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Cobb salad
The songwriter and producer who mixed preppy pop, soul and garage rock.
By Jim Irvin.
Time lords: (clockwise from top left) Chocolate Watch Band – Ed Cobb produced their debut album
No Way Out
; The Standells, led by singing drummer Dick Dodd, hit big with Cobb’s Dirty Water; The Four Preps, with Cobb (far right), backing Rick Nelson.
Getty (3)
WITH ITS BIG, school-hall piano intro and smooth harmony vocals, Big Man by The Four Preps – co-written by two of the group, Bruce Belland and Glen A Larson – was as white and polite as they came in 1958, the year the band scored four hits in the US. It reached Number 2 in the UK. The Four Preps have two notable alumni. Larson later became the TV producer responsible for Alias Smith & Jones, Battlestar Gallactica, Quincy, Magnum PI and more, and bass player Ed Cobb had a major impact in a different area of music, which is why we’re here today.