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Opens in Los Angeles and New York on March 13 & on Cable Video On Demand and iTunes March 13, 2015

TORONTO- What the Funk Brothers did for the Motown sound…The Wrecking Crew did for the Callfornia sound. Tommy Tedesco, Plas Johnson and Carol Kaye are not household names but are the session players behind number one hits by The Beach Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, The Monkees and other iconic bands. From “Be My Baby” to “California Girls;” “Strangers in the Night” to “Mrs. Robinson;” “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin'” to “Up, Up and Away;” and from “Viva Las Vegas” to “Mr. Tambourine Man,” The Wrecking Crew played on them all.

Denny Tedesco’s acclaimed documentary, The Wrecking Crew, takes boomers back to the solid gold era when Los Angeles was a Top Forty mecca, where one session could produce several Top Ten hits! A labour of love for the filmmaker, The Wrecking Crew uses Tedesco’s memories of his late father, Tommy Tedesco, the prolific studio guitarist, as a gateway to a world of musicians who could make hits happen in any genre.

Amid a plethora of archival footage and interviews, The Wrecking Crew builds around a surviving members’ roundtable as the then-ailing elder Tedesco reminisces with drummer Hal Blaine, Johnson and Kaye, a single mother who was one of the most sought-after bass players in the ‘60s. The hot wax memories are a narrative backdrop for visuals and interviews with Cher, Glen Campbell (a Wrecking Crew guitarist who went on to stardom) and Nancy Sinatra (whose Crew-backed duet with her father, “Something Stupid,” was Frank’s only #1 hit).

“I was inspired to have a round table from the Woody Allen film, Broadway Danny Rose,” the younger Tedesco recalls. “If you remember, a bunch of old agents sat around and they just tell stories. Well that’s what it was like when you get musicians together. I always loved listening to my father and his friends. And at the same time, musicians have a certain dark sense of humour.”

From the original interview sessions to the final music clearances, The Wrecking Crew took almost twenty years to complete. “In the end I look back now and realize if I had finished the project after a couple years, it would never have been the project that it could have been,” Tedesco says. “I think losing my father and putting space in between gave me more insight. My dad was thrilled to be able to make a living at guitar. To make a living at an instrument puts you in a minority. But to record as many hits as they did made them elite. They really were at the top of their game.”

Released by Magnolia Pictures in the US & Video Services Corp. in Canada.