Bob Babbitt, bassist for the Funk Brothers dies at 74 CBC Music - Free Streaming Radio, Videos, Songs, Concerts & Playlists

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Bob Babbitt, who played bass with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Alice Cooper, died of brain cancer at the age of 74, reports The Detroit News.

Babbitt was best known as the bass player for Motown’s session band, the Funk Brothers, whose work was celebrated in the 2002 movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

His basslines fueled some of Motown’s biggest hits, including Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” (You can also hear Babbitt perform a solo version of the bassline here.)

Then there was Babbitt's dark bassline that opened the Temptations' 1970 political hit, "Ball of Confusion," a line that continues, relentlessly, throughout the song.

Nothing if not prolific (one writer points out "Bob earned his 25 Gold and Platinum records by playing his ass off on over 200 top 40 hits"), Babbitt's rock-solid bass playing is heard on numerous pop hits outside of the Motown stable too, including Del Shannon's "Little Town Flirt" and "Cool Jerk" by the Capitols, a hit capitalizing on the dance craze known as "the jerk." "Cool Jerk" went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.