Here’s a guy who gets what people want from an old Hollywood memoir: less memoir and more behind-the-scenes stories with celebrities.
Don Randi is a legend among session musicians. As part of the famed Wrecking Crew of musicians, his piano playing is all over basically every hit song of the 1960s and ‘70s. Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound recordings, The Beach Boys, classic television shows, and more--Randi was behind the keys for all of it.
Randi approaches this book as a series of anecdotes with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Cher, Raquel Welch, Elvis, and more--a who’s-who in popular culture. For the most part, his stories are upbeat and complimentary. Even when he has a disagreement with someone, it turns out funny in the end. He comes across as a good guy who enjoyed his life at the piano bench of some of the most beloved music of the last 50 years.
Musician types might want more detail about the actual work Randi put in for decades. There has to be another book within him just on the experience of being a session musician in the business of music. For the time, it’s easy to enjoy this nice guy reminisce about some remarkable times.