"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.[1] 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.
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 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.[2] 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".
Contents[]
Song[edit][]
The lyrics are loosely structured, almost free-form at a time when rhyming lines were mandatory. The accompaniment features a violin section playingsaxophone-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)[1]
Legacy[edit][]
This recording introduced the idea of using strings, a Brazilian baion and elaborate production values[1] 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.[4]
The song ranked 196 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list and has been covered by many artists, including Jay and the Americans.
Donna Summer version[edit][]
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. 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. With this single, Summer earned her nineteenth - and second to last - US Top 40 hit.