Baby I'm Yours (Barbara Lewis song)

"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Barbara Lewis
from the album Baby I'm Yours
B-side "I Say Love"
Released 1965
Format 7" single
Genre R&B
Length 2:30
Label Atlantic
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Bert Berns, Ollie McLaughlin
Barbara Lewis singles chronology
"Pushin' a Good Thing Too Far"
(1964)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1965)		 "Make Me Your Baby"
(1965)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Peter and Gordon
from the album Lady Godiva
B-side "When The Black Of Your Eyes Turns To Grey"
Released 1965
Recorded Abbey Road Studios
Genre Pop
Length 2:39
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Norman Newell
Peter and Gordon singles chronology
"To Know You is to Love You"
(1965)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1965)		 "Woman"
(1966)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Cass Elliot
from the album Cass Elliot
B-side "Cherries Jubilee"
Released February 1972
Recorded 1971
Genre Pop
Length 2:28
Label RCA
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Lewis Merenstein
Cass Elliot singles chronology
"Too Much Truth, Too Much Love"
(with Dave Mason)
(1971)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1972)		 "That Song"
(1972)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Linda Lewis
B-side "The Other Side"
Released March 19, 1976
Recorded Media Sound, NYC
Genre Disco
Length 3:37
Label Arista
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Bert DeCoteaux, Tony Silvester
Linda Lewis singles chronology
"Rock and Roller Coaster"
(1975)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1976)		 "This Time I'll Be Sweeter"
(1976)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Jody Miller
from the album He's So Fine
B-side Good Lovin' (Makes It Right)
Released September 1 1971
Format 45 rpm record
Recorded June 16 1971
Genre Countrypolitan
Length 3:09
Label Epic Records
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Billy Sherrill
Jody Miller singles chronology
"He's So Fine"
(1971)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1971)		 "Be My Baby"
(1972)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Debby Boone
from the album You Light Up My Life
B-side God Knows
Released September 1 1971
Format 45 rpm record
Recorded 1978
Genre Easy listening
Length 3:09
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Michael Lloyd, Mike Curb
Debby Boone singles chronology
"California"
(1978)		 "Baby I'm Yours"/"God Knows"
(1978)		 "When You're Loved"
(1978)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Tanya Tucker
from the album Changes
B-side I Don't Want You to Go
Released July 1983
Format 45 rpm record
Recorded 1982
Genre Countrypolitan
Length 3:31
Label Arista Records
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) David Malloy
Tanya Tucker singles chronology
"Changes"
(1982)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1983)		 "One Love at a Time"
(1986)
"Baby I'm Yours"
Single by Cher
from the album Mermaids Soundtrack
Released 1990
Recorded 1990
Genre Pop rock
Length 3:19
Label Geffen
Writer(s) Van McCoy
Producer(s) Peter Asher
Cher European singles chronology
"You Wouldn't Know Love"
(1990)		 "Baby I'm Yours"
(1990)		 "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)"
(1990)

"Baby I'm Yours" is a song written by Van McCoy which was a hit in 1965 for Barbara Lewis (US) and Peter & Gordon (UK).

Barbara Lewis version

Barbara Lewis first recorded "Baby I'm Yours" in a January 8, 1965 Atlantic Recording Studios (NYC) session "directed by" Bert Berns with the producer credit assigned to Lewis's manager Ollie McLaughlin. The session for the track featured George "Teacho" Wiltshire conducting his orchestra whose personnel included Clark Terry and Dud Bascomb (trumpets), Jimmy Cleveland and Tony Studd (trombones), Frank Haywood Henry (baritone sax), Charlie Brown (tenor sax), Paul Griffith (piano), Bill Suyker (guitar), Jimmy Lewis (bass), and Gary Chester (drums): the harmony background vocals on the track were provided by the song's composer, Van McCoy, singing with Kendra Spotswood.

Barbara Lewis has stated that Van McCoy wrote "Baby I'm Yours" specifically for her: when she first heard the demo for "Baby I'm Yours" Lewis disliked the song - she has suggested that she actually was daunted by the high quality of the vocal, by McCoy himself, on the demo - [1] and at the original session "I didn't really put 100% into my vocal performance" hoping that Atlantic would shelve the track as sub-par: "Ollie [McLaughlin] told me 'Barbara, we're gonna have to go back to Detroit and dub you in. We gotta do your vocals over. You're just not giving like you should on the song.' We did several takes [in Detroit] and he was wondering 'How am I going to get this girl to give? She's so hard-headed.' He said 'You know, Barbara, Karen can sing that song better than you.' That was his little daughter. And it pissed me off. I did one more take, and that was the take that they selected."[2]

Released in April 1965, Lewis' "Baby I'm Yours" enjoyed staggered regional success exemplified by the single reaching #1 in Detroit as early as June 1965 and peaking at #4 in Chicago that August: the national peak of the single was #11 achieved on the Hot 100 in Billboard dated August 21, 1965. "Baby I'm Yours" afforded Lewis a #5 R&B chart hit.

UK single versions

1965

The first UK recording of "Baby I'm Yours" was made by the Paramounts at Abbey Road Studio in the summer of 1965: however the track went unreleased until their 1998 compilation release The Paramounts at Abbey Road 1963 to 1970 while a higher-profile act also on the Columbia [UK]1 roster: Peter and Gordon, had the UK hit version of "Baby I'm Yours", released October 15, 1965 to reach #19 UK, the Peter and Gordon version of "Baby I'm Yours" having been recorded in an Abbey Road session produced by Norman Newell and featuring Big Jim Sullivan on guitar.[3] Peter Asher - who was partnered with Gordon Waller as Peter and Gordon - would recall: "We did 'Baby I’m Yours' because I loved the original Barbara Lewis record".[4]

"Baby I'm Yours" is unique among Peter and Gordon singles as their sole collaboration with arranger Tony Osborne who took over from the duo's original regular collaborator Geoff Love (subsequent to "Baby I'm Yours" Peter and Gordon regularly collaborated with arranger/conductor Bob Leaper). Also in deference to the US success of the Barbara Lewis version, Capitol Records - Peter and Gordon's US label of release - did not issue the duo's "Baby I'm Yours" single, the Peter and Gordon US single release concurrent with their UK "Baby I'm Yours" single release being "Don't Pity Me" a composition by the duo which peaked at #83. "Baby I'm Yours" was thus the first Peter and Gordon UK single not be released concurrently in the US - that scenario would re-occur once, with Peter and Gordon's April 1968 UK single release "I Feel Like Going Out".

Later versions

In May 1976 "Baby I'm Yours" reached #33 UK via a disco remake by Linda Lewis who in 1967 had chosen Lewis as her professional surname in honor of Barbara Lewis, the original singer of "Baby I'm Yours".[5] Recorded subsequent to Lewis' 1975 album Not a Little Girl Anymore and not included on her next album release: Woman Overboard (1977), "Baby I'm Yours" was included as a bonus track on the 2001 CD release of Not a Little Girl Anymore.

In 2006 "Baby I'm Yours" served as the B-side of Arctic Monkeys' UK hit "Leave Before the Lights Come On" (#4); that version featured the 747's with shared vocals by Arctic Monkeys' lead singer Alex Turner and the 747s' lead singer Oisin Leech.

C&W hit versions

"Baby I'm Yours" would reach the C&W Top 40 three times via remakes by Jody Miller, Debby Boone, and Tanya Tucker, with Miller and Boone's remakes ranking in the lower Pop charts.

Jody Miller recorded "Baby I'm Yours" with producer Billy Sherrill 1in a June 16 1971 session at the Columbia studio in Nashville for inclusion on the album He's So Fine, entitled for Miller's current Top Ten C&W remake of the Chiffons' 1963 #1 hit: Miller's recording of "Baby I'm Yours" featured the Jordanaires chorale. Impressed by the 1968 Tammy Wynette hit "Stand By Your Man", Miller had contacted that track's producer Billy Sherrill in the hopes of reviving her own flagging recording career and after Look at Mine, Miller's first album in Sherrill's charge, generated two Top Twenty C&W hits in 1970 Sherrill opted for a new musical direction for Miller who recalls: ""He said I didn't phrase my words like a country singer, so we took some old, sexy pop songs and put in a little boppy steel guitar".[6] (Miller's third Sherrill-produced album There's a Party Going On would generate C&W hit remakes of the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him is to Love Him".) Issued September 1 1971 as the second single off He's So Fine, "Baby I'm Yours" reached #5 C&W and afforded Miller her fifth and final Hot 100 showing with a Hot 100 peak of #91.

Debby Boone recorded "Baby I'm Yours" in the summer of 1977 with the track included on Boone's album You Light Up My Life: issued as a single in March 1978 with "God Knows", a track from Boone's Midstream album, as its flip side, Boone's "Baby I'm Yours" peaked at #33 C&W while on the Hot 100 the track peaked at #74 in a tandem ranking with "God Knows".

Tanya Tucker recorded "Baby I'm Yours" for her sole Arista album release Changes from which it was issued as the third single in July 1983 to peak at #22 C&W in 1983.

Cher version

Background

Cher remade "Baby I'm Yours" for the soundtrack of her 1990 film vehicle Mermaids; her version - arranged to replicate Barbara Lewis' hit and produced by Peter Asher who as a member of Peter and Gordon had had the UK hit of "Baby I'm Yours" - was not featured in the film but was elected as the lead single from the soundtrack for release in the UK and Europe after the US single release "The Shoop Shoop Song" - which as remade by Cher had played under the film's closing credits - fell short of the Billboard Top Thirty. "Baby I'm Yours" failed as a single - its only apparent charting was in the UK at #89 - but it was decided to follow it up with the single release of "The Shoop Shoop Song" in the spring of 1991 and this single - which utilized "Baby I'm Yours" as B-side - spent five weeks at #1 in the UK and achieved Top Ten status in several European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand; click for chart specifics. (Coincidentally the precedent charting single to Linda Lewis 1976 UK hit remake of "Baby I'm Yours" had been the first major UK hit version of "The Shoop Shoop Song", entitled "It's in His Kiss".)

Formats and track listings

"Baby I'm Yours" European CD single

  1. Baby I'm Yours
  2. Hard Enough Getting Over You
  3. Just Like Jesse James

"Baby I'm Yours" European 7" single

  1. A: Baby I'm Yours
  2. B: Hard Enough Getting Over You

Other versions

The song's composer Van McCoy produced a recording of "Baby I'm Yours" by Chris Bartley which was a non-charting 1968 single release.

Cass Elliot's remake of "Baby I'm Yours" was released in February 1972 at the same time as its parent album Cass Elliot produced by Lewis Merenstein and arranged/conducted by Benny Golson. The album was Elliot's debut for RCA Victor who insisted on "Baby I'm Yours" release as the lead single over Elliott and Merenstein's choice: "That Song" a new song by Bill Dean which would be given single release in April 1972.[7] Neither "Baby I'm Yours" or "That Song" afforded Elliot an appearance on a Billboard chart: however Elliot's "Baby I'm Yours" charted on the Canadian Adult Contemporary hitlist peaking at #18.

"Baby I'm Yours" has also been recorded by Cilla Black (album Cilla Sings a Rainbow/ 1966), Petula Clark (album Now/ 1972), Donny Gerrard (album The Romantic/ 1999), Jack Jones (album For The "In" Crowd/ 1966), the Jones Girls (album On Target/ 1983), June Lodge (album Someone Loves You Honey/ 1980), KC and the Sunshine Band (album The Painter/ 1981), Diane Marino (featuring Houston Person: album Just Groovin'/ 2008), Maureen McGovern (album Baby I'm Yours/ 1992), Nilsson (in medley with "Just One Look": duet with Lynda Laurence: album ...That's the Way It Is/ 1976), Dianne Steinberg (album Universal Child/ 1977), Bobby Vee (in medley with "Make It Easy on Yourself": album 30 Big Hits of the '60's, Vol. 2/ 1966), Bobby Vinton (album My Elusive Dreams1/ 1970), and Kim Weston (album It Should Have Been Me/ 1998). In 1996, Phoebe Snow and Avenue Blue (featuring Jeff Golub) released their version on their album Naked City.

A French-language rendering of "Baby I'm Yours" entitled "Je T'appartiens" was a 1965 single release by Pierre Lalonde and was included on Lalonde's 1966 album release Louise. (This is an exceptional use of the title "Je T'appartiens" which is generally understood to refer to the French-language original of "Let It Be Me".)

Soundtrack appearances

The Barbara Lewis rendition of "Baby I'm Yours" was featured in the 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County being included on the soundtrack album. The Barbara Lewis rendition is also featured in the TV-films The Midnight Hour (1985) and An American Crime (2007).

In the 1999 film The Other Sister, "Baby I'm Yours" is performed at an engagement party by a cappella group Double Dare featuring Mary Lou Metzger.[8]

In the episode of the NBC-TV series American Dreams entitled "And Promises to Keep" broadcast September 28, 2003 Barbara Lewis - portrayed by Vanessa Soul - is seen rehearsing "Baby I'm Yours" for an American Bandstand performance.

In the 2009 film Last Chance Harvey, "Baby I'm Yours" is apparently performed live at a wedding reception although the track was in fact recorded by a session group credited as Loser's Lounge none of whose members appear in the film: the track was produced and arranged by Joe McGinty, heard on piano, while the vocalist is Connie Petruk [9]

Charts

Barbara Lewis (1965) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 11
U.S. Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles 5
Canada RPM Top Singles 7
Peter & Gordon (1965) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 19
Jody Miller (1971) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 91
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 5
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 21
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 8
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks 25
Cass Elliot (1972) Peak
position
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks 18
Linda Lewis (1976) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 33
Debby Boone (1978) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 74
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 18
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 33
Tanya Tucker (1983) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 22
Cher (1990) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 89

References

  1. ↑ Lewis, Barbara (August 2007). interview, Barbara Lewis. Interview with Ronnie Allen. Ronnie Allen Show.
  2. ↑ "Liner Notes for Barbara Lewis's The Complete Atlantic Singles". Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  3. ↑ overzeal.co.uk
  4. ↑ "Peter Asher Interview". PennyBlackMusic.co.uk. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ Lewis, Linda (July 3, 2007). Interview with Alex Dyke. Big Al Unleashed. Isle of Wight Radio. Missing or empty |title= (help);
  6. ↑ "Blanchard's Jody Miller Prepares to Hit the Road With Daughter". News.OK.com. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  7. ↑ Fiegel, Eddi (2005). Dream a Little Dream of Me: the life of "Mama" Cass Elliot. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 336. ISBN 0-283-07331-4.
  8. ↑ http://www.rocklandsentertainment.com/.../MARYLOUMETZGERbio.doc
  9. ↑ http://joemcginty.typepad.com/rastro3/2009/01/baby-im-yourslast-chance-harvey.html

7. ^ http://aln2.albumlinernotes.com/Atlantic_-_Volume_Five.html

External links