The “Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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Johnny Cymbal
“MR. BASS MAN”
(JOHNNY CYMBAL)
Kapp 503
No. 16 April 13, 1963
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Johnny Cymbal is best known for his 1963 doo-wop tribute hit “Mr. Bass Man.” Few fans know that after
numerous recordings-many under assumed names Cymbal would return to the Top 40 listings in the late
’60s with his recording of the million-selling “Cinnamon (Let Me In);’ under the name of”Derek:’
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Two-time One-Hit Wonder Cymbal eventually turned his attentions elsewhere. He became the music
director for the “Partridge Family” and the cartoon show “Catnooga Cats:’ He produced Gene Pitney and
Mae West recordings, wrote tunes for Bette Midler, Reba Mcintire, Terri Gibbs, and Elvis Presley. It was
Presley who made a major hit out of Cymbal’s”Mary in the Morning.”
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During his brief life-stay not much was written on Johnny Cymbal. “It’s been said that I led a band at the
age of seven. Now, that’s a nice story,”said Cymbal, who was born in Ochitree, Scodand, on February 3,
1945.”It didn’t happen that way, but it’s a nice story. . .. I mean, my life didn’t start until I was about 13 or
so when I saw this band in our town square [in Goderich, Ontario]. Only then did I get the idea of singing;
And the next week, I was up there with them, ah, singing ‘My Buck et’s Got a Hole in It.” That was my first
song. After that I learned how to play the guitar some by watching this country show on TV:‘
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In the late ’50s, John almost got placed with Cameo Parkway, but the label found out he lived in Canada
and thought it would be too much of a hassle getting him around.
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“The next year my folks moved to Cleveland, and I met this fellow through one of those song-poem things-
you know, that you’d see in the backs of teen mags-that read ‘We’ll put your song to music.Send us your
poems: There was really something to it, and this guy liked me and brought me to this big DJ [atWWIN] in
Baltimore, Jack Gale; who later became my manager. He had me sing at a hop that very night …The kids
just went crazy. I just played guitar and it was the wildest thing I had ever seen. There happened to be a
promo tion man there and the next thing I knew I was signed to MGM and sent to Nashville to record.”
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“The Water Is Red” was his second release for MGM. “Yeah, yeah, it was tacky, wasn’t it?”said Cymbal
between choked laughter. In this 2 1/2-minute tale the girl of all of our dreams is eaten by a hungry shark.
The record stirred some scattered radio action and some stomachs, too. “Jim Vinneau, my producer, had
just done [Mark Dinning’s] ‘Teen Angel; and he was convinced that death songs were the new thing. It didn’t
sell well enough so that was my last record for MGM. I thought, I was a has-been at 17.”
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.Singles later, Cymbal again almost had a hit on Kedlen with the Bobby Vee-ish “Bachelor Man.” “That was
only a demo I made out in California;’ said Cymbal. “It wasn’t suppose to be sold. I learned somebody also
gave it to VeeJay, and they issued it, too. Now, I never saw any money on that one.”
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A switch to Kapp Records and John finally had his big moment with his first release, the self-penned “Mr.
Bass Man:’The tune with the throw-back sound was an up-tempo praise for that dwindling breed, the doo
wop bass man. “I had wrote this tribute song before I was with the Kapp;’ he said. “I took it to New York.
Columbia Records was interested, but it took them too long to decide, or something. The bass part on that
record is done by Ronnie Bright. He’d been in the Valentines and the Cadillacs and was the bass guy you
hear on Barry Mann’s ‘Who Put the Bomp?”‘
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For his follow-up, Johnny got himself into another tear-tumbler. “Teenage Heaven” (#58, Billboard’s Hot
100) told of all those eventual dead rock’n’rollers Elvis, Ricky …-condemned to live out eternity locked in
the bodies and minds of lusting teenagers. What a vision! Some radio stations rode this number like it had a
satin saddle, others tossed it in the can. And again some sensitive stomachs were turned. “Ah, yeah, it was
another dead and dyin’ one,” Cymbal said. “Course listening to it now it’s, ah, all too real. Anyway, it failed
to do it. So, again I was a has-been:’
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Kapp Records ran out of patience, and Johnny moved to Don Costa’s DCP label, then switched to Columbia
and Musicor (“I don’t even remember that;’ said Cymbal. “I recorded for them, huh?”), and eventually he
moved to the Amaret label. Nothing more charted. Cymbal’s attention shifted to producing, writing, and
occasionally appearing as a studio-only act-John ny recorded some tracks as Milk for the bubblegum
Buddah label. Milk soured, but not so for some sides Cymbal had issued as by “Derek” for Bang Records.
John’s co-written “Cinnamon (Let Me In)” returned him nearly to the Top 10 in 1968.
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“I had just wrote ‘Mary in the Morning,’ probably the most successful song I’ve written;’ he said. “And I had
the deal to produce Gene Pitney and some other acts. I did the vocals on ‘Cinnamon; but I thought, ‘I can’t
go out on the road and produce these things as well:So my brother Derek, who was a part of my band, at the
time, went out as me…. At the time, there was three different Crystals and two different Drifters, so it
seemed okay to have two different Dereks.”
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Other than the follow-up, “Back Door Man;’ which charted at #59 on Billboard, future Derek disks sold like
duds. “The name had run its course,” he said. “And my brother had gone out as me, as Derek, and hated it
all. So, we were stuck without an act. By then, I was producing Mae West and the Partridge Family, so I just
shelved the whole Derek idea:’
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Late in 1969, Johnny pulled some more name changes when he recorded as Taurus for Tower Records and
then Brother John for A & M and … Months later, he struck up a relationship with Peggy Clinger, of the
Clinger Sisters, a four sibling act that had appeared as regulars on the “Smothers Brothers Show.” “They
were to the “Smothers Show” what the Osmonds were to the “Andy Williams Show;’ Cymbal explained.
“Peggy and I got together and wrote ‘Rock Me Baby’ for David Cassidy:’For a few years, records were issued
by Cymbal & Clinger.
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