Ba-ba-ba, Barbara-Ann

Today’s column is dedicated to those boys and girls who are going loco over the Minions’ Banana and Potato song from Universal Pictures’ animated flick Despicable Me 2. Here’s how it all began…

They were a struggling doo-wop vocal group formed in the Bronx in 1959 with a string of unsuccessful demos to their name. Originally called The Monterays, they became The Desires before transforming themselves into The Regents — from a combination of recording a demo at Regent Sound studio in New York and the brand of cigarettes that their lead singer smoked.

In 1961, just as the mighty United States of America was launching a disastrous invasion of Cuba by sending around 1,500 Cuban exiles to the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), the group finally hit the Billboard charts with a demo that they had recorded three years earlier. The song was Barbara-Ann, waxed in three takes by The Regents, made up of Guy Villari on lead; Sal Cuomo, first tenor; Chuck Fassert, second tenor; Tony Gravagna, sax player/baritone and Don Jacobucci on bass. Written by tenor Chuck’s brother Fred, the song was named after their sister.

By the time the Regents hit the charts with Barbara-Ann, the world was once again teetering on the brink of war. Time stood still for 14 days as the US and Russia went eyeball-to-eyeball, with the former threatening war if the latter would not dismantle its missile system planted at the heart of Cuba. The Russians blinked, and the good times rolled.

The echoing war drums would somehow spread across the world in the ensuing decade. It was the height of the Cold War, and the world’s two superpowers were engaged in a drawn-out “watch-and-wait” game. This uneasy peace and chilled calm would give birth to fear and anxiety that would also dictate the evolution of American music: from the cocky, fun-loving beat of rock and roll when Russia bowed to US wishes in the Cuban Missile Crisis to the mellow and poetic lyrics and melodies when thousands of American soldiers started dying at the height of the Vietnam War year later. The Hippie Revolution, as they called it, advocated making peace and stopping war.

Also at that time, American music was busy fending off another form of invasion, the arrival of British pop music in the form of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and more, on the shores and spreading to America’s musical heartland. Now, you should be able to picture why the 1960s is often referred to as “the golden age of music.”

Before Barbara-Ann, the Regents couldn’t find their place in the rock-and-roll sun. Initially, the song had a hard time getting into the groove of American music. The group was so enamored with one of their demos that they focused on Barbara-Ann as their best chance to become a hit. They peddled it to more than 50 record labels with no success. Discouraged, The Regents broke up at the end of 1958.

But fate intervened. Eddie Jacobucci, younger brother of Regents’ bass man Don, found himself in a tight spot. Eddie’s group, The Consorts, was short of original songs. Eddie recalled The Regents’ Barbara-Ann, which he played for his group. The Consorts liked it and cut their own demo of the tune. Group member Sal Donnarumma took their version to Lou Cicchetti’s famous Cousins Records on Fordham Road in the Bronx.

Lou liked the song so much he decided to release it as a single. However, the song’s writer Fred Fassert heard about it and went to Cicchetti with the original Regents demo to convince him that this was the version that should be pressed. Lou agreed.

Fred swiftly went to work locating the members of the Regents. Once reformed, the Regents recorded I’m So Lonely as the B-side to Barbara-Ann. The single skyrocketed to number 13 on the Billboard pop charts in 1961.

With a rollicking beat, conjuring up the image of a gang of fun-loving guys enjoying each other’s company, Barbara-Ann is never ostentatious, but totally impulsive. And therein lies the magic of Barbara-Ann.

The most famous cover version of the song, however, is by the Beach Boys. Released as a single on Dec. 20, 1965, with the B-side Girl Don’t Tell Me, the Beach Boys’ version peaked at number two in the US Billboard Hot 100, number one in Cash Box and Record World and at number three in the UK.  It also topped the charts in Germany, Switzerland and Norway; and became the Beach Boys’ biggest hit in Italy, reaching number four.

So popular was the song that it was covered by The Who (1966); sung by Vinnie Barbarino (played by a young John Travolta) in the late 1970s series Welcome Back, Kotter (a modified version of which was used in commercials by Barberino Nissan of Wallingford, Connecticut); featured in the 1973 film American Graffiti; made into a jingle for Babybel Cheese and has remained in the brand’s advertising ever since — until it was parodied in 2012 for the teaser trailer of Despicable Me 2.

The Minions’ wacky cover reignited interest in the tune, and it’s now one of the must-watch videos on YouTube.

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For comments or questions, please e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.