There Goes My Baby (The Drifters song) explained

There Goes My Baby
Type:single
Artist:The Drifters
Album:The Drifters' Greatest Hits
B-Side:Oh My Love
Released:April 24, 1959
Recorded:March 6, 1959
Genre:Soul, rhythm and blues, doo-wop
Label:Atlantic
Producer:Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Prev Title:Drip Drop
Prev Year:1958
Next Title:(If You Cry) True Love, True Love"/"Dance with Me
Next Year:1959

"There Goes My Baby" is a song written by Ben E. King (Benjamin Earl Nelson), Lover Patterson, George Treadwell 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. The Atlantic Records release was Ben E. King's debut recording as the lead singer of the group.

History

Leiber and Stoller used a radically different approach to production from what 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, behind "A Big Hunk o' Love" by Elvis Presley.[1] "There Goes My Baby" also hit number one on the Billboard R&B chart.[2] On the Cash Box sales chart, it likewise went to number one for two weeks, in the summer of 1959.

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.[3]

(There goes my baby) Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh

(There goes my baby) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(There goes my baby) Whoa-oh-oh-oh

(There she goes) Yeah! (There she goes)[4]

Legacy

This recording introduced the idea of using strings, a Brazilian baion and elaborate production values[4] on an R&B recording to enhance the emotional power of black music. The string arrangement is by Stan Applebaum.[5] 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.[6]

In 2010, the song was ranked #196 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[7] The song has been covered by many artists, including Jay and the Americans, the Walker Brothers, and The Walkmen. The song was included in the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe.

Charts

Chart (1959)Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[8] 2
US Billboard Hot R&B Sides[9] 1

Donna Summer version

There Goes My Baby
Cover:Donnatheregoesmybaby.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Donna Summer
Album:Cats Without Claws
B-Side:Maybe It's Over
Released:July 5, 1984
Genre:
Label:Geffen (U.S.)
Warner Bros. (Europe)
Producer:Michael Omartian
Prev Title:Love Has a Mind of Its Own
Prev Year:1984
Next Title:Supernatural Love
Next Year:1984

Donna Summer's version of "There Goes My Baby" was issued as the first single on July 5, 1984, from her 1984 album Cats Without Claws by Geffen Records and Warner Bros. Records. Her rendition was produced by Michael Omartian. 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 peaked #15 in Spain Radio chart.[12] 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.

Charts

Chart (1984)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[13] 52
Spain (Los 40 Principales)15

Notes and References

  1. The Hot 100 Chart. Billboard.
  2. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Joel Whitburn . 2004 . Record Research . 173.
  3. Book: Gillett , Charlie . 1996. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. (2nd Ed.). Da Capo Press. New York, N.Y.. 192–194. 0-306-80683-5.
  4. Web site: Show 14 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. [Part 4] : UNT Digital Library |last=Gilliland |first=John |year=1969 |author-link=John Gilliland |work=[[Pop Chronicles]]|publisher=Digital.library.unt.edu|format=audio|access-date=2011-05-02].
  5. https://theartofrockmusic.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/180/2015/01/There-Goes-My-Baby-The-Drifters-1959.pdf "There Goes My Baby", The Art of Rock Music
  6. Book: Anthony. DeCurtis. James. Henke. Holly. George-Warren. 1976. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. 3rd. Random House. New York. 148–149. 0-679-73728-6 .
  7. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . Rolling Stone . April 2010 . September 25, 2015.
  8. Billboard Hot 100 Week of August 17, 1959 . . July 30, 2020.
  9. Billboard Hot 100 Week of July 27, 1959 . . July 30, 2020.
  10. Fall Preview . 27 August 1984 . . 22 . 9 . such post-disco rock tracks as Supernatural Love and There Goes My Baby . 0093-7673.
  11. Queen of Disco Edition. Hit Parade Music History and Music Trivia. Slate. Molanphy. Chris. November 27, 2017. July 13, 2023.
  12. Book: Salaverri, Fernando. Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. 1st. September 2005. Fundación Autor-SGAE. Spain. 84-8048-639-2.
  13. Book: Kent, David . David Kent (historian) . . Australian Chart Book . St Ives, N.S.W. . 1993 . 0-646-11917-6.