Most listeners know the singer on the record. Far fewer know who played the piano, guitar or harmony part behind them. For decades, studio musicians shaped hit records while their names stayed off the front cover.
Some of them eventually stepped out front. The six artists below spent real time as hired hands in the studio before they built careers under their own names.
Leon Russell
Leon Russell moved to Los Angeles as a young pianist and became part of the loose group of studio players now known as the Wrecking Crew. In the 1960s he played on sessions for producers such as Phil Spector, and his keyboard work turned up on a large number of pop recordings from that era.
His own career took off around 1970 with a self titled debut album. That same year he led the band for Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Russell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Glen Campbell
Before he was a household name, Glen Campbell was a busy guitarist in the Los Angeles studios and another member of the Wrecking Crew. He also toured with the Beach Boys in the mid 1960s, filling in for Brian Wilson on the road.
His solo breakthrough came in 1967 with Gentle on My Mind, and Wichita Lineman followed in 1968. Both songs showed off a smooth vocal style, backed by the kind of precise guitar playing that had earned him studio work in the first place. Campbell died in 2017.
Dr. John
Born Malcolm Rebennack, Dr. John first made his living in New Orleans as a guitarist, pianist and producer on local recording sessions. After moving to California in the 1960s, he continued working as a studio musician for other artists.
He reinvented himself with the 1968 album Gris Gris. It blended New Orleans rhythm, voodoo imagery and psychedelic rock into something entirely his own. Like Leon Russell, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Billy Preston
Billy Preston was a gifted keyboardist who joined Little Richard’s band as a teenager and later played with Ray Charles. In 1969 he sat in on the Beatles’ Get Back sessions, and the resulting single was credited to the Beatles with Billy Preston, a rare billing for an outside musician.
His own hits arrived in the early 1970s. Will It Go Round in Circles reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973, and Nothing from Nothing did the same in 1974. Preston died in 2006.
Elton John
Long before the stadium tours, Reg Dwight played in the band Bluesology and picked up studio work in London in the late 1960s. Part of that work involved singing on budget cover albums that imitated current chart hits.
He took the name Elton John and released his debut album, Empty Sky, in 1969. His breakthrough came with the 1970 self titled album, which included Your Song. The steady studio habits he picked up early are often linked to his remarkably productive output in the years that followed.
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow was a schoolteacher in Missouri before moving to Los Angeles to pursue music. There she sang backing vocals on commercial jingles and on records for other artists. She also toured as a backing singer for Michael Jackson on his Bad tour in the late 1980s.
Her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, arrived in 1993 and produced the hit All I Wanna Do. At the 1995 Grammy Awards, that song won Record of the Year, and she was named Best New Artist.
