Jimmy Cross (November 17, 1938 – October 8, 1978), also known as Jimmie Cross, was an American radio producer and singer who attained a minor ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit with the novelty song "I Want My Baby Back" in 1965.

Life and career

He was born in

Dothan, Alabama Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner ...

, and became the producer of the syndicated radio series ''Country Concert''.Joel Whitburn, ''Top Pop Singles 1955-2002'', Billboard, 2003,

"I Want My Baby Back"

"I Want My Baby Back" was originally issued on the Tollie Records label and reached #92 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1965. The song is a parody of

teenage tragedy songs A teenage tragedy song is a style of ballad in popular music that peaked in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Examples of the style are also known as "tear jerkers", "death discs" or "splatter platters", among other colorful sobriquet ...

of that period, and has since become a cult classic as a result of frequent airplay on the

Dr. Demento Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...

show. The singer narrates a traffic crash initially similar to the one described in J. Frank Wilson's 1961 hit "

Last Kiss "Last Kiss" is a song released by Wayne Cochran in 1961 on the Gala label. It failed to do well on the charts. Cochran subsequently re-recorded his song for the King label in 1963. It was revived by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, who too ...

", but is revealed to be another angle of the fatal crash at the climax of The Shangri-Las' 1964 hit "Leader of the Pack". The singer is the sole survivor, the motorcycle gang and its leader are dead, and his girlfriend is fatally dismembered by the impact ("Over there was my baby . . . and over ''there'' was my baby . . . and ''way over there'' was my baby"). After months of unabated grief, the distraught singer, in an apparent fit of insanity, decides that he is going to have his girl back "one way or another." With realistic sound effects, he unearths her

grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

("Oh, baby, I ''dig'' you so much!"), crawls into her

coffin A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation. Sometimes referred to as a casket, any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewe ...

, and closes the lid for a muffled final chorus of "I ''Got'' My Baby Back." In 1977 British

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

Kenny Everett Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English comedian, radio disc jockey and television presenter. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the fi ...

named "I Want My Baby Back" #1 in the "Bottom 30" after a public vote, and it won the title of "The World's Worst Record".Everett, Kenny
"The Bottom 30"

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

, May 14, 1977. Retrieved 2008-04-18. The following year it was released for the first time in the UK on Everett's compilation album ''The World's Worst Record Show'', which was released in June 1978. It also was included on '' The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records,'' a 1983 collection of tasteless or poorly performed songs.

Other recordings

Cross went on to record (as Jimmie Cross) "The Ballad of James Bong" (Tollie), "Hey Little Girl" (Red Bird) and "Super-Duper Man" (Red Bird).

Death

He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

at the age of 39 in Hollywood. He is buried at Forest Lawn, California.

References

External links

brief bio of the song
1938 births 1978 deaths People from Dothan, Alabama Songwriters from Alabama 20th-century American singers {{US-singer-stub