Song:Mr. Bass Man
Album:Golden Age Of American Rock 'N' Roll: Special Novelty Edition
I'm sure most folks have heard this 1963 top 20 hit but don't know anything about Johnny Cymbal. And though Mr. Bass Man is perceived as a goofy novelty one hit wonder, Cymbal had a long career as a songwriter and producer and even had another big hit that you probably don't know about. He was born John Hendry Blair Feb. 3, 1945 in Ochiltree, Scotland. You might think that Johnny Cymbal is a stage name but his parents divorced and his mom married miner Nick Cymbal. So he took his stepfather's surname. The family moved to Goderich, Ontario, Canada and then Cleveland. By age 15, Cymbal had been discovered by Philadelphia DJ Jack Gale and signed with MGM Records. He recorded two singles and was released. Gale became his manager and Cymbal moved to Philly. In 1963, Cymbal charted with Bachelor Man on VeeJay Records. And this set up a bidding war for a new contract. He signed with Kapp Records. Mr. Bass Man reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Cymbal wrote it and it was produced by Alan Lorber who had success with Neil Sedaka. And that's Ronnie Bright of the doo wop group The Valentines singing the bass. Follow up singles did not do well. In 1965, Cymbal signed with Don Costa's DCP label but a falling out with distributor United Artists killed the deal. He became friends with Costa's recording engineer Michael Rashkow and this led to a staff writing job at ABC Records. And they wrote the Al Martino hit Mary In The Morning. It was also recorded by Elvis Presley. Cymbal started working with George Tobin of Musicor Records. And that resulted in the song Cinnamon which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was credited to Derek which is the name of Cymbal's brother. But it was actually Johnny Cymbal singing lead and they put a touring band together after the song was a hit. Cymbal moved to California and while working for Wes Farrell, he wrote Rock Me Baby for David Cassidy. When his wife died from a drug overdose, Cymbal moved to Cleveland and left the music business. But he returned in Nashville in the 80s and wrote several hits for others. He continued to try to re-launch a recording career but nothing ever worked out. But he continued to write songs until he died in his sleep from a heart attack on Mar. 16, 1993 at age 48. So there's much more to Johnny Cymbal than one novelty hit single. This various artists comp from Ace has 30 great novelty songs. Here's Johnny Cymbal performing Mr. Bass Man at Writers In The Round in Nashville Mar. 11, 1993.
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