4 stars out of 5
I saw this documentary on my birthday, but I slacked off for more than two weeks before reviewing it. Still, that’s totally in the spirit of the film: It was 18 years in the works, and even on IMDB it’s listed as a 2008 movie. But with the help of a $313,157 Kickstarter campaign, The Wrecking Crew! was finally completed and given a theatrical release. (For you shut-ins out there, it is also available on-demand and via iTunes.)
If you’re a music geek, you likely know a decent amount about the Wrecking Crew: the much in-demand, L.A.-based studio musicians who anonymously backed everyone from the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra in the 1960s. Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound? The Wrecking Crew. The Monkees weren’t the Monkees; they were the Wrecking Crew.
If you’re a fan of “oldies” but not a total nerd about it, this movie will be a revelation.
Over the years, we’d hear about Hal Blaine, the Wrecking Crew drummer, and Carol Kaye, the bass player. But the rest of the musicians tended to lurk in the shadows. This documentary sets out to right past wrongs and it succeeds.
You can’t help but notice that the film was pieced together over a long stretch of time. Interviewees age over the course of 101 minutes. Dick Clark is looking well and his diction is superb. Glen Campbell is not feeling too bad himself. So there’s a little bit of a sloppy feel to the proceedings, as different segments of different film quality are glued together. But ultimately, this patchwork approach becomes kind of charming.
Of course, a huge strength of the movie is the soundtrack — hands down, some of the greatest songs ever recorded. (In the credits, there’s a list of Wrecking Crew songs that weren’t used in the film, and just those would’ve been a world-class greatest hits playlist.) And director Denny Tedesco was able to interview many key players, including Brian Wilson, Herb Alpert, Cher, Mickey Dolenz, Jimmy Webb, and Nancy Sinatra.
But the secret weapon, turning this into a very good film: Rather than just being a 1960s/70s music documentary, it’s equally a tribute to the director’s dad, Tommy Tedesco. He was a guitarist with the Wrecking Crew, who passed away not long after initial filming began. So Denny gets to retrace his dad’s life via some great archival footage, and interviews with Tommy’s wife and his old bandmates. What we end up with is a really sweet father-and-son tale. Don’t wait 18 years to see it.
Jack Silbert, curator