The Wrecking Crew Top 10
. . . and high time they got some credit for these classics
February/March 2007 | Volume 58, Issue 1
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Yes, Alpert did play trumpet, but the rest of the Tijuana Brass actually consisted of the Wrecking Crew. A little-known fact: During 1966 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass sold more records than any group in the world, including the Beatles. A second little-known fact: The model on the album cover was actually covered in shaving cream (and was several months pregnant at the time).
This groundbreaking vocal group hit its creative stride with the release of its third album, Insight Out , featuring the perennial pop favorites “Windy” and “Never My Love.” With the Wrecking Crew again playing all the instruments, the producer, Bones Howe, had to sidestep some fragile band egos in the studio. “The Association were great singers,” he recalls, “but they just weren’t up to the task instrument-wise.”
With peace, love, and good vibes being ubiquitously celebrated by 1969, the prolific and talented Fifth Dimension again hit the top of the charts, this time with the medley “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from the controversial rock opera Hair . As usual, the Wrecking Crew played all the instruments, and the song helped propel the album to a Grammy for record of the year.
Considered the first “live” album of the pop/rock era, this initial LP release by Rivers cemented his position as the biggest star on the then-burgeoning Sunset Strip. The record also featured the Wrecking Crew both onstage and in the studio, where a little “sweetening” occurred after the fact, setting the stage for future supposedly “live” releases like Frampton Comes Alive .
With the Burt Bacharach/Hal David title cut and impeccable production values, this sophomore release turned the wholesome, sweet-singing Carpenters into bona fide music celebrities. The gifted Karen didn’t play the only drums on the album (as she often did in concert). It was also Hal Blaine behind the kit.
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Why do we need a national nonprofit membership society for American history?
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“Save America’s Treasures” has been totally eliminated—the largest Federal program supporting preservation of such treasures as the original Star Spangled Banner and George Washington’s tent.
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65% of Americans don’t know what happened at the Constitutional Convention, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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The “Teaching American History” grants—the largest Federal program supporting history education—have been completely eliminated.
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Visits to the Top 20 Civil War battlefields have dropped in half from 1970 to 2009 according to official National Park Service statistics.
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40% of Americans can’t identify whom we fought in World War II, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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A quarter of Americans believe Congress shares power over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations, according to a recent Annenberg survey.
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“There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country,” John F. Kennedy wrote in American Heritage.
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The “We the People Program,” which touched some 30 million students and 90,000 teachers over 25 years, has been completely eliminated.
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Two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown as the last major military action of the American Revolution, according to a recent national Gallup survey.
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The National Heritage Areas and Scenic Byways program, the only major Federal program encouraging visits to historic places, has been completely eliminated in Congressional committee.
