Bob Babbitt

Born:  November 26, 1937, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Died:  July 16, 2012, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

Born Robert Andrew Kreinar, Bob Babbitt was an American bassist best known as a member of the Motown Records studio band, The Funk Brothers.  After receiving a call to fill in for legendary Motown session bassist James Jamerson, Babbitt became a regular call for Motown and was eventually welcomed as a full-fledged Funk Brother.  Babbitt would play on loads of hits with Motown from 1966 – 1972 including Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) (1970), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles “The Tears of a Clown”, Edwin Starr’s “War” (1970), Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues” (1971) and The Temptations “Just My Imagination” (1971) to name just a few. [2]  He was revered among Detroit bassists for his solo on Dennis Coffey’s 1971 hit “Scorpio”, with long time Stevie Wonder bassist Nathan Watts commenting that if you couldn’t play Bob Babbitt’s solo on “Scorpio”, “you couldn’t get a gig.”

Upright bass was the starting point for Bob’s musical journey and although he received classical training, he maintained that the gypsy music he was exposed to by his Hungarian parents had a much larger effect on him. He was highly inspired by early R&B music like like Bill Doggett’s “Honky Tonk” and Red Prysock’s “Hand Clappin’”. [1] As he described in the Funk Brothers documentary “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” (2002), he would wait until his parents went to bed and then play along with R&B records, or what was referred to as “race music” at the time.

 At the age of 15, Babbitt began playing bass in local Pittsburgh nightclubs.  Although originally an upright bassist, he would trade in his upright for a 1960 Fender Jazz Bass after hearing electric bass for the first time.  [1]

Detroit and Motown

In 1961, Bob turned down a music scholarship and  moved to Detroit where he would work construction by day and play bass in the clubs by night.  Soon after arriving he became part of a band called The Royaltones. For Babbitt, that band would eventually introduce him to Detroit’s busy session scene.  The Royaltones had a hit song called “Flamingo Express” and after catching the attention of Del Shannon would become his touring and recording band through 1965. [1]

Bob became a busy session player and did a lot of work with producer Ed Wingate, owner of Golden World studio.  It was during this period that he would meet many of Motown’s session players known as The Funk Brothers including Joe Hunter, Eddie Willis, Joe Hunter, Johnny Griffith, Benny Benjamin and of course, James Jamerson.  Of his time working with Wingate Babbitt said:

“I saw a list of musicians posted on a wall. It had the names of Jamerson and eight other bassists. I said to myself, Man, I’m never gonna work here – but I wound up doing so much work there they had a cot brought in for me.” [1]

At that time, Babbitt was using his 1960 Jazz Bass for al of the Royaltones and Del Shannon recordings, until a producer asked him to switch to a Precision bass.  He purchased a red 1963 or ’64 P Bass that would be stolen within a few years.  After that he purchased one of the earliest CBS Fender precisions which he played for many years to follow.  His basses were strung with LaBella flatwounds.  Although most studio tracks were cut with bass running direct, if Babbitt brought an amp it would be an Ampeg B15 or Kustom. [1]

Bob’s first meeting with James Jamerson came during a two bass session for Edwin Starr’s “Agent Double 0 Soul”.  Babbitt had cut the original bass part, but producers had decided to recut the tune.  Babbitt stated “James and I divided up the bass part; one of us played an eighth note pedal and the other played a figure on top.  As it turned out, they used the original track anyway.” [1]

In 1967, Motown Record founder Berry Gordy would buy out Golden World studio and with Babbitt already heavily involved with Golden World.  Between this purchase and the fact that Bob was playing some live dates with Stevie Wonder at the time, the stage was set for him to become part of the Motown His first Motown session date was Stevie Wonder’s cover of The Beatles “We Can Work It Out”.  [1]

With Motown, despite playing on “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours), Touch Me in the Morning”, “War”, The Tears of a Clown”, “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Smiling Faces” Babbitt explained that he never really felt secure: “I always felt I had so much to live up to, because of Jamerson. On a lot of those sessions, I knew that the producer and the rest of the musicians (who called themselves the Funk Brothers) wanted James, but he was going through a lot because of his drinking problems. To make matters worse, sometimes he’d come into a session where I was subbing for him and watch.” [1]

During his time in Detroit, Babbitt said he was influenced by the great jazz bassists that would come to town including Ray Brown, Monk Montgomery, Charles Mingus as well as Jamerson. [1]

Babbitt and Jamerson’s Relationship

In his biography Babbitt recounted his relationship with Jamerson:

“One time they called and told me to get right over to the studio. Everyone was in the middle of a session, but James was messing up so we both played. One of the guys was bustin’ on him, saying, ‘You gonna let this white guy run all over you?’ But it wasn’t malicious. Eventually, I became good friends with all those guys and was accepted into that circle. They just wanted to kick James in the ass and snap him out of it. Everybody wanted to see him do well.” [1]

“He was a great guy, but if you hung around him you had to run into a problem sooner or later. One time, the Platters hired Jamerson and some of the other Funk Brothers to play some live gigs around the Detroit-Dearborn area. James was packing a gun, because Dearborn was pretty hairy back then. At the same time, Luther Dixon, who produced the Platters, hired me to cut ‘With This Ring’ and ‘I Love You 1000 Times.’ When I -walked into the studio, there was James sitting at the organ. He said, ‘I’m playing the session tonight,’ and when he leaned back I could see the gun in his waistband. So I laughed and said, ‘Well, I guess you are,’ and turned around to leave. Luther stopped me and told me not to worry about it. Eventually, James just left.” [1]

“But we genuinely liked each other. James didn’t hold grudges. A few days after that incident, I was in Golden World and James came in with his bass, kicked everybody out of the room, and said, ‘Come on, Bob, let’s go!’ We played for hours. Boy, I wish there had been a tape recorder running, because there was some serious stuff bouncing off those walls.” [1]

From 1970 and 1972, Babbitt and Motown were facing particularly interesting and tough times.  With Motown preparing to leave Detroit and work slowing down in studio A, Babbitt spent 6 months as a professional wrestler to supplement his income. [1] However in 1971, Babbitt had the opportunity to play on Marvin Gaye’s blockbuster album, What’s Going On, aptly named for the times.  Babbitt would play bass on “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Inner City Blues”.

From Detroit to New York and Philly

With Motown relocating to Los Angeles and East Coast producers like Arif Mardin knocking at his door, Bob would leave Detroit for New York City in 1973 and would immediately become a first call session player in his new home. His earliest New York sessions would include Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, but he would go on to work with a host of top artists including Frank Sinatra, Bonnie Raitt, Stephanie Mills, Jim Croce, Englebert Humperdinck, Robert Palmer and many others.  His contributions didn’t go unnoticed by the producers at Philadelphia International Records.  Soon he would be splitting his time between New York and his home state of Pennsylvania.  In Philly he would play on many Spinners’ hits including “Rubber Band Man”, “Games People Play” and “Then Came You” with legendary Philly producer Thom Bell along with albums by Teddy Pendergrass and many others. [1]

Babbitt had an interesting reflection on his time in New York and his career up to that point that was expressed in the biography posted to his website:

“Throughout my career, I’ve been asked to be Jamerson or Chuck Rainey or Joe Osborn,” he points out. “This was the way producers communicated with me. I had never really thought about it. It used to bother me, but I came to realize the only way I could deal with it was to try to accommodate everyone while waiting for those occasional dates when a producer would just let me play. In Detroit, the guy who would do that was Norman Whitfield; on the East Coast, it was Arif Mardin and Thom Bell. Thom had a system: He would always write a note-for-note chart for you. If there was no chord symbol over a bar, you had to play it as written; if there was a chord symbol, you could either play the part or do something else you felt like doing. Looking back, I think the tracks where the real me came out are “Touch Me in the Morning” (by Diana Ross), ‘Then came You” (by Dionne Warwick & the Spinners), ‘Mama Can’t Buy You Love’ [by Elton John], “Midnight Train to Georgia’ [by Gladys Knight & the Pips], and [guitarist] Dennis Coffey’s ‘Scorpio,’ which had a 9O-second bass solo that’s all me.” [1]

Off To Nashville

By the mid-1980s, things were slowing down for session musicians in New York, and Bob Babbitt, like many other session greats including Willie Weeks and David Hungate, made the move to the last refuge for real bass recording, Nashville, TN.  He would play on some country records but often found himself too busy touring the world with artists like Joan Baez and Brenda Lee to remaining at the top of a producers call sheet.  He also found it hard to break through get out of the pigeonhole he was placed in as one of Motown’s two big bassists despite having played on records across multiple genres since his time there.  Of this experience Babbitt said: “To this day, no matter what I do, no matter how many hits I’ve had away from Detroit, all anybody ever asks me is about Motown.  Even though the most important hits I did were at Motown, they never gave out gold records. I have more than 25 of them, and none are from Motown. What do people think I was doing for the last 25 years?”

Bob would spend the next decades continuing to play bass with some of the world’s biggest artists.  He was featured on Rod Stewart’s 2009 album “Soulbook,” a throwback to Motown and soul music and Phil Collins’ 2010 album “Going Back” for which he appeared on the concert DVD “Going Back – Live at The Roseland Ballroom, NYC.”  The album was a tribute to Motown featuring covers of Motown hit songs from the ‘60s.  You can hear Babbitt in top form on this record only 2 years before he would pass away.  

Bob Babbitt died in Nashville, TN on July 16, 2012 at the age of 74 from brain cancer.