Sax, bass player? Who is the female? I THINK bass!

Jim replied

I do not think so, as Al Caiola picked up the session fee as both guitarist and "leader", which means he picked the musicians for the session and may have done the arrangement, although it still sounds like a "head" arrangement, but there is no record of he ever using a female bass player.

In those days, three songs were usually done in a three hour session and at this session, "Splish Splash", "Queen Of The Hop" and "Judy Don't Be Moody" were done. However, all three were done in 90 minutes, because the first 90 minutes were devoted to Morgana King recording "Since I Fell For You" and "My Reverie", and Bobby got to use Morgana's session players later.

The total session records no longer seem to be available but those paid for the full three-hour session include Bobby (for his piano work, not his vocals!), Al Caiola and Billy Mure for guitars, Jesse Powell for tenor sax, Panama Francis for drums, but no bass player is listed.

A bass player frequently used by Al Caiola was Wendell Marshall, so who knows?

Although I remember being told once that Sanford Bloch was the bass player on "Splish Splash", this seems unlikely. Sanford played string bass only, and worked with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra, also working on Dick Jacobs sessions for Decca.

Bloch did play bass on "Early In The Morning" by Bobby, but that was only because Dick Jacobs produced that session a few weeks later for Decca and anyway, that was recorded at Pythian Temple Studios.

The names of the girls at the session are unknown - none seem to have been musicians however - but three girls were in the studio for the entire session, and sang backup on "Judy Don't Be Moody". They are not individually named on the payment sheets however, but some other Ultimate Oldies fan may know who they are.

• RE: TRIVIA - Bobby Darin - Splish Splash - 1958 - John 07/06/2008 06:58:52 EDT (1)