Denny Tedesco presents the sounds of The Wrecking Crew

The working habits of creative genius/songwriter Brian Wilson during his original tenure with The Beach Boys are the stuff of legend. He’d often compose all the material alone, and when his musical scope grew à la 1966’s Pet Sounds, he stopped touring to focus exclusively on producing the recordings without any help or input from his bandmates. Phil Spector had a similarly relentless attitude in the studio. A musical mastermind, he dipped his fingers into every part of the recording process, developing the trademark “Wall of Sound” production techniques that revolutionized the industry.

Not so well-known are the session musicians who helped both men execute their visions, and also backed other big-name singers and groups on thousands of other recordings that came out of LA from the mid-1950s through the early ’70s: The Wrecking Crew.

Though generally not credited with any of the work they did, a few — Leon Russell, Glen Campbell and Mac Rebennack, aka Dr. John — went on to have successful solo careers after their Wrecking Crew days. Others you’ve probably never heard of, like prolific beat-keeper Hal Blaine, mistress of low-end frequencies Carol Kaye, and late jazz-trained axeman Tommy Tedesco, father of the filmmaker behind The Wrecking Crew documentary, which took nearly two decades to produce and sees its premiere in Tampa Bay on Friday.

A truly great doc enlightens with new information, entertains with great stories and memorable interviews from both known and unknown subjects, reveals just the right amount of never-before-seen archival footage and photos, and evokes a sense of poignancy and nostalgia. Denny Tedesco’s thoughtfully rendered homage to the legacy of his late father and the Wrecking Crew manages all of these things.

The film traces the golden era of these 60 or so instrumentalists via their behind-the-scenes work on hits by The Mamas and The Papas, Nancy Sinatra, The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, and so many others. The crew was made up of stone-cold professionals, many with formal backgrounds in jazz or classical music who were capable and versatile enough to apply their know-how to any sort of recording — from TV theme songs to film scores to every genre of American pop music — and were among the most successful studio players in music history because they were the most active. (Interview subject Bones Howe summed it up best: “You never say no until you’re too busy to say yes.”)

But another reason so many musicians tapped the Wrecking Crew is that the players added a signature sound and feel to the songs they worked on without losing their core essence. They played together so often and were so intimately familiar with each others' styles, and possessed such great working chemistry, that they could flesh out even the most bare-bones musical ideas and turn them into Grammy-winning hit records, as proven by six consecutive “Record of the Year” wins between 1966 (Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, “A Taste of Honey”) and 1971 (Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge over Troubled Water”).

Using these players also saved time and money. Producer Terry Melcher brought in the Wrecking Crew to back the Byrds on “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which was laid down over a matter of hours, while follow-up hit “Turn! Turn! Turn” was recorded without the crew, and took 78 takes over five days. Some groups, like The Monkees, weren’t allowed to play on the studio recordings at all, instead learning a more straightforward version to play on the road later.

Tedesco had toyed with the idea of making a film for a while, but was finally prompted to act after his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1996. Over the next several years, he interviewed producers, engineers, and the musicians themselves. “By 2006, nearly a decade after we started, we realized we had just made the most expensive home movie ever,” Tedesco said in a recent phone interview. “It’s one thing to collect footage, it’s another thing to put it together.”

Family friend Claire Scanlon was hired to help Tedesco produce and edit the film. By 2008, The Wrecking Crew had finally made it to the festival circuit. “We won all these wonderful awards, got all these killer reviews, but no one would pick us up. It was just a drag.”

The future of The Wrecking Crew looked grim. Because documentaries generally don’t make money, potential financers were scared off by the costs associated with licensing the movie’s music (nearly 110 songs at more than $700k) versus the amount it would likely gross in the box office (no more than $300k). Production came to a halt for several years. But Tedesco was undeterred: “I just had to keep on going, hoping that we would be able to do it, thinking something’s gotta change.”

The big turning point came in 2010, when he started renegotiating publishing rates and seeking donations from private donors. A 2013 Kickstarter campaign to cover the remaining fees and production costs exceeded its $250k goal, reaching an impressive $312k. Magnolia Pictures picked up the film, and The Wrecking Crew saw its official (limited) release on March 13, 2015. A DVD with six hours worth of unused interviews comes out on June 16.

Even though he’s seen his documentary hundreds of times around the world, Tedesco says he still enjoys watching it with new audiences, and that experiencing the response firsthand has been enlightening.

“I realized how important the music was to so many people's lives. Even when they didn’t know it was important to them.”

The Wrecking Crew: An Evening with Denny Tedesco
Pre-screening talk with Denny at 6:15 p.m., screening of The Wrecking Crew at 6:30 p.m. Fri., April 24, Muvico Sundial 19/IMAX, 151 Second Ave. N., St. Petersburg, free admission ($8 suggested donation). A reception and Q&A session with Denny Tedesco follows from 9 to 10 p.m. at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door stage, 253 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg; admission is a suggested $10 donation, which goes towards Music Industry/Recording Arts (MIRA) scholarships at St. Petersburg College (free for SPC students with a current ID).

This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2015.