Carol Kaye was not only a pioneer in the male-dominated world of pop recording sessions, but she also broke down musical barriers, playing on a multitude of records and TV and movie scoring dates of almost every kind. The West Coast-based freelance musician reportedly played on over 10,000 recording sessions, and her mind-boggling long discography would seem to bare that out. Born in Everett, WA, Kaye's parents, Clyde and Dot Smith, were professional musicians. In 1949, she began playing bebop jazz guitar in bands in dozens of nightclubs around Los Angeles while giving guitar lessons. She shared the bandstand with Jack Sheldon, Teddy Edwards, Billy Higgins, and Bob Neal. By chance in 1957, Kaye got into studio work, playing guitar on Sam Cooke's Summertime and What a Wonderful World, among others.

In 1963, when a bassist failed to show for a record date at Capitol Records, Kaye picked up the electric Fender bass. Her skill on the instrument put her on the A list of record companies, movie and TV score producers (the wacky Hikky Burrrrr single, the theme of #The Bill Cosby Show of the late '60s), commercial jingle writers, and industrial films. She worked with Michel LeGrand, Quincy Jones (#Ironside), Jerry Goldsmith (#Escape From the Planet of the Apes), Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin (#Mission Impossible), Jerry Fuller, Phil Spector (the Shirelles, the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Paris Sisters, the Blossoms), David Rose, David Grusin, Ernie Freeman, Hugo Montenegro, Leonard Rosenman, John Williams (#Lost in Space), Alfred Lionel Newman (#M.A.S.H., both the movie and TV series), and Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin (#Bless the Beasts and the Children). Kaye shared the recording studio/stage with a various who's who of top '60s/'70s session players: Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osborn, among others. Kaye's discography is exhaustive, a creation of her almost seven-days-a-week/on-call-24-hours-a-day schedule. A schedule she maintained for many years, through her own love of music and the tight-knit camaraderie of those involved.

Some of the other artists Kaye played with are the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, Ray Charles, Herb Alpert, Joe Cocker, Elvis Presley, Lou Rawls, the Righteous Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Barbara Streisand, Dean Martin, and Roger Miller. Her former students include Toto member/Nashville producer David Hungate, Monty Budwig, Max Bennett, Abe Luboff, and TV composer Alf Clausen (#The Simpsons, #Moonlighting). She earned accolades from such music heavyweights as Sting, Steve Bailey, Nathan East, Abraham Laboriel, Jack Casady, Robert Trujillo, Jaco Pastorius, and Hampton Hawes. In 1969, Kaye created the first of over 27 bass tutoring books and instructional videos, #How to Play the Electric Bass. The veteran bassist has conducted many music seminars all over the U.S.A. and taught classes at the Henry Mancini Institute at U.C.L.A. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi