J Murray was in fact a real person - she was Murray Kaufman's mother - and her maiden name was Jean Murray.

Jean had been a pianist in the 1920's and played a lot of the vaudeville circuit, while Jean's sister wrote songs (with Jean) for Broadway reviews.

It was Jean who introduced Murray to the stage in the 1930's. Through friends, she also got him some bit parts in as number of movies prior to World War 2.

The title came to her one day in 1958 when her son explained that he was soaking his feet in Epsom salts after a game of softball with the then unknown Bobby Darin, and she jokingly said that he should instead "Splish Splash -Take A Bath".

Murray then suggested that Bobby and himself should write a lyric around the line, but meanwhile, Jean had also come up with a melody based on the same opening phrase.

In the end, although Murry Kaufman and Bobby collaborated on the lyric, Jean Murray wrote most of the melody, and the initial demo of the song which was taken over to Ahmet Ertegun, featured her on piano.

On the session, Bobby played piano, while Panama Francis played drums, and Al Caiola played guitar. I cannot remember who played bass or sax on the session.

When published in sheet music form, the song was credited only to Jean and Bobby - Murray Kaufman's name being left off the credits so that he could plug the song without seeming to own any part of it.

This was because Alan Freed was experiencing hassle from WABC over taking co-writer credits on a number of songs he had never lifted a finger to - such as Chuck Berry's
"Maybellene" - and Murray Kaufman had been warned by WINS to make sure he was cleaner than clean in this regard.

In actual fact, he could have taken the credit himself quite legally, as he had genuinely contributed to the lyrics.

Incidentally, the sound of water was added not at the session, but some weeks later, by Tom O'Dowd, who had just installed a multi-tracked machine and wanted to play with it. Darin it seems, was not too happy with what the engineer had done, but I suppose he learned to live with it!

• RE: TRIVIA - Bobby Darin - Splish Splash - 1958 - John 07/03/2008 08:21:22 EDT (1)