Bob Babbittt is well known as a member of the legendary Motown Records’ studio band, the Funk Brothers, The band that featured in the 2002 documentary film Standing in the Shadows of Motown directed by Paul Justman.
Bob has played on over 200 Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits, for Motown and other labels as well.
Among Bob’s most notable bass performances are “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder, “War” by Edwin Starr, “The Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Inner City Blues” by Marvin Gaye, and “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)” by The Temptations. He has participated in hundreds of other hits, including “Little Town Flirt” by Del Shannon, “I Got a Name” by Jim Croce, “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight & the Pips, “Scorpio” by Dennis Coffey & the Detroit Guitar Band, Supernatural Thing by Ben E. King and “(The) Rubberband Man” by The Spinners.and also played on the Jimi Hendrix album Crash Landing
Here Bob exclusively tells SMILER about his involvement in Rod’s new album Soulbook-
I thought the tracks I did with the band that Steve Jordan had on the sessions were smoking!
I overdubbed three of the tracks in Nashville with Steve’s engineer Nico Bolas…While we were recording Steve called me and told me that he had told Rod I was overdubbing on some of the tracks and Rod told him to fly me out to LA to record more tracks…We recorded three more tracks in LA with Steve producing and playing Drums, Ray Parker Jr. and Dean Parks playing Guitar and keyboard players Gregg Philingame and I think the other keyboard player first name was Mike….I thought someone said that he was Michael Jackson’s musical director…Nico Bolas was the engineer and the sound was fantastic! My only regret was that I did not get to meet Rod but hopefully in the future…I got an email today from one of my relatives saying they had purchased the CD today and that it was awesome!!!……..Bob Babbitt
