Appreciating Larry Knechtel

Everyone knows the sound when they hear it: that gloriously mellow wah-wah that spirals out all over the groove of Bread's 1972 smash "Guitar Man." The man in question, however, was only tangentially a member of the band -- and as a sessionman who made his way over the airwaves long before Bread came to be, he was actually better known for his piano. Or maybe his bass skills.


Larry Knechtel was one of the fabled Los Angeles session players known collectively as the "Wrecking Crew," but he was arguably more flexible, and thus even more in demand, than the others. He began his national career as a piano man, backing Duane Eddy's storied twang on his early '60s LPs and on the road, but soon he found himself laying the first bricks in the Los Angeles rock scene as part of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" (he's all over the epochal 1963 Spector extravaganza A Christmas Gift for You). It was his excellent electric piano work that anchored the Association's "Never My Love," and his stately, gospelish grand that famously set the scene for Simon and Garfunkel's epic "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (for which Knechtel was rewarded with a rare sideman Grammy for Best Arrangement).

Larry was equally proficient on bass, however, performing during the taped-live electric sections of Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, playing in the backup band at the Monterey Pop Festival and thickening the Doors' stage sound on their first album.

He proved such an integral part of Bread's first album that he joined the folk-rock balladeers permanently soon after, but that didn't keep him from outside commitments, such as producing Sammy Johns' "Chevy Van" and playing bass on Billy Joel's Streetlife Serenade. In the '80s he moved to Nashville, where sessioneers were still an integral part of the business, and worked with everyone from Elvis Costello to Hank Williams Jr. In the early '90s he released two countryish albums of his own before relocating to the Yakima Reservation area of Washington State and lapsing into semi-retirement, though he did occasionally contribute his considerable talent when a Rick Rubin or a Dixie Chicks came calling. Larry passed away in 2009 from a heart attack.

Famous songs on which Larry Knechtel performs:

• "Mr. Tambourine Man," The Byrds (bass)
• "Light My Fire," The Doors (bass)
• "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon and Garfunkel (piano)
• "Good Vibrations," The Beach Boys (organ)
• "Stoney End," Barbra Streisand (piano)
• "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu," Johnny Rivers (piano)
• "Precious and Few," Climax (piano)
• "Be My Baby," The Ronettes (piano)
• "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," 5th Dimension (piano)
• "California Dreaming," The Mamas and the Papas (bass)

Other artists with which Larry Knechtel worked: Duane Eddy, Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, The Monkees, John Denver, Tina Turner, Randy Newman, Dixie Chicks, Peter Allen, The Association, Fats Domino, Jan & Dean, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Steppenwolf, The Everly Brothers, Marc Almond, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Nancy Sinatra, Diana Ross, The Grass Roots, Thelma Houston, Lee Michaels, Seals & Crofts, Tommy Roe, The Partridge Family