| The Cake | |
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The Cake |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New York, United States |
| Genres | Baroque pop Psychedelic pop R&B Blue-eyed soul |
| Years active | 1966–1968, 2006 |
| Labels | Decca |
| Members | |
| Jeanette Jacobs (deceased) Barbara Morillo Eleanor Barooshian |
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The Cake are a 1960s girl group made up of Jeanette Jacobs, Barbara Morillo and Eleanor Barooshian. They were managed and produced by Greene & Stone, two Sunset Strip impresarios who also managed Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield and Iron Butterfly.
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The Cake formed in New York in 1966, starting out as an a cappella vocal group singing at Steve Paul's The Scene. Barooshian and Morillo both appeared in You Are What You Eat, a 1967 documentary film produced by Peter Yarrow. In the film, Barooshian performed the Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe" with Tiny Tim. She sang the male part, while Tiny Tim sang the female.
What set The Cake apart from other girl groups of the time is that they recorded their own material, as well as a number of R&B standards. Their own songs were in the vein of 1960s baroque pop with intricate madrigal-style vocal harmonies. They released two albums on Decca Records, The Cake (1967) and A Slice Of Cake (1968). Both were recorded at the Gold Star Recording Studios in Los Angeles.
Their debut single was the Jack Nitzsche and Jackie De Shannon penned song, "Baby, That's Me". The production of the song, which was arranged by Harold Battiste, aped the Wall of Sound technique created by Nitzsche and Phil Spector. The Cake also contributed back-up vocals to "Why Are We Sleeping?", the closing track on The Soft Machine, the 1968 debut album by the British psychedelic rock band of the same name.[1]
Following the break-up of The Cake in 1968, Jacobs and Barooshian toured with Dr John, who was one of the session musicians on their albums, and subsequently moved to the UK, where they became part of Ginger Baker's Air Force.[1] Barooshian also recorded an album in Japan with Tetsu Yamauchi.
Jacobs married Chris Wood of the English group Traffic in 1969. Jeanette Jacobe-Wood died on January 1, 1982, aged 32.[1]
In 2006, after a thirty seven year year hiatus, Barooshian and Morillo reformed The Cake, to perform at a one-off Jimi Hendrix tribute concert in New York, organized by Hendrix archivist and documentary film-maker, David J. Kramer. The show also featured Buddy Miles, Johnny Winter, Jose Feliciano and Leon Hendrix. Their two Decca albums have been re-released on CD by Rev-Ola Records.