Elvis, The Beach Boys and The Wrecking Crew: filmmaker Denny Tedesco shares his Kickstarter story

Our guest on this edition of Crowd Scene has a direct link to some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. Throughout the 50s and 60s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles – known as The Wrecking Crew – became the go-to musicians for producers and musicians including Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beach Boys and dozens (if not hundreds) of others. Their phenomenal contribution to pop music was largely uncredited by record labels who may have been too embarrassed to put the same names on so many records.

At the centre of The Wrecking Crew was guitarist Tommy Tedesco and in this episode we’re talking with his son Denny who directed and produced an incredible documentary that tells the whole story.

Denny released his documentary – also titled “The Wrecking Crew” – back in 2008 and it did fantastically well in film festivals around the world. But to release the film to wider audience he needed to raise enough money to pay the licensing fees for the 120 classic songs featured in the film. Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, he was still short.

So Denny turned to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise a further quarter of a million dollars to cover the rest of the fees. Happily, more than 4,000 music-loving backers shared his vision…

Campaign stats

$313,157

Raised

Links and things relevant to this episode

Official Film Website – The Wrecking Crew

Official Youtube Channel – The Wrecking Crew

Official Facebook Page – The Wrecking Crew

Official Twitter Page – The Wrecking Crew

Forbes News Article – ‘Wrecking Crew’ Music Doc Finally Swings Into Theaters: Lessons From Director Denny Tedesco

The New Yorker News Article – The Session Musicians Who Dominated Nineteen-Sixties Pop

IMDB – Denny Tedesco

Website – Denny Tedesco

Wikipedia – The Wrecking Crew

Wikipedia – Tommy Tedesco

The Crowd Scene theme music is by Kim Boekbinder. Special thanks also to Jim Fowler. Additional music by Jukedeck – create your own at jukedeck.com