Carol Kaye’s five best basslines
With more than 10,000 tracks under her belt, Carol Kaye is the most recorded bassist of all time. During the 1960s, session work for musicians was plentiful, with Kaye recalling in an interview that three or four bookings a day were the norm.
“It got to be a routine after a while,” she says, “But it wasn’t like we were making doughnuts. We were making records, and a lot of them were hits.” At least such was the life for any member of The Wrecking Crew, a collective of American session musicians based in Los Angeles at the time, many of whom have been credited to hundreds of top 40 hits.
Kaye first cut her musical teeth playing guitar at jazz clubs throughout the 1950s. One such occasion introduced producer and arranger Bumps Blackwell to her skill, leading him to invite her onto a record he was working on. “I really didn’t want to do it because I liked the clubs, but I needed the money,” she said. “It wasn’t long till I realized there was more money in making records.” The track in question was Sam Cooke’s ‘Summertime’ released in 1957, and although it was guitar Kaye laid down on the recording, the session would prove to be a significant turning point in her career.
Her discography gleams with the likes of The Beach Boys, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Joe Cocker, Lou Rawls, Simon and Garfunkel, Sonny & Cher, Motherlode and Ray Charles, not to mention her contribution to film soundtracks from Batman to Mission Impossible.
When narrowing down such a melting pot of accolades to the “best”, as Kaye herself reflects, “This is a terrific batch of songs, but I might have a whole different list next week”. And what should be the criteria for making the cut? While speed and agility can be impressive, the bass is arguably the most important instrument in establishing a solid foundation for a song to build upon – at times, this can certainly see intricacies shine through, but often, it can be those most simple but effective structures that are needed. It’s knowing when to sit back and when to step forward – a good bassist, like any good session musician, plays for the song.
Here is a mere glimpse of times Carol Kaye used her empathy for song to elevate studio sessions to new heights.
Carol Kaye’s five greatest basslines:
Joe Cocker – ‘Feelin’ Alright’ (1969)
We’ll start with the track Kaye cited as being perhaps her favourite to play on. Featuring Paul Humphrey on drums and Artie Butler on keys, the three hit the ground running on Joe Cocker’s ‘Feelin’ Alright’ and locked in the groove that makes this song the rocker that it is.
“We played our hearts out on that song, and we nailed a great take,” Kaye said. “Then an engineer told us that we had to do it again – somebody had forgotten to roll the tape! [laughs] Oh, my goodness! You’re kidding me, right?”
Adding: “Well, we did it again and got it just as good. No, we got it really good. But you know what? There was something about the version that didn’t get recorded, the one that nobody will ever hear it was the take! [sighs] Oh, well…”
The Beach Boys – ‘Good Vibrations’ (1967)
Perhaps Kaye’s most well-known, the bassline on ‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys is one most fans across various forums will unanimously agree on as a standout. Having worked on multiple sessions with The Beach Boys, Kaye formed a bond with Brian Wilson, recalling how he would keep her bass high in the mix. “On a song like ‘California Girls,’ at times, you can hardly hear anything else. He just liked my sound and the way I moved around the fretboard.”
Initially, Kaye didn’t realise The Beach Boys co-founder was a bassist. “I always thought of him as a piano player who knew how to write for other instruments. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered he could play bass…[he] encouraged me to move around with my parts. He liked the bass to be non-static and energetic.”
Glen Campbell – ‘Wichita Lineman’ (1968)
On the day Kaye recorded her part on Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman’, both Campbell and the track’s composer Jimmy Webb – also credited with laying down the piano part – were in attendance. Jim Gordon joined the lineup on drums. “There wasn’t any music in front of me, just some chord changes,” Kaye recounts. “I played the roots and tried to let the tune unfold. When you have a great song – and I could tell right away that ‘Wichita Lineman’ was very special – you try to create a background for the words. You don’t want to get in the way.”
“At one point, though, Jimmy Webb stopped me and had me do some fills,” she added. “Then, it was decided that I should start off the song. So that’s what you hear: me on my bass, playing this little bouncy part that introduces the number.”
Ray Charles – ‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967)
Known as the title track to the 1967 film, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ was composed by Quincy Jones, with Kaye’s fuzz bass playing an important part. “Not many people knew you put fuzz on a bass; they thought it only worked with a guitar.” It was a “dream come true” for the bassist to pay with Ray Charles, recording the track at his own studio.
For Kaye, it was Charles’s vocal line that took priority: “I asked to have his vocal way up in my headphones because that’s what I wanted to play to. On some records, you want to cook with the band. With Ray Charles, you wanted to cook with his singing. His vocal was the most important thing, so that’s what you had to support.”
Barbra Streisand – ‘The Way We Were’ (1973)
Barbra Streisand’s ‘The Way We Were’ details the melancholic relationship between the two main characters in the 1973 film of the same name. The track was recorded entirely live with strings, Streisand and the band in the studio that day. “I think we did 32 takes, which was quite a lot. I was trying to work around Barbra’s vocals, but Marvin Hamlisch, the producer, kept getting annoyed. ‘Stick to the part, Carol. Don’t ad-lib,’ he told me.”
Adding: “I was getting pretty bored playing such a simple part, so after 31 takes I just decided, ‘Oh hell, I’m gonna go for it.’ [laughs] I played some real interesting lines and fills. Barabra’s voice held this long note, and the feeling was electrifying. She gave it her all, I gave it my all, and the whole thing came together.”
