Runaway Baby

Composition and production

"Runaway Baby" is a retro funk, soul, bubblegum R&B and pop rock track. Ken Tucker of NPR found hard to categorize the recording. Its instrumentation includes 60's soul finger snaps, police sirens, hand claps and "scratchy guitarlines". According to the digital sheet music published by Alfred Music Publishing, the song was composed in the key of E minor with a tempo of 144 beats per minute. Mars' vocals range spans from the low note of G4 to the high note of B5. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times felt that Mars was trying to "channel" Little Richard and called the track "jumpy" and "salacious" Lyrically, "Runaway Baby" tells women to avoid Mars since he is willing to break their hearts due to being a lady's man, playboy even a "rolling stone" ("Lord knows I'm a rolling stone"). Moreover, there is a comparison established between Mars' penis and a carrot, "So many eager young bunnies...and they all got to share it."

"Runaway Baby" was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, who produced the track under their alias The Smeezingtons, along with Brody Brown. Mars, Levine and Brown played all the instruments on the song. Levine was in charge of engineered the song, which he did at Levcon Studios, in California. The mixing of "Runaway Baby" was done at Larrabee Sound Studios, in North Hollywood by Manny Marroquin, with Christian Plata and Erik Madrid serving as assistants. Stephen Marcussen mastered the song at Marcussen Mastering, in California.

Critical reception

"Runaway Baby" has received mixed reviews from music critics. Luke Gibson from HipHopDX and Entertainment Weekly' Leah Greenblatt considered "Runaway Baby" one of the standouts in the album. The former added that Mars shows his writing skills, despite being so different from the other recordings. While reviewing the album, Harris Decker of the website The Truth About Music praised the song. He found it to be a "rocking, beat driven" that allowed the album to have "a life of its own". Yahoo!'s music critic, Sherri Thornhill, had a mixed opinion towards the track, calling it a "catchy" and "gets your toes tapping", despite not being on of her favorites. Blues & Soul publication found "Runaway Baby" to be inspired in The Jacksons, and "60s rock groove" from Eric Clapton and Cream; dubbing it as "enjoyable even though it's completely vacuous!".

On the other hand, Tim Sendra of AllMusic gave it a negative analysis, "is a pretty cheesy rocker, suffering from clichéd lyrics and production." Alexis Petridis from The Guardian went on to analyze some verses and gave them a harsh review, "Mars compares his penis to a carrot", which could not only lead to speculation regarding its meaning, but also "it's an image that haunts the rest of the song." He continued criticizing as the lyrics tell that "the object of his affections" shouldn't try to connected Mars which could be related to his "carrot-like penis". musicOMH's Jamie Milton felt that the recording was one of the things wrong with the album as at its core "involves throwing everything into the fire", mainly due to its "bad-boy pop-punkrealms".

Commercial performance

Following Mars' performance on The X Factor on October 22, 2011, "Runaway Baby" debuted in three different charts according to the Official Charts Company, on the issue date of October 30, 2011. It entered at number 18 on the United Kingdom, spending 11 weeks on the chart. Moreover, it debuted at number 19 in Scotland and number five at the United Kingdom R&B chart. The song was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In 2012, it entered and peaked at number 66 and 55 on the Canadian Hot 100 and on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. In New Zealand, the single debuted at number 40, peaking at number 35 in its fourth week on the chart.

Live performances and other usage

Mars performed "Runaway Baby" live for the first time on June 24, 2011 at the NBC's Today Show as he danced along with his band. The choreography was inspired by James Brown, and Mars picked up a megaphone to sing some of the lyrics. On October 22, 2011, Mars and his band wore matching red velvet Dolce & Gabbana suits during the song's performance on the results show of The X Factor UK. Robbie Daw of Idolator called the live show "rowdy", while a writer for Rap-Up praised the performance, writing that it "rocked the house" due to his "James Brown funky moves" and singing into a megaphone. Christopher Hooton for Metro opined that Mars "stole the show" with his suit and "dance moves James Brown himself would have been proud of."

On February 12, 2012, Mars performed "Runaway Baby" during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards along with his band, wearing matching shining black-and-gold tuxedos. The stage, which was revealed during the rehearsals, included a wall with light bulbs and a giant marquee, which spelled "Live on Stage Bruno Mars." Furthermore, pyro and giant spotlights were used. The Grammys' executive producer Ken Erhlich wanted Mars to perform the track on the Grammys since he had seen it live. Mars' performance was dedicated to the soon deceased Whitney Houston. Claire Suddath of Time dubbed it as "retro Motown" and enjoyable. She found the James Brown-inspired choreography "spot-on". However, Suddath considered the singer to be "too perfect". She rated Mars' performance a B+. MTV's Jocelyn Vena thought the performance was energetic and "triumphant". Jodi Jill opined that Mars' show manifested energy, which created the expectation that it wouldn’t ever end. She also considered it one of the best performances in the beginning of the show. Jill concluded that Mars did not just want people to watch the performance but also experience it.

At the 2012 Met Gala, Mars performed "Runaway Baby", wearing Prada, with the James Brown breakdown, followed by a medley of covers, which included "Ni**as in Paris", "Roxanne" and "Rock the Boat". Mars also performed a shortened version of the song as part of his Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, with a reference to The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and the James Brown-inspired choreography. Mars rapped the words "give it away, give it away, give it away now" as the Red Hot Chili Peppers made their cameo. American singer and actress Carly Rose Sonenclar covered the song on her YouTube channel. In 2017, Anatalia Villaranda covered "Runaway Baby" during her Blind Audition at the The Voice. Mars also performed the track on The Doo-Wops & Hooligans Tour (2010–12) and The Moonshine Jungle Tour (2013–14). In 2011, the track was used as the opening theme for the film Friends with Benefits and in 2013 it was included on a trailer for the movie Escape from Planet Earth.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Doo-Wops & Hooligans, Elektra Records