Carol Kaye: Rock’s Most Prolific Session Musician Gets A Short Doc

More people should really know about Carol Kaye, one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years.

Read that again. 10,000 songs.

And it’s not like she was on some outsider tracks or artists you’ve never heard of. As a session musician, Kaye was the bassist on many Phil Spector and Brian Wilson productions in the 1960s and 1970s. She is credited with the bass tracks on several Simon & Garfunkel hits and many film scores by Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifrin. She contributed to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.

Besides her contributions on bass guitar, she also played 12-string and six-string electric and acoustic guitars – a rareity for female musicians back then.

So, grab a coffee and 10 minutes of your time, and check out this doc.