Okay, they had a teensy bit of fame on their own but have played on or produced around 200,000 records. Apparently.

Kate St John only goes back as far as the early 80's. I know her as one third of The Dream Academy, which is a band I absolutely loved. Although the album she recorded with Roger Eno, The Familiar, is excellent too.

probably best known for his work with RT but whose cv is extensive. Class act.

Sax.

With so much of our music consumption these days being downloaded or streamed we don't ever tend to see the details of the musicians. I've found it quite hard in the past to find out who's singing on a track when I've actively been searching. Even when I actually buy the CD, it's quite an occasion when I put it in a CD player and look at the booklet when I play it. Normally it gets ripped and by the time I play it, the booklet isn't to hand. As a result, I don't normally even see the names of the band members, let alone the backing musicians.

I think he may well have played on many, many celebrated records (you know, big and famous ones), as well as helping Saint Ry's songs swing.

I could just Google him but, as Iris suggests, I think I'll just let the mystery be (i.e. I'm too lazy to bother...)

I could even count myself a proper fan, in that I've got both of her albums (as far as I'm aware there are only two), and have even seen her live, at the Kashmir Klub. She is HUGELY talented: best known as the reed player of choice on numerous pop records, she's also a very, very fine arranger (recent example being the Nick Drake tribute concert) and a mighty good singer-songwriter to boot. Her second album, in particular, is absolutely superb and a great favourite of mine. Here's the title song of her first album, Indescribable Night.

Possibly the most technically proficient British drummer of the rock era. Now a touring member of Toto but was all over sessions in the 1980s and early 90s

...Rostrum camera.

Oh, hang on...

That Pino Palladino has a ponytail, pointy sideburns, a polo neck, a Trilby, braces, and those black plimsolls that kids used to wear for music and movement in the 1970s.

Someone who, I think, had a fairly brief but successful early 60's pop career then became a highly respected session man (mandolin and slide guitar a speciality) is Joe Brown.
Similarily Andy Fairweather Lowe had his moment in the spotlight and then stood back for the likes of Eric Clapton - Gary Brooker's another one - both of whom possess a better singing voice than EC.

Nicky Hopkins is probably the most well-known session man of his era.

Nice little clip for fans of old vintage Fender Jazz bass guitars, Pink Floyd and disco basslines.

THE steelman.
(listen only)
And he's british.

Fucking brilliant.
It's more who he hasn't played with.

played the famous bass part on "Walk on the Wild Side," which would guarantee him fame forever (but not fortune as I believe he just took a session fee), composed "Grandad" (!!), was a member of Blue Mink (look 'em up) and played on just about every British single recorded in the 1970's.

Brilliant bassist. Crimson, Gabriel, Double Fantasy. Not sure he counts as a sessioneer but... cer-hoool.

Best harmonica player around - if he's not all over the new Kate Bush album I'll be highly surprised...

http://www.brendan-power.com/

Three Hours - Nick Drake

He turns up everywhere - I saw him curate and play at the John Martyn tribute concert in Birmingham, play in Richard Thompsons live band and then with Eric Bibb all in a matter of months. His own solo albums were criminally underrated as was his performances with Toumani Diabate on Songhai. Another top bloke.

Read this and weep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Jim_Sullivan

Claire Torry?

...played some of the most famous sax solos ever (Money, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Us and Them) and ...er... nothing else.

a session supergroup collectively and the 4 members - Craig Doerge, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel & Leland Sklar. As a band and individually splendid musicians.

was on Later last night in Wilko Johnson's Band. Anyone remember The Greatest Show On Earth? I certainly remember seeing him in the early 70s band, Glencoe, before he joined Ian Dury and the Blockheads. The rest, as they say....

Cattini has played on at least 44 UK number 1 singles, including "Telstar" and "(Is This The Way To) Amarillo" by Tony Christie and Peter Kay. He also played in the orchestra for BBC TV's Top of the Pops, and toured with Cliff Richard, Roy Orbison and many others. He was considered for Led Zeppelin on a couple of occasions - he was initially on Jimmy Page's shortlist of drummers when forming the band before they settled on John Bonham, and was asked to join for a brief spell in 1975 but turned down the offer. He had earlier played alongside John Paul Jones on Donovan's hit single "The Hurdy Gurdy Man".
In the 1980s he reactivated The Tornados' name for tours., and in 1989 played in the West End run of The Rocky Horror Show. He recently recorded the drums for the track "No Tears to Cry" from Paul Weller's new album Wake Up the Nation. He was portrayed by James Corden in the 2009 film Telstar.

from Wikipedia