost every style of recording, including television theme songs, film scores, advertising jingles and almost every genre of American popular music, from The Monkees to Bing Crosby. Notable artists employing the Wrecking Crew's talents included Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vee, The Partridge Family, The Mamas & the Papas, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, John Denver, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and Nat King Cole.
The figures most often associated with the Wrecking Crew are producer Phil Spector (who used the Crew to create his trademark "Wall of Sound"), and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who used the Crew's talents on many of his mid-1960s productions including the songs "Good Vibrations", "California Girls", the acclaimed album Pet Sounds, and the original recordings for Smile. Members of the Wrecking Crew played on the first Byrds single recording, "Mr. Tambourine Man", because Columbia Records did not trust the skills of Byrd musicians except for Roger McGuinn.
...
So anyway, a film and book are coming out.
"The Wrecking Crew" http://wreckingcrew.tv/ is a documentary by Denny Tedesco, son of studio guitar legend Tommy Tedesco. The film is not quite released; Denny had to negotiate a lot of music license fees, and screenings are held to raise donations to pay them (I had to miss one in Seattle but sent him $5 anyway). Once the fees are paid, he can release a commercial DVD. There are many cool outtakes on the site, look for "Out Take Theater." Here's the official trailer:
And just coming out is "THE WRECKING CREW" by Kent Hartman.
Welcome to the official site for author Kent Hartman’s high-profile new book from St. Martin’s Press about the Wrecking Crew—the uncredited LA-based studio musicians who secretly played all the instruments on literally hundreds of famous Top 40 hit songs during the Sixties and early Seventies.
From the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra, from Phil Spector’s legendary Wall of Sound to the Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, and far, far beyond, the Wrecking Crew saw it all… and played it all!
More interesting, go right to Hartman's blog: http://wreckingcrewbook.com/category/blog/
Then you might have heard about the passing on Wednesday of Billy Strange, one of the Greats in '60s music and a bona fide Wrecking Crew member. Besides his arranging and legendary studio work for others, he knocked off albums of his own; I have a Billy Strange album of TV and movie themes arranged for electric guitars. He's featured in "The Wrecking Crew" documentary, and he's in a segment or two in the "Out Take Theater" clips on the website (see above).
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 7015.story
Billy Strange dies at 81; guitarist, arranger for Presley, Nancy Sinatra
Billy Strange was one of the hottest players on the L.A. studio scene. He arranged Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Are Made for Walking' and played guitar on the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' album.
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
February 24, 2012
Guitarist Billy Strange once took the kind of phone call that thousands of musicians receive only in their best and wildest dreams.
"I was staying at a hotel in Nashville in 1965 when my telephone rang and this unmistakable voice said, 'Billy, this is Elvis. I'd like for you to stop by my studios and play some music with me,'" Strange told an English newspaper in 2002. "I was absolutely thrilled, so I went along and he just sat at the piano playing gospel songs. We had a lot of fun; so much so that we never got around to recording anything that first day."
That made it a rare day in Strange's life in the 1960s: He not only was one of the hottest players but also a successful songwriter, arranger and recording artist working in L.A.'s' top recording studios at what may have been the pinnacle of a long career in which he contributed to hit records by artists such as Presley, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Willie Nelson and the Partridge Family.
Strange, who died Wednesday in Nashville at 81, is most widely known for his role as musical arranger of Nancy Sinatra's first No. 1 hit, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," in 1966 and her 1967 duet with her father, "Somethin' Stupid." Strange also was the budding pop singer's co-star on her eerie song "Bang Bang (He Shot Me Down)," on which the only accompaniment to her wistful vocal were the strums and runs from Strange's tremolo-soaked electric guitar.
"Billy made my brother's song 'Somethin' Stupid' sound right smart, as he added raw insight to every session he sat in on," Van Dyke Parks, a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentlist, said Thursday of the song by Carson Parks that Frank and Nancy Sinatra turned into a No. 1 hit.
Strange played on hundreds of recording sessions as one of the cadre of accomplished young L.A. studio musicians later dubbed "The Wrecking Crew" because they took work away from the veteran studio pros of the time.
William Everett Strange was born Sept. 29, 1930, in Long Beach and early on established a musical identity with his own work.
He recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood in the early '50s, playing country and boogie-woogie flavored numbers such as "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves" and "The Crazy Quilt Rag."
In 1962 an instrumental that Strange wrote, and which had been recorded by the Champs of "Tequila" fame, became a huge hit for "The Twist" singer Chubby Checker after songwriter Kal Mann added lyrics to Strange's music, allowing Checker to extend his dominance in the dance-craze genre. "Limbo Rock" exploited the early-'60s fascination in the U.S. with the limbo, and Strange's song gave limbo parties an anthem to be built around.
Strange held no illusions about the long-term artistic merit of the pulsing number, which he described as "just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
With his all-around skills as a songwriter, arranger and player, Strange was soon in high demand in recording studios, adding to sessions with Ricky Nelson, the Everlys and Spector, the latter connection segueing into work with Spector disciple Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, for whom he played on their high-watermark album "Pet Sounds" in 1966.
Those credits helped bring him to the attention of Presley, whose career as a recording artist faltered in the 1960s as he focused on formulaic Hollywood movies set up for him by his manager, Col. Tom Parker. After that first meeting, Presley and Strange became close friends.
"Elvis used to call me up around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and say, 'Hey Billy, let's go for a ride,' " Strange recalled in 2002, when "A Little Less Conversation," a song that he and Mac Davis had written for Presley 33 years earlier, suddenly was a hit again thanks to an electronic dance remix by Amsterdam DJ Junkie XL. "I lost a dear friend when Elvis died. I couldn't bring myself to go to the funeral of one who expired so needlessly and tragically."
Strange's path intersected with that of another 20th century pop music titan when he and songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood were auditioning songs with Nancy Sinatra for her debut album.
"Lee and Billy came over and Lee was picking some things on the guitar, and I said, 'I like the one about the boots,' " Nancy told Larry King in 2002. "My dad, when he was leaving, he said, 'You're right. It's the one about the boots.' A hit song is a hit song. The only other time I felt that feeling was with 'Somethin' Stupid,' and it also went to No. 1."
Strange served as arranger on most of her recordings and also played on many of them.
"Next to Lee, he was the guy on her records," fellow guitarist Duane Eddy said Thursday. "Lee wrote 'em and produced 'em, and Billy arranged 'em and guided her through musical rough spots."
Strange also created the arrangements for a guitar-driven big-band album Eddy recorded in 1967, "Roaring Twangies," that featured both of them wielding their instruments over a large ensemble of saxophones, trumpets and trombones. "He said it was one of his favorite projects because he did so much with the arrangements" of Glenn Miller hits and other songs mostly from the pre-rock era, said Eddy, who also wrote a song for and played with Sinatra, Hazlewood and Strange on their 2004 reunion album "Nancy & Lee 3," three years before Hazlewood died.
A string of instrumental solo albums furthered Strange's reputation as a guitarist, often casting hits of the day in deep twang settings that have been dubbed "loungeabilly." His 1963 "12 String Guitar" album is considered a classic among electric guitar enthusiasts. He scored a couple of Top 100 singles with his versions of music from the James Bond films, "The James Bond Theme" in 1964 and "Goldfinger" the following year.
He was elected to the Musicians Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, both based in Nashville.
Strange is survived by his wife, country singer Jeanne Black, and their children, Josh, Jonmark, Kelly, Jerry and Rusty. There was no immediate word about the cause of death.
randy.lewis@latimes.com
http://www.goldminemag.com/article/the- ... op-culture
The Wrecking Crew left its musical mark on pop culture
Posted on 06 November 2011.
By Jeff Marcus
If you were asked to name the best bassists in rock music, Paul McCartney and John Entwistle would quickly come to mind. Ask for legendary rock guitarists and Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen would be uttered frequently. Seek the names of some great rock drummers and chances are you’d hear Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ringo Starr.
But if you browsed my list, you’ll find bassists Carol Kaye and Chuck Berghofer, guitarists Tommy Tedesco, Al Casey and Bill Pitman, and drummers Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer and Jim Gordon at the top. After scratching your head in puzzlement, I’d probably hear, “Who the hell are they?” as a common response.
Their names may be unfamiliar, but you’ve played air guitar, pencil-on-desk drums and hummed along to hundreds of classic hit records, commercial jingles and TV and movie themes from the late ’50s throughout the mid-’70s on which these and several other key session musicians performed. They are The Wrecking Crew.
These elite Los Angeles players were the “band” for countless acts, from Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley and The Ronettes. They were Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, as well as The Association, The Monkees and The Partridge Family. Initially, they were even The Byrds. Columbia Records executives deemed that band members David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark and Mike Clarke were not polished enough to play on their No. 1 debut single “Mr. Tambourine Man,” so the record company called in the team of chart-busting L.A. session musicians. The only actual Byrds band member to play on the track was James McGuinn, who later changed his first name to Roger.
Whether it was Wayne Newton singing “Danke Schoen” or The Fifth Dimension inviting you to go “Up, Up And Away,” The Wrecking Crew, as it has come to be known, was the band that made the songs rock. They are the cats who caused Nancy Sinatra’s boots to walk. They are the band that you sing along with every Christmas when Alvin of the Chipmunks asks for a hula hoop.
The above-named Los Angeles session musicians, along with 45 to 50 others, including the string and horn sections, formed a versatile unit that played the role of the actual group on more hit records than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and several other classic rock acts combined.
During most of the mid-’60s, Beach Boys backing tracks didn’t feature any of the Beach Boys at all. It was Brian Wilson’s decision to experiment and push the music in another direction. That musical vision went beyond the scope of the actual band.
“And to do that, he enlisted the best of L.A.”, said Denny Tedesco, director of The Wrecking Crew documentary and the son of late session guitarist Tommy Tedesco. You may not be familiar with Tommy’s name, but you sure know his guitar licks. Be it the themes from TV’s “Bonanza,” “Batman” or “Green Acres,” to The Mamas and The Papas’ “California Dreamin’” or the legendary hits produced by Phil Spector and his stable of artists, Tommy and the other members of this group of musicians played on so many historic tracks, there is hardly enough space allowed to even begin a proper list.
The Wrecking Crew didn’t set out to conquer the world of rock and pop. Its members just fell into it; call it being in the right place at the right time. In the early days of rock and roll, New York City was the mecca for performers. But as rock music was for young people and a youth explosion was taking place in California where all of the youthful movies were being made, naturally, the musicians followed.
The Wrecking Crew’s core group of players came from a jazz background, and it served them well when they made the transition to rock and roll.
“And we were all starving,” keyboardist Don Randi said with a chuckle. “You could make more money playing rock and roll than jazz any day.”
But that jazz training did give these musicians the ability to improvise freely, which came in handy during the recording process.
“Very rarely did we have parts totally written out for us,” explained Randi, who began his professional recording career by playing on The Crystals’ hit “He’s A Rebel.” “We made our own parts, our own arrangements. By giving us the freedom, I think that’s where all the better records came from.”
Tommy Tedesco once lamented the difference between the musical composition and its performance.
“I’ve always said they put the notes on paper, but that’s not music,” he said. “You make the music with what you do with the notes. It’s what you put into it.”
While Blaine explained that musicians were simply in charge of producing their own parts, Kaye described the production experience as more of a communal event.
“Everyone donated lines. Like jazz players, we did it together,” Kaye said.
Brian Wilson credits Kaye, the lone woman who held her own in what was predominantly considered a man’s world at the time, with the success of classic tracks including “California Girls” and “Good Vibrations.” In 1957, Kaye was playing jazz guitar when she was asked to do studio work. One of her earliest rock dates was playing chord guitar for Ritchie Valens’ hit “La Bamba.”
“When I started to do the Ritchie Valens stuff, I missed playing bebop jazz. I started doing rock bass on guitar, and I just didn’t like it. But, he was so nice to be around, and he appreciated the studio guys. I thought if they were all like this, then I’m staying in the studio work.”
Five years later, a bass player failed to show up for a recording date at Capitol Records. It was then that Carol received the musical equivalent to a Willy Wonka golden ticket.
“Somebody there had a Fender bass, placed it in my lap and asked me to play it. During the guitar years, I was the fourth call on the list, not No. 1 like I got to be on the bass around 1964,” Kaye said.
Carol recalls how the bass players were relying on very simple lines. In her mind, though, the bass should be doing something else.
“Without a good bass line, the tune doesn’t pop. You know, it doesn’t snap like a big hit record,” Kaye said when describing her contribution to Sonny And Cher’s 1967 No. 6 hit, “The Beat Goes On.” According to Kaye, the original bass line “laid there like a dead dog.”
The previous era of session musicians — the suit-and-tie-set — were unwilling to experiment and felt that rock and roll was beneath them.
“We came in there with Levi’s, T-shirts and smoking cigarettes, and the older guys were saying that these kids are going to wreck the business,” Blaine recalls.
At the time, this new studio team wasn’t known by any specific name. Hal Blaine is repeatedly credited as hanging the moniker “Wrecking Crew” on the session group in later years, although it’s possible that the media latched on to it and it stuck.
Randi’s take on the name stems from the fact that “we were the biggest jokesters and pranksters, especially with producers. We respected them, but they would sometimes drive us crazy, and we’d get even. So, we were kind of like, we could wreck a date, so to speak. And that’s how it got started, I guess. Somebody said, jokingly, these guys are gonna wreck another date.”
Nobody who gravitates in this orbit can agree completely, nor is everyone thrilled with the name. It hardly matters. They could be called the International Silver String Submarine Band and that still wouldn’t alter the fact that these musicians contributed more to American popular culture than anyone else walking the planet.
Randi offers a fly on the wall perspective in describing what it was like to be in the studio at the time most of these songs were being recorded.
“We knew we were making great records, but a lot of the time when we went in, we had no idea what was going to happen in the end.”
It was common for musicians to lay down the tracks and singers to record their vocals to the arrangement at a later time. To the musicians who were there, it was simply a job. A Brian Wilson session may have paid the monthly mortgage. A Phil Spector date was a car payment. These players were so busy that they simply didn’t have time to analyze their work.
“We would record four songs in three hours,” Kaye recalls.
Most often, the musicians never heard the final product until they heard it on the radio. “The only record I remember that I knew was an instant hit that Brian Wilson did was ‘Help Me, Rhonda,’ Randi said. ‘He had that sucker down and knew exactly what he wanted.”
Depending on what the session required, members of The Wrecking Crew could switch from rock, pop, R&B, blues, Latin and jazz at the drop of a hat, which is precisely why the team was so busy.
“Nobody was in that room because they were a friend of someone else,” said Denny Tedesco. “They were there because they earned it. Back then, you didn’t have the technology to save your butt.”
While sex, drugs and rock and roll were the credo for many of the musical acts of the day, The Wrecking Crew proved to be the exception to the rule, at least as far as drugs were concerned.
“To clear up that myth, there were none,” Blaine said. He submits the body of work as proof, for to perform as many sessions as those session musicians did and stay on their “A” games, drugs were not a consideration. In the studio, time was money, and if you didn’t deliver, you didn’t come back.
“In the ’60s, nobody in the studio used drugs,” Kaye proclaimed. “We could cut a hit album in six hours.”
By the 1970s, it was a different story, and the end of an era.
“Then it took a month to cut an album,” Kaye said with a laugh.
For all of their accomplishments, the musicians of The Wrecking Crew were not credited on record covers or labels. For the most part, very few of them let on that receiving no name recognition for their efforts was an issue. There is one visual in Denny Tedesco’s documentary with sax legend Plas Johnson describing his contribution on 1962’s “Surfer’s Stomp,” released under the name The Mar-Kets, where his body language clearly shows that he was bothered by the fact that his name and likeness never appeared anywhere on the record. The record company enlisted a group of well-scrubbed teens that would appeal to white America and pose as the actual band once the song began to sell. By the way, if you ever whistled the theme to “The Pink Panther” or “The Odd Couple,” please give props to Mr. Johnson.
To this day, the majority of music fans have no idea what went on behind the scenes. Certainly, some of the talent that received the credit was embarrassed to come forward. Record companies feared that if the public knew the truth, they couldn’t sell the records. If, as a teenager, you picked up an album and saw a heavy-set guitarist who resembled comedian Lou Costello instead of a cuddly mop-top like Davy Jones, what would you think?
“When Brian Wilson let the cat out of the bag about 15 years ago that he used studio musicians, I have never seen so much hate mail in my life,” Kaye admitted. “The public couldn’t handle it. I have people e-mail me and say, ‘You played on my favorite hits. How dare you?’”
Often times, the Wrecking Crew’s pool of talent gave mediocre material a jolt of much-needed electricity. Without the assistance of players like Chuck Berghofer, who provides the double bass line that opens “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’,” the song wouldn’t be nearly as memorable. The same goes for the seven consecutive Top 10 hits of Gary Lewis and The Playboys. Session musicians were The Playboys on record, and songs like “Sure Gonna Miss Her” would be almost unlistenable if you took out Tommy Tedesco’s Latin-flavored guitar work. All that would be left is Gary’s nasal singing voice and lame lyrics like “I’m sure gonna miss her/He was walking with her/I’m sure gonna miss her/Yes, I am.”
While there was a difference in working styles with various producers, the end goal was always the same: Get the best production values possible. A producer such as Brian Wilson, who was a musician, as well, would do take after take until he got what he wanted. Someone like Snuff Garrett did not play an instrument and came from an era where he felt he was hired to make a hit in the most efficient way possible. Denny Tedesco stated that it didn’t matter if his father was working for Wilson or Garrett, because both producers felt that “if you hire the right people, you’ll be covered.” Denny Tedesco added that a producer such as Snuff Garrett wasn’t concerned if a musician or singer liked the song or not; he recalled Garrett telling him that “I didn’t make ‘Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves’ for your father or Cher.”
Randi concurred.
“Lou Adler and Snuff Garrett were more like company guys. They were more concerned with the budget. Phil Spector and Brain Wilson didn’t care about that.”
With a unit of session musicians that housed some 60-odd players, one thing is certain after examining the contracts that Denny Tedesco so graciously shared. There were 15 to 20 names that appeared on almost all of them. Besides Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Don Randi, Al Casey, Plas Johnson, Ray Pohlman, Bill Pitman and Larry Knechtel, who later joined Bread, there was one guitarist who became a household name: Glen Campbell. One of the busiest guitarists in the fold, Campbell worked on the iconic Phil Spector sessions, as well as with The Beach Boys. In fact, when Brian Wilson quit touring in 1964 and submerged himself in the studio, it was Glen that took his place on the road. When Campbell launched his successful singing career in 1967, it should be no surprise who he called to play on his sessions.
In reflecting back on his father’s work, Denny Tedesco shares a compliment that Campbell once gave his colleagues: “It was like you were playing with Michael Jordan. But I was playing with five Michael Jordans.”
The Wrecking Crew’s peak came in the late 1960s, particularly in 1967. By the early 1970s, it was the end of the era, Denny Tedesco said.
As FM album rock gained popularity and groups were playing their own music, the musicians of The Wrecking Crew were replaced by the next generation of players. Tommy Tedesco substituted records with TV and film work like “The Godfather,” “Jaws” and “Field of Dreams,” the gig that Denny Tedesco says made his father most proud. “When a composer like James Horner or John Williams was writing for him, there is no bigger high in life.”
In his later years, Tommy Tedesco gave seminars and wrote for a guitar magazine. In video footage during some of those seminars, Tommy Tedesco looked like a kid in a candy store. He died of lung cancer Nov., 10, 1997, at the age of 67.
For Blaine, who played on 39 No. 1 hits, the road after the glory days was a rocky one. Divorce forced him to sell his mansion, Rolls Royce, yacht and gold record awards. The man who is in the record books for playing on six consecutive Grammy winning Records of the Year, from 1966’s “A Taste Of Honey” for Herb Alpert to 1971’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for Simon & Garfunkel, was reduced to taking a gig as a security guard in Scottsdale, Ariz. “It looked like the end of the line for me,” reflects Blaine, who also advises against giving up. “I wasn’t against manual labor. I guess I did what I had to do.”
Eventually, the phone began ringing again. “They couldn’t take my drum talents away from me. Little by little, I was back in the swing of things,” Blaine said.
For Kaye, 76, jazz has always been in her heart. If she didn’t have the responsibility for providing for a family and being away from her kids, Kaye would have been happy to leave the world of pop and rock music behind and join George Shearing’s jazz group.
Randi, now 74, still thinks that life is a highway. In addition to touring, which still includes gigs with his pal, Nancy Sinatra, he records music ranging from jazz to electronica.
When I asked Don when it came to an end for him, he answered me without hesitation. “It never did.”
Jeff Marcus is author of the two volume book series American Record Sleeves Volumes 1 & 2. Visit his site at http://www.recordsleevebooks.com
Here's a smattering of photos from "the day":
Members of The Wrecking Crew warm up during the Phil Spector-produced session of Darlene Love's "Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home."
It was pretty standard in 1960s pop, in LA at least, to use two basses: one acoustic stand-up, and one electric "Fender bass," especially for the "big sound" type productions. Phil Spector and others sometimes used up to four basses, including some crazy six-string electric bass one guy brought in.
That's Leon Russel on the left. There are many funny stories about his session days.
Carol Kaye on bass, mid-1960s. She played on a mind-blowing number of Top Ten hits, and invented a lot of the memorable bass "hooks" in many songs. You can tell when it's her because she always used a pick---unusual for bassists. She is still around, playing and teaching.
You know those opening bass notes in "Wichita Lineman"? That's her.
In the photos above, she's playing 6-string guitar---she's also a noted guitarist and performs mainly on jazz guitar.
The guy next to her in the photo on the left is Tommy Tedesco. I first became aware of something like the Wrecking Crew in the 1970s when I subscribed to Guitar Player magazine; Tedesco had a monthly column which he often devoted to funny stories of recording studio antics.
In that photo above, it looks like a "fuzz box" on the music stand. Tedesco is credited with the first use of an electric fuzz-tone, in the theme for TV's "Green Acres." The Wrecking Crew also played most of the TV themes for shows produced in LA, as well as the music for TV jingles etc.
Billy Strange, working with Nancy Sinatra...can you imagine having the responsibility for making Frank Sinatra's daughter sound good? But you know? Why are my Nancy Sinatra LPs in 'high rotation'? (I haven't quite moved over to CDs yet. "LP means "vinyl" in case you didn't know; Long Play, that is, a phonorecord---33 1/3?---never mind.)
Glen Campbell before he got famous.
Actually, I think he had some record contracts before then, with maybe a minor hit. The record company tried to market him as a singing idol, but even hiring girls to scream didn't make it happen. He seemed to have found success being "himself" and keeping the guitar in the act. He really is one of the great studio guitarists. He was also a Beach Boy for a good while, replacing Brian Wilson on tours.
They're EVERYWHERE 
The contest is decided by 
