Post by erik on Jan 7, 2023 18:44:25 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker re. Wrecking Crew musicians on Elvis' mid-1960's recordings:
I may be mistaken about this, but, given that Elvis' time was so often taken up with the movies and coming up with enough songs from them, and since he recorded those songs in Hollywood, it was inevitable that the sessions for those songs would involve members of the Wrecking Crew. In fact, at least half of all the hits of the 1960's that were recorded in L.A. likely involved the Wrecking Crew in some way to start with (and this would include Linda, as it was Wrecking Crew member Don Randi's harpsichord playing featured so prominently on "Different Drum").
One wishes that Elvis had recorded non-soundtrack music here in Los Angeles during that time period. But unless one counts what he recorded for the NBC special in 1968, he wouldn't do that until he showed up at RCA's L.A. studio in March 1972, which resulted in "Burning Love", "Separate Ways", and "Always On My Mind".
And the soundtrack also featured three Wrecking Crew musicians who would be known later by their successes with other or for themselves: Glen Campbell, who played guitar and sang some of the Elvis movie demos - Campbell had a solo career going at the time, but he truly hadn't made much of an impact at the time he played guitar on the sessions. Leon Russell, who played piano and arranged some of the songs. And Larry Knechtel, who also played keyboards, bass and guitar among other instruments, who had been among the session musicians on Elvis's recording sessionsin the early 60s. Not sure why the Wrecking Crew were used instead of Elvis's regular players, unless it was because Elvis's time was so tied up in the mid-60s that it was impossible to get him back to Memphis and/or Nashville for recording sessions there.
I may be mistaken about this, but, given that Elvis' time was so often taken up with the movies and coming up with enough songs from them, and since he recorded those songs in Hollywood, it was inevitable that the sessions for those songs would involve members of the Wrecking Crew. In fact, at least half of all the hits of the 1960's that were recorded in L.A. likely involved the Wrecking Crew in some way to start with (and this would include Linda, as it was Wrecking Crew member Don Randi's harpsichord playing featured so prominently on "Different Drum").
One wishes that Elvis had recorded non-soundtrack music here in Los Angeles during that time period. But unless one counts what he recorded for the NBC special in 1968, he wouldn't do that until he showed up at RCA's L.A. studio in March 1972, which resulted in "Burning Love", "Separate Ways", and "Always On My Mind".