"Make Me Your Baby" is a song written by
Helen Miller and
Roger Atkins
Roger Jon Atkins (born 1944) is an American songwriter and lyricist. Among his most notable songs as a co-writer are " Make Me Your Baby" (written with Helen Miller and recorded by Barbara Lewis), " It's My Life" (written with Carl D'Errico and re ...
. The most successful recording was a hit for
Barbara Lewis
Barbara Ann Lewis (born February 9, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues.
Career
Lewis was born in Salem Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, Salem, Michigan, United States.
She was writ ...
in 1965.
Background
The
demo for "Make Me Your Baby" was cut by journeyman session singer Jean Thomas on 22 January 1965 at the behest of
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
president
Jerry Wexler
Gerald Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was a major influence on American popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integra ...
, who wanted to offer the song to
Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles
Labelle was an American funk rock band that originated out of the Blue Belles, a girl group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The original group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the area around P ...
, then a
Cameo-Parkway
Cameo-Parkway Records was the parent company of Cameo Records and Parkway Records, which were major American Philadelphia-based record labels from 1956 (for Cameo) and 1958 (for Parkway) to 1967. Among the types of music released were doo-wop, d ...
act Wexler was hoping to woo over to Atlantic. Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles did eventually sign to Atlantic, but only after protracted negotiations (their debut label session being on October 7, 1965), which meant "Make Me Your Baby" was still unrecorded in the summer of 1965 when the success of "
Baby I'm Yours" alerted Wexler to the suitability of "Make Me Your Baby" as a vehicle for the singer of "Baby I'm Yours," Barbara Lewis.
"Make Me Your Baby" was recorded by Lewis in a July 1, 1965, session at Atlantic Records Recording Studios (NYC) in which Lewis also recorded the
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
"Love to Be Loved" and a third track, "I'm So Afraid."
1 Like "Baby I'm Yours," "Make Me Your Baby" was produced by
Ollie McLaughlin
Ollie Anderson McLaughlin (March 24, 1925 – February 19, 1984) was an American record producer and record label owner. He discovered Del Shannon, and also organized or produced recordings by Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Dorothy Ashby, Barbara Lewi ...
and
Bert Berns
Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include "Twist and Shout", "Piece ...
, being described as "An Ollie McLaughlin production directed by Bert Berns." The arranger and conductor for the session was
Artie Butler
Arthur Butler (born December 2, 1942) is an American arranger, composer, songwriter, and session musician. In a long career, he has been involved in numerous hit records and other recordings, and has been awarded over 60 gold and platinum album ...
, with featured personnel on the session being Patti Brown (piano),
Vinnie Bell
Vincent Edward Gambella (July 28, 1932 – October 3, 2019), known as Vinnie Bell, was an American session guitarist, instrument designer and pioneer of electronic effects in pop music.
Life and career
Vinnie Bell was born in Brooklyn">p>
Life ...
,
Al Gorgoni
Al Gorgoni (born 1939) is an American guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer, known for his work as a studio musician during the 1960s and 1970s.
Biography
Growing up in Philadelphia, his family moved to The Bronx where he took up the guit ...
,
Trade Martin
Trade Martin is an American musician, songwriter and producer.
Martin worked with Johnny Power in the late 1950s, recording as Johnny & the Jokers and together launching the label Rome Records, active from 1960 to 1962. The label signed the g ...
(guitar), Bob Bushnell (electric bass), Gary Chester (drums), Ted Sommer, Alvin Rogers (chimes, tambourine).
Prior to the release of the Barbara Lewis version, the song had been recorded by
the Pixies Three
The Pixies Three are an American teenage vocal girl group formed in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1957 by schoolmates Debbie Swisher and Kaye McCool. They are known for their early 1960s hit songs “Birthday Party” and “442 Glenwood Avenue”.
...
, whose version had successfully been pitched to Cameo Parkway. However, before the relevant contract had been finalized, the Barbara Lewis single had begun to break, causing Cameo Parkway to opt out. The Pixies Three consequently disbanded.
Chart performance
"Make Me Your Baby" was released as a single in September 1965 and that November matched the No.11 peak of her preceding hit, "Baby I'm Yours", as well as reaching No.9 on the
Top Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.
Other cover versions
*Barbara Lewis' "Make Me Your Baby" had an unsuccessful September 1965 release in the UK, where a local cover was cut by producer
Shel Talmy
Sheldon Talmy (August 11, 1937 – November 13, 2024) was an American record producer, songwriter, and arranger, best known for his work in England in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks, and many other artists.
Talmy arranged and produced hits ...
with vocalist Liz Shelley. Released 10 September 1965 on
Brunswick, this version also failed to chart, but, despite the advance of Lewis' version on the US charts, Shelley's single was given an American release by
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...
.
*
Bobby Vinton
Stanley Robert Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is an American singer and actor, who hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid tribute to his Polish heritage. One ...
remade the song as "I'll Make You My Baby".
Billy Sherrill
Billy Norris Sherrill (November 5, 1936 – August 4, 2015) was an American record producer, songwriter, and arranger associated with country artists, notably Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Sherrill and business partner Glenn Sutton are regar ...
produced the track which, as the lead single for the ''
Ev'ry Day of My Life'', reached No.30 on the
Easy Listening chart
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary music, adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on ...
in ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' in April 1971, just missing the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 by peaking at No.101 on the
Bubbling Under
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main Billboar ...
chart.
*"Make Me Your Baby" was covered in late 1975 in a
disco
Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
style by
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
singer
Suzanne Stevens
Suzanne (Denise) Stevens (born 1950) is a Canadian singer, based in Montreal and active during the 1970s and 1980s. She won the Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year in 1975. Her best-known song is a disco-styled remake of th ...
. Her version reached No.23 on Canada's ''RPM'' singles chart in December, 1975. Lewis' version had reached the top 10 in Canada in late 1965.
*Lewis's original version appeared on the soundtrack of
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer.
Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
's ''
Stardust
Stardust may refer to:
* A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space
Entertainment Songs
* “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael
* “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974
* “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012
* ...
''.
*
1 Lewis' recording of this
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...
composition remains unreleased.
References
{{authority control
1965 singles
1975 singles
Barbara Lewis songs
Songs written by Helen Miller (songwriter)
1965 songs
Atlantic Records singles
Song recordings produced by Bert Berns
Songs written by Roger Atkins