Tommy Tedesco
Tedesco in 1979
Background information
Born	Thomas Joseph Tedesco (1930-07-03)July 3, 1930 Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles
Died	November 10, 1997(1997-11-10) (aged 67) Northridge, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz fusion,rock, pop, soundtrack
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, teacher
Instrument	Guitar
Years active	1950s–1990s
Labels	Discovery,Capri
Formerly of	The Wrecking Crew

Thomas Joseph Tedesco (July 3, 1930 – November 10, 1997) was an American guitarist andstudio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood.^[1] He was part of the loose collective of the area's leading session musicians later popularly known asThe Wrecking Crew, who played on thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits.

Tedesco's playing credits include the theme from television'sBonanza,The Twilight Zone,Vic Mizzy's theme fromGreen Acres,M*A*S*H,Batman, andElvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special. Tedesco was shown on-camera in a number of game and comedy shows, and played ex-con guitarist Tommy Marinucci, a member of Happy Kyne's Mirth-Makers, in the 1977–78 talk-show spoofFernwood 2 Night andAmerica 2 Night.^[2]

Born inNiagara Falls, New York, Tedesco moved to theWest Coast where he became one of the most-sought-after studio musicians between the 1960s and 1980s.^[1] Although he was primarily a guitar player, he also playedmandolin,ukulele,sitar and over twenty other stringed instruments.

Tedesco was described byGuitar Player magazine as the most recorded guitarist in history, having played on thousands of recordings, many of which were top 20 hits.^[3] He recorded with most of the top musicians working in the Los Angeles area includingthe Beach Boys,the Mamas & the Papas,the Everly Brothers,the Association,Barbra Streisand,Jan and Dean,the 5th Dimension,Elvis Presley,Sam Cooke,Ella Fitzgerald,Frank Zappa,Ricky Nelson,Cher, andNancy andFrank Sinatra as well as onRichard Harris' classic "MacArthur Park". His playing can be found onJack Nitzsche's "The Lonely Surfer", onWayne Newton's version of "Danke Schoen",B. Bumble and the Stingers's "Nut Rocker",the Rip Chords' "Hey Little Cobra",the Ronettes' "Be My Baby",the Sandpipers' "Guantanamera",the T-Bones' "No Matter What Shape'" andNino Tempo & April Stevens' version of "Deep Purple". ForGuitar Player, Tedesco wrote a regular column called "Studio Log" in which he would describe a day's work recording a movie, TV show or album, the special challenges each job posed and how he solved them, what instruments he used, and how much money he made on the job.^[1]

Tedesco also performed on film soundtracks such asThe French Connection,The Godfather,Jaws,The Deer Hunter,Field of Dreams,Gloria plus several Elvis Presley films. He was also the guitarist for the Original Roxy cast ofThe Rocky Horror Show. Additionally, he performed the opening guitar solo for theHoward Hawks andJohn Wayne filmRio Lobo. He was one of the very few sidemen credited for work on animated cartoons forThe Ant and the Aardvark cartoons (1968–1971).

As a solo artist, Tedesco recorded a number ofjazz guitar albums, but his musical career ended in 1992 when he suffered astroke that resulted in partialparalysis. The following year he published his autobiography,Confessions of a Guitar Player.^[1]

Tedesco died of lung cancer in 1997, at the age of 67, in Northridge, California.^[4] His son, Denny Tedesco (related to Damon Tedesco and Suzie Greene Tedesco,^[5]) directed the 2008 documentary filmThe Wrecking Crew, which features interviews with Tommy and many of his fellow session musicians. The film finally saw theatrical release in 2015, after musical rights were cleared. Before that it had been screened only at film festivals, where clearance rights were not required.

In 2017, Tommy Tedesco was posthumously inducted into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(December 2023)

• Tedesco, Tommy (1981).For Guitar Players Only. Alfred Music.ISBN 978-0739053812.
• Tedesco, Tommy (1988).Tommy Tedesco: Anatomy of a Guitar Player.Mel Bay Publications.ISBN 978-1562223526.
• Tedesco, Tommy (1993).Confessions of a Guitar Player. Centerstream Publications.ISBN 978-0931759710.

• 2008The Wrecking Crew, a documentary put together by his son Denny Tedesco

• Tommy Tedesco discography atDiscogs
• Tommy Tedesco atIMDb

• 1930 births
• 1997 deaths
• American jazz guitarists
• Jazz fusion guitarists
• Bebop guitarists
• Musicians from Niagara Falls, New York
• American session musicians
• The Wrecking Crew (music) members
• 20th-century American guitarists
• Deaths from lung cancer in California
• Jazz musicians from New York (state)
• American people of Italian descent
• The T-Bones members

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from November 2016
• Articles with hCards
• Incomplete lists from December 2023