Carol Kaye is THE most heard bass player ever recorded. Her bass and guitar can be heard on over 10,000 recordings and film soundtracks and television themes. She describes herself as a 'session player' to distance herself from The Wrecking Crew name.
Carol started out playing in clubs with jazz bands until Sam Cooke's producer once asked her to fill in on a recording session. The money she earned from this made her realize that she could earn doing recording sessions than she earned on club dates.
Soon this slender, young, blond girl fit in with session musician that were made up mostly of male players. Carol states she was a third or fourth call as a guitar player until that session in 1964 when the bass player failed to show up for the gig. There was a Fender Precision bass in the studio, and she volunteered to play it on the session. Soon afterwards she became the first call bass player due to her guitar skills and sight reading ability. Now at 90 years old she describes her memories as a session player in a way that you would think you are listening to someone that is considerably younger.
Currently many recordings feature synthesizers, auto-tune, and digital effects recorded on computers. But historically music was produced in a large studio with an orchestra full of professional musicians usually backing up the vocalist(s). Music was recorded on analog tape with just a few tracks. For those of us who grew up listening to the music of the 1960’s and ‘70’s this is what we were used to hearing.
The recorded music of the past featured a group of professional session musicians that often were the same group of players on nearly every well known song. To those musicians it was a job. They got paid, They went home. But for the most part did not get credit.
This was the case in most large cities where recording took place in New York City, Detroit, Nashville, Memphis, and even Cincinnati, Ohio., During the rock era much of the hit recordings were done in several Los Angeles studios by a group of talented musicians nicknamed
“The Wrecking Crew” by drummer Hal Blaine.
Carol can be heard on such diverse recordings as "Soul Reggae" (Charles Kynard),"Homeward Bound" (Simon and Garfunkel), "California Girls", "Sloop John B", "Help Me, Rhonda", "Heroes and Villains", Surf's Up for The Beach Boys, "Natural Man" (Lou Rawls),
"Come Together" (Count Basie), "Feelin' Alright" (Joe Cocker), "I Think He's Hiding" (Randy Newman), "Games People Play" (Mel Tormé), "Goin' Out Of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (The Lettermen), "Little Honda" (The Hondells), "Hikky Burr" (Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby & TV theme),
She played guitar on La Bamba (Richie Valens. She played bass on "I'm a Believer" (The Monkees), "Indian Reservation" (Paul Revere & the Raiders), "In the Heat of the Night", "I Don't Need No Doctor", "America The Beautiful", "Understanding" (Ray Charles), "It Must Be Him" (Vikki Carr), "Little Green Apples" (O.C. Smith), "Midnight Confessions" (The Grass Roots),
"Mission: Impossible Theme" (Lalo Schifrin), "Mannix Theme" (Lalo Schifrin), "Out of This World" (Nancy Wilson), "Wichita Lineman" "Galveston" "Rhinestone Cowboy" (Glen Campbell), "River Deep - Mountain High" (Ike & Tina Turner),"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (Simon and Garfunkel), "Sixteen Tons" (Tennessee Ernie Ford), "Somethin' Stupid" (Frank and Nancy Sinatra), "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (Nancy Sinatra), "This Diamond Ring" (Gary Lewis & the Playboys), "The Twelfth of Never" (Johnny Mathis), Over and over, and Something Stupid (Frank Sinatra).
"The Way We Were" (Barbra Streisand) "Soul & Inspiration" on which she played bass, and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" on which she played guitar (The Righteous Brothers), "Carry On" (JJ Cale), she played on many of the songs from Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys, 1966).
Carol Kaye played on The Neil Young album and was featured on the LP Music from Mission: Impossible (Lalo Schifrin, 1967). She backed up Frank Sinatra on many of his later hit songs.
Other TV themes that feature her bass guitar lines include Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Mission: Impossible, M*A*S*H, Kojak, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, The Love Boat, McCloud, Mannix, It Takes a Thief, Peyton Place and the previously mentioned Cosby Show. She is credited with performing on the soundtracks of Hawaii Five-O, The Addams Family and The Brady Bunch along with Ironside, Room 222, Bonanza, Wonder Woman, Alias Smith & Jones, Run for Your Life and Barnaby Jones.
Carol Kaye played 12-string guitar on several Sonny and Cher hits, as well as on Frank Zappa's album Freak Out!
Her favorite producer was Quincy Jones, and favorite drummer was Earl Palmer.
Carol Smith nee Kaye was born on March 24, 1935. Her career as a musician has spanned 50 years.
She began playing guitar in her early teens and after some time as a guitar teacher, began to perform regularly on the Los Angeles jazz and big band circuit. She started session work in 1957, and through a connection at Gold Star Studios.
She began working as a guitar player for producers Phil Spector and Brian Wilson. As previously mentioned she was the first call bass guitarist on so many session. She also authored a series of tutoring books such as How To Play The Electric Bass, which she still sells through her web page. Carol became less active towards the end of the 1970s, but has continued her career until retiring in her 70's by doing motion picture work.
She also taught guitar and bass and gave lessons to thousands of students, including notable players John Clayton, Mike Porcaro, Alf Clausen, David Hughes, Tony Sales, Karl E. H. Seigfried, Roy Vogt and David Hungate.
During an interview she was asked if she was ever upset by being a ‘no-name’ background player, and not enjoying the fame acquired by the big name bands and singers that she backed up. Her reply was no. She got to be home, and enjoy her family, raise her children, and not have to travel.
Carol (Smith Kaye)was born in Everett, Washington, to professional musicians Clyde and Dot Smith. Her father was a jazz trombonist who played in big bands. In 1942, he sold a piano in order to finance a move to Wilmington, California. Her parents moved, but divorced soon afterwards. When she was young music was the one thing the that united their family. At 13 Carol received a steel string guitar as a gift from her mother and she quickly took to the instrument. So much so that she began teaching professionally the following year. She was born into a Depression Era family and that fueled her strong work ethic.
In the 1950’s Kaye played bebop jazz guitar with several groups on the Los Angeles club circuit, including Bob Neal's group, Jack Sheldon backing Lenny Bruce, Teddy Edwards and Billy Higgins.
She played with the Henry Busse Orchestra in the mid-1950s, and toured the US with them.
Then in 1958, she played acoustic rhythm guitar on Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba", which was recorded at Gold Star Studios, Hollywood. Through Gold Star, she began to work with producer Phil Spector, playing electric guitar on Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans' "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and The Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me", and acoustic guitar on The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".
Along with several other musicians including drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Glen Campbell, her work with Spector attracted the attention of other record producers and she found herself in demand.
She quickly discovered that she preferred playing bass, and found it was a key component of a backing track and allowed her to play more inventively than the relatively simpler guitar parts she had been playing until then. From a pragmatic viewpoint, it was easier to carry a single bass guitar to sessions instead of carrying and swapping between the three or four guitars that session players had to carry with them depending on the song.
Through her work with Phil Spector Carol Kaye caught the attention of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, who used her on several sessions, including the albums Beach Boys Today, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), Pet Sounds and Smile. Working with him was unlike other sessions, since she was free to work out her own bass lines, Wilson always came in with a very specific idea of what she should play. By Pet Sounds, Wilson was asking musicians such as Kay to play far more takes than typical sessions, often running over ten passes of a song, with sessions stretching well into the night.
Kaye is often credited for creating the bass line on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" single, although it is not her bass heard on the recording.
By 1969 Kaye said she was exhausted and had become disillusioned from doing session work, saying that the music had "started to sound like cardboard". At the same time, many newer rock bands disapproved of using session players, preferring to play the instruments themselves.
In the early 1970s, she toured with Joe Pass and Hampton Hawes, but continued to do some sessions. In 1973, she played on Barbra Streisand's single "The Way We Were", which was cut live.
In 1976, she was involved in a car accident, and semi-retired from music. In 1994, Kaye underwent corrective surgery to fix injuries stemming from the accident, and resumed playing and recording.
Carol Kaye is a little miffed that a popular TV series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's character, 'Carol Keen' seems to have captured her image. In an interview last year she said, "I am not a cartoon!"
She collaborated with Fender to produce a lighter version of the Precision Bass that reduced strain on her back and made it more comfortable to play. In 1997, she collaborated with Brian Wilson again, playing on his daughters' album, The Wilsons, while in 2006, Frank Black asked her to play on his album Fast Man Raider Man.
Through most of her early career Kaye's main instrument was the Fender Precision Bass, though she also used the four and six Danelectro basses on occasion.
By the 1970s, she sometimes used the Gibson Ripper Bass.
It was lighter, and featured twin humbucking pickups as well as a 3 band active preamp/EQ.
She uses Thomastik-Infeld JF344 flatwound strings with a high action and preferred to use guitar amplifiers in the studio when playing bass, including a Fender Super Reverb (to get more treble), an older Fender Bassman with 4 ten inch speakers, a brown Fender Deluxe amp, and a
Versatone Pan-O-Flex amplifier.
Kaye primarily uses a pick, or plectrum, on both guitar and bass, rather than plucking the strings with her fingers. During her peak recording years Carol put a piece of felt between the strings behind the bridge on her Precision bass to enhance the sound and reduce unwanted overtones and undertones.
If you view the videos below you will note that she puts masking tape on her Ibanez bass for this same purpose.
She also played an Ibanez RG321 guitar as well as an Ibanez RT150. Very Early in her career Carol Kaye used as series of Jazz style guitars including a 1946 Epiphone Emperor, a 1955 Gibson ES-175, and many other instruments.
