"Run Baby Run" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

from her first album, '' Tuesday Night Music Club'' (1993), released by

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

in September 1993 as her debut single. It failed to chart in the United States but peaked at 86 in Canada, No. 83 in the United Kingdom, and No. 45 in the Netherlands. "Run Baby Run" was released for a third time in the UK after the success of " All I Wanna Do" and " Strong Enough", reaching a new peak of No. 24 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1995.

Background and composition

According to

, the song was written in 1992 after the results of the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

were announced, marking the transition "from conservative

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

to young, unconventional, good-looking

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

." The song describes a young woman born on November 22, 1963, "the day

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

died" (whom Crow calls a "literary spokesperson of the 1960s"). She grew up in a conservative social structure (where people "talk of better days"), yet her parents are

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

s: her mother experiments with drugs while her father is a political activist. As a result, she feels caught between generations and has learned from her parents' example to run away from problems or from people getting too close to her. Crow has stated that, while the song is not autobiographical, she can relate to certain aspects of the character.

Critical reception

In his weekly UK chart commentary in ''

Dotmusic ''Dotmusic'' was a music webzine that existed as a standalone website from 1 June 1995 to December 2003. Initially intended as the web complement to the UK music industry trade magazine ''Music Week'', the site was relaunched in December 1998 as a ...

'',

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worke ...

described "Run Baby Run" as an "anthemic track". David Hemingway from ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' commented, "And you thought all she wanted to do was have some fun!" Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' wrote, "An impressive debut for Ms Crow on a track that smacks of the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' "

Happiness Is a Warm Gun "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. He derived the ...

" and " Old Brown Shoe" in parts. Crow, who is possessed of a throaty and distinctive voice, is more likely to become a successful album artist, but this deserves to be heard."

Chart performance

"Run Baby Run" was originally released in 1993 in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. It did not chart in the United States, but in Canada, it briefly appeared on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'' 100 ranking, peaking at No. 86 on January 24, 1994. In 1994, the song was re-released in Europe and debuted at No. 83 on the UK Singles Chart, but it dropped out of the top 100 the following week. In late May 1994, it appeared on the Dutch

Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...

, reaching No. 45 the week after its debut. In Australia, it stalled at No. 156 on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in June 1994. "Run Baby Run" was again re-issued in Europe in 1995, this time entering the UK top 30 and attaining its peak of No. 24 on July 23. During this charting period, it topped off at No. 95 on the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...

. In January 1996, the track experienced a surge of popularity on Canadian

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

radio, eventually peaking at No. 44 on the ''RPM'' Adult Contemporary chart.

Track listings

1993 release

* UK CD single 1 (580 381-2) #"Run Baby Run" #"

All by Myself "All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, released by Arista Records in December 1975 as the first single from Carmen's self-titled debut album. The verse is based on the second movement (''Adagio sostenuto'') of Russ ...

" #"The Na-Na Song" #"Reach Around Jerk" * UK CD single 2 and European CD single (580 568-2) #"Run Baby Run" (single version) #"

Leaving Las Vegas ''Leaving Las Vegas'' is a 1995 romantic drama film written and directed by Mike Figgis and based on the 1990 semi-autobiographical novel by John O'Brien. Nicolas Cage stars as a suicidal alcoholic in Los Angeles who, having lost his family ...

" (acoustic version) * UK 7-inch single (580 380-7) :A. "Run Baby Run" :B. "All by Myself" * Australian, Dutch, and French CD single (580 380-2) #"Run Baby Run" (single version) – 4:28 #"All by Myself"

1994 release

* UK CD single and European maxi-single (580 569-2) #"Run Baby Run" #"Leaving Las Vegas" (acoustic version) #"All by Myself" #"Reach Around Jerk"

1995 release

* UK CD1 (581 147-2) #"Run Baby Run" #"

Can't Cry Anymore "Can't Cry Anymore" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow from her debut album, '' Tuesday Night Music Club'' (1993), released through A&M Records. Released in May 1995, the song reached number 36 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, bec ...

" (live in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

) #"Reach Around Jerk" (live in Nashville) #"I Shall Believe" (live in Nashville) * European cassette single (581 146-4) :A. "Run Baby Run" :B. "Leaving Las Vegas" (live in Nashville) * UK CD2 (581 149-2) #"Run Baby Run" #" Strong Enough" (live in Nashville) #"No One Said It Would Be Easy" (live in Nashville) #"The Na-Na Song" (live in Nashville)

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1993 debut singles 1993 songs A&M Records singles Sheryl Crow songs Songs based on actual events Song recordings produced by Bill Bottrell Songs written by Bill Bottrell Songs written by David Baerwald Songs written by Sheryl Crow