"Cry Baby" is a song originally recorded by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, in 1963, and later recorded by

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

singer

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...

in 1970. Bert Berns wrote the song with

Jerry Ragovoy Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy (September 4, 1930 – July 13, 2011) was an American songwriter and record producer who wrote several pop songs including the instrumental " Time Is on My Side" (under the pseudonym of Norman Meade for Kai Winding), which ...

. Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters recorded it for the

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

. It topped the R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

and went to #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1963, paving the way for soul hits by

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

and

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

later in the decade. The third verse was spoken by Mimms until the repeated refrain of the repeated song title. In Canada the song reached #5 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart is a long-running Canadian hit parade countdown radio show, originally aired on Toronto radio station CHUM AM then later revived on its sister station CHUM-FM. It consisted of 50 top tunes from May 1957 to July 1968, but in Augus ...

Janis Joplin version

In September and October 1970,

recorded it for her album ''

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

'', posthumously released in 1971. The song was in more of a blues-rock style and produced by Paul A. Rothchild. Her rendition reached #42 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and #20 on ''Cash Box''. The B-side included the track " Mercedes Benz". The song became usual in Joplin's repertoire and today is often performed by many artists such as

Joss Stone Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, ''The Soul Sessions'', which made the 2004 Merc ...

Allison Iraheta Allison Iraheta (; born April 27, 1992) is an American singing, singer who was the fourth place finalist on the American Idol (season 8), eighth season of ''American Idol''. Prior to ''Idol'', Iraheta won the Telemundo competition ''Quinceañera: ...

, Magdolna Rúzsa.

References

External links

Yo 'American Idol' judges: 'Cry Baby' props belong to Garnet Mimms, not Janis Joplin
from Daily News, 6 May 2009 * * (says backing vocals were Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, & Dee Dee Warwick) {{authority control 1963 singles 1971 singles Janis Joplin songs Songs written by Bert Berns Songs written by Jerry Ragovoy 1963 songs United Artists Records singles Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Bert Berns Song recordings produced by Paul A. Rothchild