B-side "Oh My Love" Format 7" single Length 2:08 | Released April 24, 1959 Recorded March 6, 1959 | |
Genre Soul, rhythm and blues, doo-wop | ||
"There Goes My Baby" is a song written by Ben E. King (Benjamin Nelson), Lover Patterson, George Treadwell, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller, and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for The Drifters. This was the first single by the second incarnation of the Drifters (previously known as the 5 Crowns), who assumed the group name in 1958 after manager George Treadwell fired the remaining members of the original lineup.
Contents
Leiber and Stoller used a radically different approach to production than Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler had employed with the original Clyde McPhatter-led Drifters. The combination of new style and new group fit, and the song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard R&B chart and on the Cash Box sales chart for two weeks, in the summer of 1959. The Atlantic Records release was King's debut recording as lead singer of the group.
The song was included in the musical revue "Smokey Joe's Cafe".
Song
The lyrics are loosely structured, almost free-form at a time when rhyming lines were mandatory. The accompaniment features a violin section playing saxophone-like riffs in rock and roll style. The lead voice is in high gospel-style.
Legacy
This recording introduced the idea of using strings, a Brazilian baion and elaborate production values on an R&B recording to enhance the emotional power of black music. This pointed the way to the coming era of soul music as the popularity of the doo-wop vocal groups peaked and faded. Phil Spector studied this production model under Leiber and Stoller.
In 2010, the song is ranked #196 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song has been covered by many artists, including Jay and the Americans.
Donna Summer version
Donna Summer's version of "There Goes My Baby" was the first single from her 1984 album Cats Without Claws. The single became a moderate hit, peaking at #21 on the US Hot 100, and in the top twenty of the US R&B chart. It also peak #15 in Spain Radio chart.Summer's version of this song features an electro-pop sound and was accompanied by a high-quality music video featuring Summer and husband Bruce Sudano as a down-on-their-luck couple at the outbreak of World War II. The video was played in heavy rotation on the MTV network, showing MTV's continued support of Summer as an artist. With this single, Summer earned her nineteenth - and second to last - US Top 40 hit.