The Uncredited Session Bassist For The Cuff Links?

[NickAlexander]

It has taken a few years, but after some extensive research, I believe I have found out who the uncredited session bassist was for the Cuff Links (and possibly the other albums that Paul Vance/Lee Pockriss produced), the group known for playing the hit songs "Tracy" and "When Julie Comes Around".

I can say with 99% certainty that it was Russ Savakus.
There are several factors that I believe prove he was the bassist.
-The biggest piece of evidence I have is both the playing style and tone of his bass. Around 1969, he had a unique sound to his Fender Precision Bass.
-Russ was known to be a bit sloppy on the electric bass, as he was much more comfortable with the upright bass. In The Cuff Links stuff, in some songs, you can hear the same kind of "sloppiness", and even a few mistakes in some songs. I'm not at all saying Russ was a bad bassist by any means. It was just a little "quirk" I picked up in his playing style, in addition to sliding to the next fret in some areas.
-Seeing that the two albums were done in 1969-1970 on the east coast, Russ would've fit right in there. He was active on the east coast as a bassist, especially around 1969-1970.
-Also, the Cuff Links technically had a third album under the name "The Street People", which means Savakus would have most likely played on the hit song Jennifer Tomkins.

I believe I've identified the other session players as well, but since this is a bass forum, I wouldn't want to get off topic unless someone asked.

Anyway, I hope you find this information useful, or at least interesting. If anyone listens to Russ's work and the Cuff Links stuff and notices any similarities, please do let me know. Also note that Andrew "Junior" Denno was just the touring bassist for The Cuff Links, not the studio bassist.

Edit: Here's a link to When Julie Comes Around:

 

[Michedelic]

It has taken a few years, but after some extensive research, I believe I have found out who the uncredited session bassist was for the Cuff Links (and possibly the other albums that Paul Vance/Lee Pockriss produced), the group known for playing the hit songs "Tracy" and "When Julie Comes Around".

I can say with 99% certainty that it was Russ Savakus.
There are several factors that I believe prove he was the bassist.
-The biggest piece of evidence I have is both the playing style and tone of his bass. Around 1969, he had a unique sound to his Fender Precision Bass.
-Russ was known to be a bit sloppy on the electric bass, as he was much more comfortable with the upright bass. In The Cuff Links stuff, in some songs, you can hear the same kind of "sloppiness", and even a few mistakes in some songs. I'm not at all saying Russ was a bad bassist by any means. It was just a little "quirk" I picked up in his playing style, in addition to sliding to the next fret in some areas.
-Seeing that the two albums were done in 1969-1970 on the east coast, Russ would've fit right in there. He was active on the east coast as a bassist, especially around 1969-1970.
-Also, the Cuff Links technically had a third album under the name "The Street People", which means Savakus would have most likely played on the hit song Jennifer Tomkins.

I believe I've identified the other session players as well, but since this is a bass forum, I wouldn't want to get off topic unless someone asked.

Anyway, I hope you find this information useful, or at least interesting. If anyone listens to Russ's work and the Cuff Links stuff and notices any similarities, please do let me know. Also note that Andrew "Junior" Denno was just the touring bassist for The Cuff Links, not the studio bassist.

Edit: Here's a link to When Julie Comes Around:

I never thought that the Cufflinks were actually real, but, as this material sounded like classic bubblegum of the era, I just assumed it was just a studio concoction, with a facade of a band and ringers doing TV shots.
I don’t think those slides were sloppy playing, if anything maybe that him injecting some upright technique. It also doesn’t necessarily sound like a Precision; did he perhaps use a fretless Ampeg bass of some sort(more likely on the east coast in those days)?

 

[NickAlexander]

From my understanding, the Cuff Links had a touring group, which are featured on the album art of their second album, as well as their singles.
I have been able to identify some of the other session players as well;
Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell on guitar (Al told me he thinks he worked on it, and Vinnie Bell's distinctive "watery" guitar sound is on the second album)
Ron Frangipane on keys (His album Rated X for Excitement credits him for working with the Cuff Links)
Bobby Gregg on drums (Cuff Links had a unique drum pattern I've noticed, and I happened to also hear it on the aforementioned album of Ron's)
Since Rupert Holmes was credited for arrangements, I'm pretty sure he contributed keyboards on a few tracks as well.

I'd only say Savakus used a P-Bass because on the albums around this time, I've seen him credited for "Fender Bass". Also, from my understanding, Savakus rarely played electric and was mostly an upright player. Apparently, one session player, Michael Bloomfield, said Savakus was scared of electric bass when playing with Dylan because it was his first day/time doing so. Could definitely be a fretless, though. That would make sense as he was mainly an upright player.
Did Ampeg make basses around that time? I have their amps and they're my favorite!

 

[Michedelic]

Did Ampeg make basses around that time? I have their amps and they're my favorite!

Fender issued a fretless Precision circa 1970, but it was pretty much ignored in that time.
Around ‘59/‘60, Ampeg(who had already tried a ‘stick’ style electric upright, plus the fiberglass upright “Baby Bass”, a hit with Salsa bands), put out a number of quirky bass guitars, fretted and fretless; the Devil Bass:

The AUB/AEB…

…seen used by the Four Seasons, the Band’s Rick Danko, Boz Burrell of Bad Company, and quite few others here and there, then a really rare bird/odd duck, the SSB…

The only time I’ve ever witnessed one was when it was played by Fred Smith of the NYC band, Television.

Even if Savakus was spooked by electric, he played one of the most heard and well-known bass guitar breakdowns/solos on Top 40 radio*…Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.


*and for some reason, one of the most detested songs here on TB

 

[Michedelic]

From my understanding, the Cuff Links had a touring group, which are featured on the album art of their second album, as well as their singles.

After all that, I went to check YT, and came across this video…


I had a laugh, as that backdrop of mountains is one I see often…that’s a golf course in the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley area. I live up in the High Desert, about 40 minutes away.

 

[NickAlexander]

Whoa, those look cool! Reminds me of the Vox Panther I picked up last year.

The unfortunate thing is Russ's equipment has never been well documented. Someone claiming to be his son posted in these forums many years ago, but I don't know their first name, so it's hard to look for them online.

I also just listened to Brown Eyed Girl. Not sure what all the hate would be either, I enjoyed both the song and Russ's bassline.

Regarding the music video, yeah that's the touring band portraying the band. I guess you could say they were a "lesser" version of The Monkees (at least, in terms of popularity). The touring singer, Joey Cord (real name Joe Costa) actually did sing on the second album. He's one of my favorite singers, but you just can't beat Archie himself Ron Dante (singer on the first album, Tracy).

I recently picked up an obscure record also produced by Vance/Pockriss called Jonathan Swift. He only did one album, but a few of these tracks are actually the same backing track used in the Cuff Links versions. If I can acquire the single he did for Afraid Of Tomorrow, I might put them on YouTube, as it's a highly obscure album that I can't find all the tracks online. The rest of the songs on that album also sound like Savakus. Pretty good album, though Swift's singing is a bit spotty in some places.

 

[Michedelic]

Whoa, those look cool! Reminds me of the Vox Panther I picked up last year.

The unfortunate thing is Russ's equipment has never been well documented. Someone claiming to be his son posted in these forums many years ago, but I don't know their first name, so it's hard to look for them online.

I also just listened to Brown Eyed Girl. Not sure what all the hate would be either, I enjoyed both the song and Russ's bassline.

Regarding the music video, yeah that's the touring band portraying the band. I guess you could say they were a "lesser" version of The Monkees (at least, in terms of popularity). The touring singer, Joey Cord (real name Joe Costa) actually did sing on the second album. He's one of my favorite singers, but you just can't beat Archie himself Ron Dante (singer on the first album, Tracy).

I recently picked up an obscure record also produced by Vance/Pockriss called Jonathan Swift. He only did one album, but a few of these tracks are actually the same backing track used in the Cuff Links versions. If I can acquire the single he did for Afraid Of Tomorrow, I might put them on YouTube, as it's a highly obscure album that I can't find all the tracks online. The rest of the songs on that album also sound like Savakus. Pretty good album, though Swift's singing is a bit spotty in some places.

The “BEG” thing, along with “Mustang Sally”(and in more recent times, perhaps “Sweet Caroline”)is just something of a joke that’s been run into the ground here, the premise that those are are overperformed songs that every bar band musician cringes about having to play. But do those really get demanded? The original demographic audience for those tunes is now headed to the retirement homes instead of bars, “Sally” is just a blues structure, how is it any worse than, say, “Midnight Hour”, and there are more heinous overexposed tunes of the last 20-35 years that would make my skin crawl. I’ve always used “…Girl” as a warm-up exercise.
The Cufflinks live band as ringers for a studio project situation isn’t exactly like the Monkees(who were all experienced musicians or actors, but were manipulated, and did go out on the road), but more like the origins of the Grass Roots, where not one but two different nobody bands were hired to “be” the group, after the earliest records that featured writer PF Sloan and some Wrecking Crew peeps.

 

[tim gueguen]

I recently picked up an obscure record also produced by Vance/Pockriss called Jonathan Swift. He only did one album, but a few of these tracks are actually the same backing track used in the Cuff Links versions. If I can acquire the single he did for Afraid Of Tomorrow, I might put them on YouTube, as it's a highly obscure album that I can't find all the tracks online. The rest of the songs on that album also sound like Savakus. Pretty good album, though Swift's singing is a bit spotty in some places.

That sounds like the kind of thing the East Coast kings of bubblegum, Super K Productions, did. For example they put out a version of "Simon Says" by Ohio Express that was just the 1910 Fruitgum Company's version with vocals by Joey Levine(the singer on most Ohio Express singles) replacing the original lead vocals.

 

[NickAlexander]

The “BEG” thing, along with “Mustang Sally”(and in more recent times, perhaps “Sweet Caroline”)is just something of a joke that’s been run into the ground here, the premise that those are are overperformed songs that every bar band musician cringes about having to play. But do those really get demanded? The original demographic audience for those tunes is now headed to the retirement homes instead of bars, “Sally” is just a blues structure, how is it any worse than, say, “Midnight Hour”, and there are more heinous overexposed tunes of the last 20-35 years that would make my skin crawl. I’ve always used “…Girl” as a warm-up exercise.
The Cufflinks live band as ringers for a studio project situation isn’t exactly like the Monkees(who were all experienced musicians or actors, but were manipulated, and did go out on the road), but more like the origins of the Grass Roots, where not one but two different nobody bands were hired to “be” the group, after the earliest records that featured writer PF Sloan and some Wrecking Crew peeps.

Oh yeah, I was just comparing them to the Monkees in the sense that maybe one or two of the people were "real" singers (in this case, Joey Cord/Joe Costa) but the actual instrumentation was performed by session musicians.
I wonder if The Cufflinks were originally intended to compete with the Monkees? If so, they weren't very good competition, but I love the band anyway. I think Joey was an underrated singer. Though in my Japanese copy of the second album, it seems he received more success in Japan than in the States. (One of the singles he did solo, Bulky Knit Sweater, was released in Japan, which I also have.)

I wonder if I should send Rupert Holmes (the Pina Colada guy) another e-mail about this, and see if he responds regarding the other session personnel. Since their discography is quite small, I've been on a quest to transcribe all Cuff Links songs. I'd say I've got around 75% transcribed. I can sightread, but not too fast, and unfortunately, a lot of Russ's lines are a bit too fast for me, haha. Although Tracy is a pretty easy one to play. Though I suspect Joe Mack played on Tracy, especially with listening to the isolated bass track. But I do notice Russ and Mack have some similarities in their style from what I've studied, so who knows. Holmes actually used Mack on his Pursuit of Happiness album in which he got an acknowledgement for passing away before the album released.)

Sorry for my rambling! I'm just so fascinated with all this...

 

[NickAlexander]

That sounds like the kind of thing the East Coast kings of bubblegum, Super K Productions, did. For example they put out a version of "Simon Says" by Ohio Express that was just the 1910 Fruitgum Company's version with vocals by Joey Levine(the singer on most Ohio Express singles) replacing the original lead vocals.

Oh yeah, I noticed that too when I got my Ohio Express CD and saw that they played Simon Says, and was surprised when I heard the same backing track. Same as when 1910 did Yummy Yummy Yummy.