Originally a jazz guitarist who played on early hits by Sam Cooke and Ritchie Valens, Carol Kaye discovered she preferred playing bass only when she had to cover for a missing musician on a studio date in 1963. Kaye soon became a constantly in-demand player whose clean, crisp sound and strong but subtle melodies add richness to recordings by hitmakers like Phil Spector and The Beach Boys, as well as cult heroes like Love and The Mothers of Invention.