Hitchcock Media Records

Our own Don Peake, as a member of The Wrecking Crew was today committed to stone on the Hollywood Guitar Center’s Rock Walk. MC Gary Owens (KMPC, Laugh-In) recalled great stories of yesteryear referring to Don, Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborne, Earl Palmer, Jim Gordon, Larry Knecktel, Barney Cassel, Billy Strange, Jim Horne, Plas Johnson, Leon Russell, Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John), Don Randi and many many more legends of rock and roll. They were The Wrecking Crew see Wikipedia.  These guys were Hollywood’s first call recording session players, dubbed The Wrecking Crew after being accused of “wrecking” the music business by playing multiple sessions a day. They actually contributed to most of the hits of the day coming out of Hollywood. They backed Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, The Beach Boys, Sunny & Cher, The Platters, The Drifters, The Coasters, Mama’s & Papa’s, Neil Diamond, The Monkees, even the Pink Panther theme (go Plas). They were the players behind Herb Alpert, Bert Bacharach and of course Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” You might say there would have been few hits rotating on KFWB, KRLA, KHJ, KFRC, KAAY, WABC, WLCY, WNOE, WLS or WLAC (what great radio) without the extraordinary talents of these great players. And the hits just keep on coming! The Wrecking Crew were recently inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame back in Nashville, and now this tribute at the Guitar Center. Congratulations to all of you! This was a fun afternoon, but most of all - thanks for your hot licks - thanks for the music!

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I suspect record companies will be around forever, but their source of funding might be derived from the sale of hats and T-shirts (on sale here soon). But is free music all it’s cracked up to be? Free is least of all about quality. A compressed MP3 file doesn’t hold a candle to a well mastered CD. Let’s not visit the LP which in its day blew both of these delivery mediums away. That is, provided conditions were right (needle not bent, record not scratched, and the tubes warmed up). By the way, what’s a cartridge?  The MP3 is very portable and quite capable of satisfying todays, “I want my music now” demand. And if you’ve never tasted a rich garden grown tomato, the lack of flavor (or quality) matters not, and that’s a shame. But let’s get back to the free music. Will you support an artist’s hat sale? After all a gifted writer needs some economic compensation to write and sing for you. Or, will you demand free hats also (and signed yet). What do you think? -Ron

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