Everything about Carol Kaye totally explained
Carol Kaye (born
March 24,
1935) is an
American electric
bass guitar player and
Los Angeles session musician who performed on many hit records during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Kaye was the bassist on several
Phil Spector,
David Axelrod and
Brian Wilson productions. She also played bass for Elektra's
The Zodiac (1967), and played guitar on
Ritchie Valens'
La Bamba and is also credited with the bass tracks on several
Simon and Garfunkel hits. Among her most often cited work, Kaye anchored the
Beach Boys'
Pet Sounds.
Life and career
Kaye was born in
Everett, Washington to professional musicians Clyde and Dot Smith. She grew up in poverty near the
Port of Los Angeles and in 1949 at the age of fourteen began teaching guitar professionally. Throughout the 1950s Kaye played
bebop jazz guitar in dozens of nightclubs around
Los Angeles with many noted bands including
Bob Neal's jazz group, Jack Sheldon backing
Lenny Bruce, Teddy Edwards and Billy Higgins. By her own account Kaye got into lucrative studio work "accidentally" in late 1957 with
Sam Cooke. A few years later, when a bass player failed to show for a session at
Capitol Records in
Hollywood, she was asked to fill in on what was then often called the
Fender bass.
Throughout the 1960s she played bass on a significant percentage of records appearing on the
Billboard Hot 100, although she was almost wholly unknown to the general public at the time. Kaye played bass on many of the
Beach Boys hit recordings, including
Good Vibrations,
Help Me, Rhonda,
Sloop John B and
California Girls. She also worked on
Brian Wilson's ill-fated but legendary
Smile project (and was present at the "Fire" session in late November 1966 when Wilson reportedly asked the studio musicians to wear toy fire hats). Kaye's work also appears extensively on well-known
television and
film soundtracks from the 1960s and early 1970s.
She worked under most of the leading producers and musical directors in Los Angeles during that era, including
David Axelrod,
Brian Wilson,
Michel Legrand,
Phil Spector,
Elmer Bernstein,
Lalo Schifrin,
David Rose,
Dave Grusin,
Ernie Freeman,
Hugo Montenegro,
Leonard Rosenman,
John Williams,
Alfred and
Lionel Newman. Kaye was also responsible for the bass tracks on several
Monkees hits, did soundtrack work (including sound effects on bass guitar) for a young
Steven Spielberg and tracks for
Quincy Jones whose 2001 autobiography
Q noted, "...women like ...Fender bass player Carol Kaye ...could do anything and leave men in the dust."
Kaye performed on several American television themes including the
Quinn Martin produced
Cannon,
The Streets of San Francisco,,
M*A*S*H,
Kojak,
Get Smart,
Hogan's Heroes,
The Love Boat,
McCloud,
Mannix,
It Takes a Thief,
Peyton Place and the
Cosby Show. She is also credited with performing on the soundtracks of
Hawaii Five-0,
The Addams Family,
The Brady Bunch as well as
Ironside,
Room 222,
Bonanza,
Wonder Woman,
Alias Smith & Jones,
Run for Your Life and
Barnaby Jones.
Beginning in 1969 she wrote
How To Play The Electric Bass, the first of many bass tutoring books and DVD Courses, and personally taught thousands of students (some of whom later became famous, including John Clayton, Jim Hughart, Mike Porcaro, Alf Clausen (composer of Simpsons TV), Pat Smith, Tony Sales, Roy Vogt, Bill Laymon, Charles Meeks and Dave Hungate). Kaye retired from studio work during the 1970s because of
arthritis but later became active again as a session musician, live jazz performer and teacher of both bass and guitar, giving seminars and interviews.
Zappa
Kaye played 12-string guitar on
Frank Zappa's groundbreaking
Freak Out!. When she was called to work on his next album Kaye played on a few songs but declined to continue, saying she found some of the lyrics offensive being a mother of three children. She later said Zappa was very good-natured and understanding about her qualms and they remained on friendly terms.
Selected discography
Kaye played on hundreds of commercially released recordings and soundtracks. These lists represent only a small fraction of her recorded performances.
Electric bass credits
Songs
Albums
Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys)
Songs of Innocence (David Axelrod)
Songs of Experience (David Axelrod)
Release Of An Oath (The Electric Prunes)
Northern Windows (Hampton Hawes)
Big Man (Cannonball Adderley)
Reelin' With The Feelin' (Charles Kynard)
Cameo (Dusty Springfield)
Hugo In Wonder-land (Hugo Montenegro)
Your Good Thing (Lou Rawls)
You've Made Me So Very Happy (Lou Rawls)
The Funky Organ-ization of Henry Cain (Henry Cain)
Cosmic Sounds (The Zodiac)
Guitar credits
"Then He Kissed Me" (The Crystals)
"Danke Schoen" (Wayne Newton)
"Johnny Angel" (Shelley Fabares)
"La Bamba" (Ritchie Valens)
"Let's Dance" (Chris Montez)
"The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (Jan and Dean)
"Needles and Pins" (Jackie DeShannon)
"Surf City" (Jan and Dean)
"The Beat Goes On" (Sonny and Cher)
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (The Righteous Brothers)Further Information
Get more info on 'Carol Kaye'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://carol_kaye.totallyexplained.com">Carol Kaye Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
