Fred Fassert

Second tenor for the Bronx doo-wop group, The Regents, Fassert was the composer of the group's biggest hit, "Barbara Ann," written in 1958 and named for Fassert's baby sister. The group booked an hour of studio time that year at Associated Studios in Manhattan for $15 and recorded a song called "A Teenager's Love," which took about 50 minutes of the hour to complete. "Barbara Ann" was recorded in three takes during the remaining 10 minutes. When The Regents failed that year to secure a contract to release either song, the group disbanded, but three years later, in 1961, an original member had joined another band and re-recorded "Barbara Ann" for his new group. A small record company heard the song and liked it but also heard the original 1958 demo by The Regents and preferred the original, releasing it locally in New York City, where it shot to number 1 by March of 1961. The song was then leased to Gee Records, a subsidiary label of the large national record label Roulette, and hit number 13 on the Billboard charts a short time later. Fassert and the original Regents regrouped but broke up shortly thereafter when they failed to follow up the song with another hit. The Regents perform today with a couple of the original members, but Fassert is not among them. He went on to find success in marketing and promotion for various recording companies over the years such as ABC/Dunhill Records, where he helped to further the careers of The Mamas and Papas, Steppenwolf, Isaac Hayes, Jim Croce, Three Dog Night, Chaka Khan, Bobby Bland, and B.B. King. In the late 1980s and into the 1990's, he became involved in the rap and hip-hop genres as VP of National Marketing & Sales for Macola Records, where he handled the debuts of N.W.A., Eazy-E, Ice-Cube, Dr. Dre, Yella, Comptons Most Wanted, Timex Social Club, The Wreckin' Kru, Tony! Toni! Tone! and the debut single of MC Hammer. In 1980, at the height of the Iranian hostage crisis, Dallas party cover band Vince Vance & The Valiants had a novelty hit with a version of Fassert's "Barbara Ann" in which they changed the title and lyrics to "Bomb Iran." The song was "covered" in April 2007 by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain at a South Carolina VFW rally. Challenged with a question about "when are we going to send an air message to Iran," McCain started by singing a few bars of "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb...," stopping just short of the word "Iran." Ironically, Fassert is of Iranian descent. As of 2007, Fassert is currently Executive Director of Music Videos for M Creative Group in Woodland Hills, CA.