Carol Kaye Net Worth

What is Carol Kaye's net worth?

Carol Kaye is an American musician who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific bass players in history, Carol Kaye has performed on more than 10,000 recording sessions over the course of her decades-long career, contributing to countless hit records, film scores, and television themes. She became active in the music industry in the 1950s and took off by playing bass for Phil Spector and Brian Wilson in the 1960s and 1970s. She has been associated with The Beach Boys, The Doors, Ritchie Valens, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Sonny & Cher, Joe Cocker, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Frank Zappa, Ike & Tina Turner, Johnny Mathis, Simon & Garfunkel, The Righteous Brothers, The Marketts, Herb Alpert, The Buckinghams, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, The Monkees, Buffalo Springfield, Howard Roberts, Joe Pass, and more. She played bass on the Beach Boys' hit album, "Pet Sounds."

Carol Kaye has publicly stated that she felt "duped" into appearing in the 2008 documentary "The Wrecking Crew," expressing frustration over how the film portrayed her and the era. She has long contested the use of the term "Wrecking Crew," insisting that it was never a name actually used by the musicians at the time and that the term was invented by Hal Blaine. According to Kaye, they simply considered themselves professional studio musicians, and the label was a retrospective invention that didn't reflect the reality of their work or relationships.

Royalties

Unfortunately, session musicians like Carol Kaye typically did not receive royalties from the records they played on unless they had specific agreements in place. Kaye contributed to numerous iconic recordings but, like many session musicians of her era, was usually compensated with a flat fee per session without ongoing royalties.

Early Life

Carol Kaye was born as Carol Smith on March 24, 1935 in Everett, Washington to Dot and Clyde, both professional musicians. Her father, a jazz trombonist, played in big bands, and in 1942 he sold a piano in order to finance the family's move to Los Angeles, California. When Kaye was 13, she was given a steel-string guitar by her mother and began taking guitar lessons from Horace Hatchett.

Career Beginnings

Kaye began her career doing sessions in jazz clubs around Los Angeles. In the 1950s, she played bebop jazz guitar with a number of groups on the club circuit, and also played with the Henry Busse Orchestra on tour.

Session Musician

While playing a gig at the Beverly Cavern in Hollywood in 1957, Kaye was invited by record producer Robert Blackwell to a recording session for Sam Cooke's version of "Summertime." Soon realizing a career as a session musician would be more lucrative than one spent in jazz clubs, Kaye went on to do session work full-time. In 1958, after playing acoustic rhythm guitar on Ritchie Valens's song "La Bamba" at Gold Star Studios, she began working with producer Phil Spector. Kaye did numerous hit recordings for Spector, including the Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." Her work eventually drew the attention of other record producers, making her one of the most in-demand session musicians of the era.

In 1963, after a bass player failed to show up for a session at Capitol Records, Kaye filled in and developed a preference for the bass. She became the most prolific session bassist in Los Angeles during the decade, playing on recordings by such artists as Frank Sinatra, the Supremes, the Temptations, Ray Charles, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Beach Boys. Kaye also continued as a session guitarist, appearing on many Sonny & Cher songs. Notably, she was the sole regular female member of the so-called Wrecking Crew, a collective of Los Angeles-based session musicians in the 1960s and '70s. Kaye sometimes played three or four sessions a day during the peak of her career, and reportedly played on an estimated 10,000 recordings over the span of 65 years.

In addition to her regular session work for pop artists, Kaye played on many television and film soundtracks. Her credits in the 1960s included such TV shows as "The Addams Family," "The Wild Wild West," "Lost in Space," "Hogan's Heroes," and "Mission: Impossible"; and such films as "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Bullitt," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and "Sweet Charity." Kaye continued playing on numerous soundtracks in the 1970s, including those to the films "M*A*S*H," "Airport," "Across 110th Street," "Dirty Harry," "The Poseidon Adventure," and "The Hot Rock." Among her most frequent collaborators were composers John Williams, Lalo Schifrin, and Quincy Jones. Although Kaye semi-retired from music following a car accident in 1976, she continued playing sporadically over the ensuing decades.

(Photo by Jasper Dailey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Equipment and Style

During the peak of her success in the 1960s, Kaye mainly used a Fender Precision Bass. On occasion, she would use a Danelectro bass. In the 1970s, Kaye sometimes used a Gibson Ripper. In terms of her style, she primarily used a pick for plucking the strings, and typically muted her bass with a piece of felt placed on top of the strings in front of the bridge. Kaye had a preference for playing melodic and syncopated bass lines, and in the studio she favored the upper register on her bass.

Other Ventures

Having become disillusioned by regular session work by the late 1960s, Kaye began writing and teaching. She wrote a series of tutoring books and did instructional video courses, starting with "How to Play the Electric Bass."

Personal Life

As a young teenager, Kaye had an affair with her guitar instructor Horace Hatchett, with whom she had a child when she was 16. Two years later, she married musician Al Kaye, who was 22 years her senior; together, they had a son. The couple eventually divorced due to Al's drinking problems. Kaye went on to remarry and have a third child, but she soon divorced again. Her next husband was jazz drummer and session musician Spider Webb, with whom she co-founded the jazz-funk group Spiders Webb.

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