"
The Wrecking Crew" (sometimes referred to as "
the Clique" and "
the First Call Gang") was a loose-knit circle of
Los Angeles' top studio
session musicians whose services were constantly in demand during their heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s. In varying configurations, often anonymously, they backed dozens of popular acts on numerous top-selling hits of the era. They are considered one of the most successful recording session units in music history. The group's ranks began to materialize in the late 1950s, but in the early 1960s they fully coalesced into what became their most recognizable form when they became the de facto "house band" for
Phil Spector, sometimes referred to as
the Phil Spector Wall of Sound Orchestra, playing on many of the hits that he produced at the time, by acts such as
the Crystals,
the Ronettes, and later
the Righteous Brothers and
Ike and Tina Turner, contributing to Spector's characteristic "
wall of sound" production style.