Tommy Tedesco

American guitarist and studio musician (1930–1997)

Tommy Tedesco
Tedesco in 1979
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Joseph Tedesco
Born	(1930-07-03)July 3, 1930 Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles
Died	November 10, 1997(1997-11-10) (aged 67) Northridge, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz fusion, rock, pop, soundtrack
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, teacher
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1950s–1990s
Labels	Discovery, Capri

Musical artist

Thomas Joseph Tedesco (July 3, 1930 – November 10, 1997) was an American guitarist and studio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood.^[1] He was part of the loose collective of the area's leading session musicians later popularly known as The Wrecking Crew, who played on thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits.

Tedesco's playing credits include the theme from television's Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Vic Mizzy's theme from Green Acres, M*A*S*H, Batman, and Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special. Tedesco was shown on-camera in a number of game and comedy shows, and played ex-con guitarist Tommy Marinucci, a member of Happy Kyne's Mirth-Makers, in the 1977–78 talk-show spoof Fernwood 2 Night and America 2 Night.^[2]

Career

Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Tedesco moved to the West Coast where he became one of the most-sought-after studio musicians between the 1960s and 1980s.^[1] Although he was primarily a guitar player, he also played mandolin, ukulele, sitar and over twenty other stringed instruments.

Tedesco was described by Guitar Player magazine as the most recorded guitarist in history, having played on thousands of recordings, many of which were top 20 hits.^[3] He recorded with most of the top musicians working in the Los Angeles area including the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, the Everly Brothers, the Association, Barbra Streisand, Jan and Dean, the 5th Dimension, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, Ricky Nelson, Cher, and Nancy and Frank Sinatra as well as on Richard Harris's classic "MacArthur Park". His playing can be found on Jack Nitzsche's "The Lonely Surfer", on Wayne Newton's version of "Danke Schoen", B. Bumble and the Stingers's "Nut Rocker", the Rip Chords' "Hey Little Cobra", the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", the Sandpipers' "Guantanamera", the T-Bones' "No Matter What Shape'" and Nino Tempo & April Stevens' version of "Deep Purple". For Guitar Player, Tedesco wrote a regular column called "Studio Log" in which he would describe a day's work recording a movie, TV show or album, the special challenges each job posed and how he solved them, what instruments he used, and how much money he made on the job.^[1]

Tedesco also performed on film soundtracks such as The French Connection, The Godfather, Jaws, The Deer Hunter, Field of Dreams, Gloria plus several Elvis Presley films. He was also the guitarist for the Original Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show. Additionally, he performed the opening guitar solo for the Howard Hawks and John Wayne film Rio Lobo. He was one of the very few sidemen credited for work on animated cartoons for The Ant and the Aardvark cartoons (1968–1971).

As a solo artist, Tedesco recorded a number of jazz guitar albums, but his musical career ended in 1992 when he suffered a stroke that resulted in partial paralysis. The following year he published his autobiography, Confessions of a Guitar Player.^[1]

Tedesco died of lung cancer in 1997, at the age of 67, in Northridge, California.^[4] His son, Denny Tedesco (related to Damon Tedesco and Suzie Greene Tedesco,^[5]) directed the 2008 documentary film The Wrecking Crew, which features interviews with Tommy and many of his fellow session musicians. The film finally saw theatrical release in 2015, after musical rights were cleared. Before that it had been screened only at film festivals, where clearance rights were not required.

Awards

In 2017, Tommy Tedesco was posthumously inducted into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame.

Discography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023)

As leader

The Electric Twelve-String Guitar (Imperial, 1964)
The Guitars of Tommy Tedesco (Imperial, 1965)
Calypso Soul (Imperial, 1966)
With Love from the 50 Guitars (Musicor, 1977)
Autumn (Trend, 1978)
When Do We Start (Discovery, 1978)
Alone at Last (Trend, 1979)
Thomas Tedesco and Ocean (Nimbus West, 1982)
Carnival Time (Discovery, 1983)
Hollywood Gypsy (Discovery, 1986)
My Desiree (Discovery, 1989)
Fine Fretted Friend (Discovery, 1992)
Tommy Tedesco Performs Roumanis' Jazz Rhapsody for Guitar & Orchestra (Capri, 1992)^[6]

As sideman

With Paul Anka

The Music Man (United Artists, 1977)

With Hoyt Axton

Saturday's Child (Horizon, 1963)

With Joan Baez

Gracias a la Vida (A&M, 1974)

With Chet Baker

Blood, Chet and Tears (Verve, 1970)

With The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys Today! (Capitol, 1965)
20/20 (Capitol, 1969)
15 Big Ones (Reprise, 1976)

With Stephen Bishop

Careless (ABC, 1976)

With Bill Conti

Gloria (Columbia, 1980)^[7]

With Sam Cooke

Twistin' the Night Away (RCA Victor, 1962)
Mr. Soul (RCA Victor, 1963)

With The Dameans

Walk To The Gloryland (RCA, 1971)

With J. J. Cale

Shades (Island, 1981)

With Terry Callier

Turn You to Love (Elektra, 1979)

With The Crystals

Twist Uptown (Philles, 1963)

With Bobby Darin

Venice Blue (Capitol, 1965)

With Jackie DeShannon

Jackie DeShannon (Liberty, 1963)

With Neil Diamond

Serenade (Columbia, 1974)

With The 5th Dimension

Up – Up and Away (Soul City, 1967)
The Magic Garden (Soul City, 1968)
Stoned Soul Picnic (Soul City, 1968)
The Age of Aquarius (Soul City, 1969)
Living Together, Growing Together (Bell, 1973)

With Don Ellis

Haiku (MPS, 1974)

With Aretha Franklin

Laughing on the Outside (Columbia Records, 1963)

With Michael Franks

Michael Franks (Brut, 1973)

With Art Garfunkel

Angel Clare (Columbia, 1973)

With Gale Garnett

Gale Garnett Sings About Flying and Rainbows and Love and Other Groovy Things (RCA Victor, 1967)

With Richard Harris

A Tramp Shining (Dunhill, 1968)

With Johnny Hartman

Unforgettable Songs by Johnny Hartman (ABC, 1966)

With Quincy Jones

The Hot Rock OST (Prophesy, 1972)

With Al Kooper

Easy Does It (Columbia, 1970)

With Peggy Lee

Latin ala Lee! (Capitol, 1960)
Mirrors (A&M, 1975)

With Kenny Loggins

Celebrate Me Home (Columbia, 1977)

With The Mamas & the Papas

The Mamas & the Papas (Dunhill, 1966)

With Hugh Masekela

Herb Alpert / Hugh Masekela (Horizon, 1978)

With Roger McGuinn

Peace on You (Columbia, 1974)

With Maria Muldaur

Waitress in the Donut Shop (Reprise, 1974)

With Walter Murphy

Discosymphony (New York International, 1979)

With Anne Murray

Together (Capitol, 1975)

With Michael Nesmith

The Wichita Train Whistle Sings (Dot, 1968)

With Randy Newman

Randy Newman (Reprise, 1968)

With Harry Nilsson

Harry (RCA Victor, 1969)

With Jack Nitzsche

Heart Beat (Soundtrack) (Capitol, 1980)

With Van Dyke Parks

Song Cycle (Warner Bros., 1967)

With Billy Preston

Greazee Soul (Soul City, 1963)

With Minnie Riperton

Stay in Love (Epic, 1977)

With Johnny Rivers

Changes (Imperial, 1966)

With Linda Ronstadt

What's New (Asylum, 1983)

With Leon Russell

Looking Back (Olympic, 1973)

With The Sandpipers

Come Saturday Morning (A&M, 1970)
A Gift of Song (A&M, 1971)

With Lalo Schifrin

The Cincinnati Kid (soundtrack) (MGM, 1965)
Music from Mission: Impossible (Dot, 1967)
More Mission: Impossible (Paramount, 1968)
Mannix (Paramount, 1968)
The Fox (soundtrack) (MGM, 1968)
Che! (soundtrack) (Tetragrammaton, 1969)
Kelly's Heroes (soundtrack) (MGM, 1970)
Enter the Dragon (soundtrack) (Warner Bros., 1973)

With Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan with Michel Legrand (Mainstream, 1972)

Bibliography

Tedesco, Tommy (1981). For Guitar Players Only. Alfred Music. ISBN 978-0739053812.
Tedesco, Tommy (1988). Tommy Tedesco: Anatomy of a Guitar Player. Mel Bay Publications. ISBN 978-1562223526.
Tedesco, Tommy (1993). Confessions of a Guitar Player. Centerstream Publications. ISBN 978-0931759710.

Videography

2008 The Wrecking Crew, a documentary put together by his son Denny Tedesco

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Huey, Steve. "Biography of Tommy Tedesco". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
^ "Tommy Tedesco; Preeminent Studio Guitarist". Los Angeles Times. November 12, 1997.
^ "Tommy Tedesco Profile". Space Age Pop Music. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
^ "Tommy Tedesco, 67, A Studio Guitarist". The New York Times. November 12, 1997.
^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "The Wrecking Crew Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Documentary HD". YouTube.
^ "Tommy Tedesco | Album Discography | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
^ "Gloria: Colourful, complex action/drama score from Conti: A review by James Southall". Movie-Wave. Retrieved December 1, 2015.