'Long before Brian Wilson bleated it with his brothers, Fred Fassert wrote 'Barbara-Ann' for his sister, then gave it to his younger brother, Charles who sang second tenor for a group that began its Bronx mini-career as the Desires in 1956. Given its raucous silliness, Fred may have intended only a typical brother-sister taunt, a travesty of the real Barbara-Ann's high school social ambitions. But when the renamed Regents - Guy Villari on the breathless falsetto lead, along with Sal Cuomo, Don Jacobucci, Tony 'Hot Rod' Gravagna and Charles Fasset - got hold of it, the song took on new life as a gasping expression of total teen desire. Barbara-Ann becomes not a name but a noise ('ba ba ba ba barbaran'), a sound synonymous with rapture. The saxman clearly agrees.'
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