Carol Kaye is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 65 years.
35 Facts About Carol Kaye
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Carol Kaye started session work in 1957, and through a connection at Gold Star Studios began working for producers Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.
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Carol Kaye moved into playing on film soundtracks in the late 1960s, particularly for Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifrin, and began to release a series of tutoring books such as How To Play The Electric Bass.
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Carol Kaye became less active towards the end of the 1970s, but has continued her career and attracted praise from other musicians.
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Carol Kaye appeared in the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew.
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Carol Kaye was born in Everett, Washington, to professional musicians Clyde and Dot Smith.
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Carol Kaye's father was a jazz trombonist who played in big bands.
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Carol Kaye later said her father was violent towards her, and she persuaded her mother to separate from him, but music was the one thing that could unite the family.
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At age 13, Carol Kaye received a steel string guitar from her mother.
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Carol Kaye began playing sessions in jazz clubs around Los Angeles.
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Carol Kaye played with the Henry Busse Orchestra in the mid-1950s, and toured the US with them.
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In 1957, Carol Kaye was playing a gig at the Beverly Cavern, Hollywood, when producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell invited her to a recording session for Sam Cooke's arrangement of "Summertime".
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Carol Kaye realized she could make significantly more money with session work than playing in jazz clubs, so took it up as a full-time career.
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Carol Kaye quickly discovered 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.
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Carol Kaye was the sole regular female member of the Wrecking Crew, a collective of studio musicians who played on a large number of hit records from Los Angeles in the 1960s.
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Carol Kaye played electric bass on Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", while Chuck Berghofer played double bass.
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Carol Kaye came up with the introduction on fellow session player Glen Campbell's hit "Wichita Lineman".
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Carol Kaye later said that during the 1960s, she would sometimes play three or four sessions per day, and was pleased that so many of them created hit records.
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Carol Kaye decided to make a change so her career evolved from playing primarily pop music to performing mostly soundtrack work, as well as writing and teaching.
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Carol Kaye wrote How To Play The Electric Bass, the first in a series of tutoring books and instructional video courses.
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Carol Kaye had already performed on a number of soundtracks and had worked closely with Lalo Schifrin, playing on the theme to Mission: Impossible and the soundtrack for Bullitt.
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Carol Kaye regularly collaborated with Quincy Jones, later saying that he "wrote some of the most beautiful themes I've ever heard in my life".
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Carol Kaye was a part of Jones' orchestra at the 43rd Academy Awards.
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Carol Kaye continued to play sporadically, appearing on JJ Cale's 1981 album Shades.
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In 1994, Carol Kaye underwent corrective surgery to fix injuries stemming from the accident, and resumed playing and recording.
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Carol Kaye 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.
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Carol Kaye was featured in the 2008 film The Wrecking Crew along with a cast of other studio musicians.
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Carol Kaye uses Thomastik-Infeld JF344 flatwound strings with a high action and preferred to use guitar amplifiers in the studio when playing bass, including the Fender Super Reverb and the Versatone Pan-O-Flex.
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Carol Kaye primarily uses a pick, or plectrum, on both guitar and bass, rather than plucking the strings with her fingers.
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Carol Kaye preferred to play melodic and syncopated lines on the bass, rather than simply covering a straightforward part.
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Carol Kaye has achieved critical acclaim as one of the best session bassists of all time.
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Carol Kaye's solo bass line in Spector's production of "River Deep, Mountain High", was a key part to the song's "Wall of Sound" production.
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Carol Kaye was raised a Baptist, but practiced Judaism in the early 1960s.
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Carol Kaye has been married three times and has two living children.
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Carol Kaye divorced him, got a live-in nanny, and went back to working again.