Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys called her “the greatest damn bass player in the world” and “ahead of her time.”
She is Carole Kaye, and she played on countless recognizable hit songs throughout the 60s and 70s.
Some of the titles include The Beach Boys Good Vibrations and California Girls; Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba; the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling; the themes to Mission: Impossible, The Addams Family, and Batman; Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s Something Stupid; Barbara Streisand’s The Way We Were; Feelin’ Alright by Joe Cocker; I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder; Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme by Simon & Garfunkel; several songs by the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Four Tops; Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton; Candy Man by Sammy Davis, Jr.; I’m a Believer and Last Train to Clarksville by the Monkees; River Deep, Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner; plus hundreds more.
Carole invented the classic bass line for Sonny and Cher’s hit song The Beat Goes On.
In a field dominated by men, a woman bass player at that time was one of a kind. Her brilliant musical talent made her much sought after.
Both of her parents were musicians, and her family was poor. In 1942, they moved from Washington state to Greater Los Angeles. As early as age 13, she played professionally and even gave guitar lessons to help make ends meet.
Carole could play in any style: jazz, pop, rock, soul. In the 50s she joined bebop groups.
1957: A record producer saw her onstage and invited her to play on Sam Cooke’s Summertime. From then on, she stopped performing live in nightclubs and focused on session work.
1963: Though she had been a guitarist, Carole played bass at a session when a musician failed to show. Bass guitar then became her primary instrument.
She worked with Phil Spector, Quincy Jones, and Herb Alpert among other producers.
Session musicians were used on more hit records in that era than most fans realize, and their creative contributions often made good songs great. The Los Angeles music scene of the 1960s was the place to be.
Carole was one of the few women who regularly played with the loose affiliation of studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew (although they never called themselves that, and Carole prefers the name The Clique). They ranged from 15 to 30 members, although no one could quite agree on their number because they weren’t a formal group. Musicians came and went from session to session and each was hired as needed. But from 1963 on, Carole was a recurring bassist.
Almost all of the studio players were men, but she was regarded as a fellow musician. “I felt equal with the rest of the guys,” she said, “and they felt it, too.” She loved the camaraderie.
The Beach Boys toured so much in the mid-60s that they had little time to record new albums. So Brian Wilson, who essentially wrote and produced every song himself, hired the Wrecking Crew in early 1966 to perform on the album many critics call the best in rock history - The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Carole played bass on that album, too.
Glen Campbell was a member of the Wrecking Crew who also performed on Pet Sounds. When he became a solo act, Carole was hired to play bass on two of his biggest hits: Wichita Lineman and Galveston.
Carole and the other studio musicians of her era had tremendous musical talent but got little attention for their work. Many of them are now in their golden years and have gradually received some public recognition.
As of this writing Carole is 88, still lives in Southern California, and according to her website she continues to teach guitar.
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