What If You Made a Record, But Nobody Knew?

I mentioned some months ago that I backed the Kickstarter for The Wrecking Crew and this weekend I finally got to sit down and watch the film. If you're a music nut like me then this film is a must-see. It's frankly thrilling to see the bass that did the line we know from the Peter Gunn Theme and the horn from the Pink Panther theme.

Of most interest to Copyfight are the discussions of ownership and compensation. The Wrecking Crew were studio musicians. They were the sounds on all those Beach Boys records, Nancy (and Frank) Sinatra records, Sonny & Cher records, The Mamas & The Papas - the list goes on. Members of the Crew were heard on every Record of the Year for over two decades. But their names rarely appeared - the producers would pay the Crew union rates (or sometimes less) and the names on the cover would be the names of the band.

There was a big to-do when the public found out that The Monkees didn't play their own instruments on their first hit record, but few people know the degree to which this crew of studio musicians went from artist to artist, album to album, playing and oftentimes inventing sounds that would become iconic for a generation.

The Crew took these gigs because they were (in their own words) just the lucky ones whose phones rang and who could be available that day. There was a long line of musicians hungry for those studio gigs. Once established, though, studio musicians could find themselves with great steady work - one recounts years of making more money than the President of the US. So what if your name never appears on the album?

It's a struggle we see playing out over and over today - creators struggle to get noticed, but as long as the money's good and the work is steady, how much does it matter whose name is on the front? Today we have thousands upon thousands of creators (writers, photographers, musicians) who can self-publish or who have tremendous freedom to put their moniker on whatever they do, but who in turn struggle to get the kind of income that would let them go on creating great works.