Review: THE WRECKING CREW / Denny Tedesco (2008)
February 8th, 2010 by Scott Marks
Tommy Tedesco and Hal Blaine
The Wrecking Crew (2008)
Directed by Denny Tedesco
Starring: Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Don Randi, Carol Kaye, Al Casey, Earl Palmer, Plas Johnson, Joe Osborn, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell, Dick Clark, Cher, Lou Adler, Brian Wilson, Nancy Sinatra,
Running Time: 98 min.
Rating: 
“What is their name?” asks Tommy Tedesco, legendary dean of the studio guitarists. “Willie Vanilli, or what the hell their shit is? They had nothing on us. We did that all the time.”
Never thought I’d live to see the day when someone would liken The Beach Boys to Milli Vanilli, but with the exception of Brian Wilson, not one band member played so much as a lick on the legendary “Pet Sounds” album. That honor went to an elite corps of studio musicians, led by the inimitable Mr. Tedesco that played on virtually every hit song over a period that extended from the late 50s through the early 70s.
The Wrecking Crew, as they came to be called, not only performed the charts, in many instances they produced and arranged the music as well. According to Tommy, composers “put notes on paper, but that’s not music.” It was up to these versatile veterans who came of age the same time rock did to make it pop. They devised riffs, bass lines and were ultimately as responsible for the sound of the music as the front men who got all the glory.
The documentary is a 14-year labor of love by Tommy’s son Denny Tedesco. More than just an attempt by a child to garner posthumous recognition for his old man, “The Wrecking Crew” is a remarkable chronicle of an illusory period in music history that the general public remains unaware of to this day. Even Dick Clark confessed, “I had no idea that certain people didn’t play their own records until The Monkees came along.”
“I never considered myself a musician,” Mickey Dolenz recalls. “I approached The Monkees as an actor playing the part of a drummer in this imaginary group.”
No one knows exactly how many members formed The Wrecking Crew as they came to be called. Percussionist Julius Wechter guessed that 20 to 30 of the approximately 40,000 musicians working in Los Angeles at the time were the real hit makers.
The Crew backed up The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Nat Cole, The Association, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Sonny and Cher, Jan and Dean, and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound to name but a few. And it wasn’t just rock ‘n roll. On television you heard them each week performing many of your favorite themes from shows like “Bonanza,” “Batman,” “The Partridge Family,” “Green Acres” and “M*A*S*H.” And I must confess to feeling goose pimples watching Plas Johnson blow the famous riff from “The Pink Panther Theme”
Plas Johnson
The project began in 1996 when Denny reunited four of the Crew’s original members for a filmed round table. In addition to his dad there was bassist Carol Kaye, drummer Hal Blaine and saxophonist Plas Johnson. In the early 60s, the team was quite unlike anything the music business had ever seen. Instead of sporting staid blue blazers these guys had the audacity to show up for work in blue jeans. According to Hal Blaine, the older studio players feared they were going to wreck the business, hence the name.
Continue reading Review: THE WRECKING CREW / Denny Tedesco (2008)
Tags: Al Casey, Andy Friedenberg, Brian Wilson, Carol Kaye, Cher, Cinema Society of San Diego, denny tedesco, Dick Clark, Don Randi, Earl Palmer, Frank Sinatra, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, Herb Alpert, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Jan and Dean, Joe Osborn, Lou Adler, Mickey Dolenz, Nancy Sinatra, Nat Cole, pet sounds, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, Plas Johnson, rock and roll, Rockumentary, Sonny and Cher, The Association, the beach boys, the wrecking crew, the wrecking crew documentary, tommy tedescoFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
Dig A Hole: Jerry’s real kid Joseph Lewis
January 10th, 2010 by Scott Marks
Jerry Lewis’ estranged son Joseph, 45, died on October 24, 2009 in St. George, Utah after suffering a seizure. I had to learn about it by reading a comment on EC? Aside from the Globe, no one appears to be covering this story.
The Medical Examiners Office in Salt Lake City determined the cause of death was a narcotic overdose.
Joseph Lewis was the youngest son of comedian Jerry Lewis and his first wife, the former big band singer Patti Palmer Lewis, 88, who is battling dementia in a nursing home.
Of the six Lewis boys, Joe was easily the black sheep of the family. Jerry turned his back on his son in 1989 after Joe sold an explosive tell all to the National Enquirer. The two-and-a-half page tirade detailed how his father viciously abused his children. From that moment on, Jerry never spoke about Joe in public. When asked about his family Jerry would curtly reply, “I have five sons and one daughter.”
Here are a few of the accusations Joe went public with:
- The Lewis family occupied a 32-room Bel Air mansion. Joe told the Enquirer, “The house was huge and posh, but there was no love in it.”
- The Nutty Bathroom: It was Jerry’s fortress of solitude. A “Do Not Disturb” sign warned passersby to steer clear. According to Joe, this was no ordinary comfort station. It came stocked with a color TV, two telephones, two revolvers, a wet bar, refrigerator, bookcase, marijuana, Quaaludes, Nembutal, coke paraphernalia and an intercom system hooked up to each bedroom so Jerry could eavesdrop.
- The Strap: A thick leather belt Jerry used to administer punishment.
- The Rubber Snake: Joe and brother Christopher were roughhousing with a toy snake. The noise bothered Jerry so much that he took the toy and proceeded to whip Christopher with it. He took the snake into his dressing room and proceeded to chop it to shreds with his pocketknife. Once finished, he threw the pieces on their bed and said, “That will teach you stupid kids.”
Joe was not the only one of Jerry’s sons to cause the comedian heartache. Oldest son Gary Lewis returned from Vietnam a heroin addict. Christopher Lewis pleaded innocent in August 1991 to felony counts of grand theft and receiving stolen property.
Now it is Gary’s turn to speak out. The rock ‘n’ roll icon of the 1960s group Gary Lewis and the Playboys blames his father is in part responsible for the death of his younger brother. He told the Globe, “Joe had problems his entire life and I blame our father. Jerry Lewis is a mean and evil person. He was never loving and caring toward me or my brothers.
“I don’t know if Joe’s death is drug related, but I believe it could have been prevented if he and my father had been on better terms. I believe he partly died of a broken heart.
“(My father) doesn’t really care. He’s more worried about his career and his image than his own family.”
The Globe mentions that the last time Gary saw his brother was in 1999 when Joe came to see The Playboys perform in Las Vegas. Sounds like Jerry wasn’t the only member of the family neglecting Joe.
If half of Joe’s allegations are true, Jerry must have been a holy terror to live with. Still, I can’t help feeling a little sorry for Jer. No father should have to bury a son. Joe was obviously a troubled soul who spent a lifetime searching for his father’s love. In the Enquirer piece Joe recalls how he learned of his parent’s divorce: “My father came to the dinner table and held up The Enquirer cover that announced my parents were splitting…A week later my father moved out of our house.” Joe wanted to hit his father where he breathed so he sold his story to Jerry’s nemesis The National Enquirer.
At the time of his death Joe Lewis was managing a Beatles tribute band. He is survived by his second wife Cheri Wilson and three sons.
Tags: Gary Lewis, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Jerry Lewis, Jerry Lewis son dead, Jerry Lewis son dies, Joe Lewis, Joseph Lewis, Joseph Lewis dead, Joseph Lewis dies, Obituary, the globe, the National EnquirerFiled Under Obituaries