Posted on 10/27/2018 11:47:34 AM PDT by CaliforniaCraftBeer
He joined the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers, in 1968 and later played on one of the Temptations’ most iconic singles, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” which incorporates long, flickering funk riffs, bluesy excursions and pointillistic solos. The shimmery, lingering guitar part after the line “it was the third of September” is a perfect demonstration of the wah wah pedal effect. Ragin went on to appear on both Marvin Gaye’s sensual masterpieces, Let’s Get It On and I Want You, Quincy Jones’ most successful solo LP, Body Heat, Rose Royce’s breakout album, Car Wash, Smokey Robinson’s criminally underappreciated Love Breeze, disco classics from Gloria Gaynor (“I Will Survive”) and Michael Jackson’s solo starmaking LP Off the Wall...
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
They made some great music!
“Rolling stone” being a euphemism for deadbeat dad. Make babies and move on, expecting someone else to raise and support them, with no father in the home.
Great movie is Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
Fly free Watson.
Me too. I would guess the Wrecking Crew played on more #1 songs just because they worked with so many different artists. I wonder if anyone has done complete discographies for those studio bands?
Original recordings, almost certain.
Condolences to family and friends of Mr. Watson. R.I.P., sir. Thanks.
I think it was the Funk Brothers on the most.
Bear in mind: A #2 gets no mention. The Wrecking Crew played on a lot of Top Tens.
Thanks to The Beatles, California Girls - which Brian Wilson considers his most perfect record - “only” went to #3.
The Beach Boys “only” had six #1s. Remove just The Beatles from the charts, and how many would they have had?
Some great bands never have a single #1.
Well here’s a pretty interesting site...
List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles from 1958 to 1969
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_number-one_singles_from_1958_to_1969
15 Motown songs on the list, 12 of them by The Supremes (2nd only to The Beatles). Still only a small percentage of the #1 songs for the decade. If you look at how many LA based artists are in that group, and considering they played on records for everyone from Sinatra to the Byrds and the Monkees I still think the W.C. had to have had more.
You would be wrong.
And you know this how?
I was a musician on the Hollywood scene during the 80s and 90s, and had a lot of well connected friends.
A buddy of mine once rented a house in Topanga Canyon that was owned by Motown producer, Malcolm Cecil. Not long after moving in, he and I were organizing things in the basement studio when I ran across something rather eye opening.
It was the original 24 track master of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition".
Musicians jamming... may we all know that joy.
I’m pretty sure there’s a complete discography of Phil Spector’s recordings and the Wrecking Crew played on all of his music. There’s also, the Beach Boys, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Monkees, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, The Association, Sonny and Cher, Jan and Dean, Ricky Nelson, Glen Campbell (who was a member of the Wrecking Crew), Herb Alpert, The Mamas and the Papas, and on and on.
I like Joan Osborne doing Heat Wave. That is the one that I posted..
Here is what becomes of a broken heart!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pv8LnZpkrY
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