Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)
Encyclopedia
"Oh Me Oh My" is a Top 30 hit for Lulu
which charted in 1969–70; the song has been most notably remade by Aretha Franklin
and Tina Arena
.
in the late 1960s and whose membership had included Frankie Miller
. Doris contributed another song to "Oh Me Oh My..."'s parent album New Routes
, entitled "After All (I Live My Life)", and his composition "Take Good Care of Yourself" was featured on the follow-up album Melody Fair
. Reportedly Doris subsequently went into A&R work before being sidelined by mental instability which factored into his being killed when run over by a bus in London in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The advance single from Lulu's Atco Records
debut album New Routes, "Oh Me Oh My...", was released in October 1969. A radical change of direction for Lulu, who was coming off her best ever UK chart placing at #2 with the Eurovision winner "Boom Bang-a-Bang
", the move to a more mature sound with "Oh Me Oh My..." was unappreciated in the UK where the track barely reached the Top 50. In the US, "Oh Me Oh My..." ranked as high as #4 in Birmingham, Alabama
in November 1969 but nationally charted only as a moderate Easy Listening
hit at #36. Several performances by Lulu on US television helped break "Oh Me Oh My..." into the Billboard Hot 100
in December 1969 and then buoy the track as it gradually gained momentum to become Lulu's first Top 30 hit since "To Sir With Love" at the end of February 1970: "Oh Me Oh My..." would peak at #22 that March (Cash Box ranked the track with a #18 peak).
In Australia the Go-Set
Top 40 chart ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." with a #33 peak in January 1970. The RPM
100 chart for Canada ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." as high as #16 in March 1970.http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-130-e.html; that same month the New Zealand Listener
Pop-o-meter chart ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." as high as #12.1
Lulu recorded a translated version of "Oh Me Oh My..." for release in Italy, entitled "Povera Me"; the track was released in June 1970 to no apparent attention despite a promotional junket by Lulu that July.
cut a version of "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" for her 1972 Young, Gifted and Black
album which like Lulu's New Routes
was produced by Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd. Franklin's first studio album of new material since Spirit in the Dark
in 1970, Young, Gifted and Black demonstrated Franklin's increasing penchant for covering pop songs and besides Lulu's "Oh Me Oh My..." Franklin gave R&B readings to songs made famous by Dusty Springfield
and Dionne Warwick
, specifically "A Brand New Me
" and "April Fools". "Oh Me Oh My..." was used as the B-side for the album's lead single "Rock Steady
", eventually receiving enough focus to reach #9 on the R&B charts crossing over to #73 Pop.
for her Songs of Love & Loss 2
album recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Hall in London
accompanied by conductor Simon Hale
and the London Studio Orchestra in July 2008. Arena's version – entitled "Oh Me, Oh My" without the subtitle in parentheses – was issued as the album's single in digital format on November 8, 2008 by EMI
Australia.
, Oleta Adams
, Buster Poindexter
, Joe Tex
and – as "Oh Me Oh My" – by Ann Austin, Renee Geyer
, Rod McKuen
, Benny Mardones
, the Raes
, B.J. Thomas and Lisa Hartman
; the last named performed an abbreviated version of the song in the 1981 miniseries Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls.
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
which charted in 1969–70; the song has been most notably remade by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
and Tina Arena
Tina Arena
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
.
Lulu version
"Oh Me Oh My..." was written by Jim Doris who – as Jimmy Doris – had been vocalist-guitarist for the Stoics, a band which formed in Lulu's native GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in the late 1960s and whose membership had included Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter, who had his biggest success in the 1970s. Miller was raised at Colvend Street, Glasgow with his parents, Cathy and Frank, and elder sisters Letty and Anne. Miller attended Sacred Heart Primary school. He was an altar boy in Sacred Heart Chapel...
. Doris contributed another song to "Oh Me Oh My..."'s parent album New Routes
New Routes
New Routes is an album by Scottish singer Lulu recorded between 10 September and 2 October 1969 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - one of that facility's earliest recordings - for a 16 January 1970 release...
, entitled "After All (I Live My Life)", and his composition "Take Good Care of Yourself" was featured on the follow-up album Melody Fair
Melody Fair (Lulu album)
Melody Fair is an album recorded by Lulu in 1970 for release on Atco Records. Lulu had recorded her first album for Atco; New Routes, in the fall of 1969 under the production auspices of top Atlantic Records execs Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin...
. Reportedly Doris subsequently went into A&R work before being sidelined by mental instability which factored into his being killed when run over by a bus in London in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The advance single from Lulu's Atco Records
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment.-Beginnings:Atco Records was founded in 1955 as a division of Atlantic Records. It was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic's founders, Herb Abramson, who...
debut album New Routes, "Oh Me Oh My...", was released in October 1969. A radical change of direction for Lulu, who was coming off her best ever UK chart placing at #2 with the Eurovision winner "Boom Bang-a-Bang
Boom Bang-a-Bang
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was the United Kingdom entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1969It was sung by Lulu, and was co-written by Alan Moorhouse and Peter Warne aka Michael Julien, the latter of who also wrote "Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me" for Shirley Bassey....
", the move to a more mature sound with "Oh Me Oh My..." was unappreciated in the UK where the track barely reached the Top 50. In the US, "Oh Me Oh My..." ranked as high as #4 in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
in November 1969 but nationally charted only as a moderate Easy Listening
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
hit at #36. Several performances by Lulu on US television helped break "Oh Me Oh My..." into the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in December 1969 and then buoy the track as it gradually gained momentum to become Lulu's first Top 30 hit since "To Sir With Love" at the end of February 1970: "Oh Me Oh My..." would peak at #22 that March (Cash Box ranked the track with a #18 peak).
In Australia the Go-Set
Go-Set
Go-Set was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble...
Top 40 chart ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." with a #33 peak in January 1970. The RPM
RPM (magazine)
RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...
100 chart for Canada ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." as high as #16 in March 1970.http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-130-e.html; that same month the New Zealand Listener
New Zealand Listener
The New Zealand Listener is a New Zealand magazine. First published in 1939 and edited by Oliver Duff and the Monte Holcroft it originally had a monopoly on the publication of of upcoming television and radio programmes. In the 1980s it lost its monopoly on the publication of upcoming television...
Pop-o-meter chart ranked "Oh Me Oh My..." as high as #12.1
Lulu recorded a translated version of "Oh Me Oh My..." for release in Italy, entitled "Povera Me"; the track was released in June 1970 to no apparent attention despite a promotional junket by Lulu that July.
- 1The only national hit paradeHit paradeA hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by sales and/or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936...
available for New Zealand 1966–1975, the Pop-o-meter chart, did not reflect sales, rather being a poll compiled from voting coupons sent in by NZ Listener readers.
Aretha Franklin version
Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
cut a version of "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" for her 1972 Young, Gifted and Black
Young, Gifted and Black
Young, Gifted and Black is a Top 10 Gold-certified album by Aretha Franklin, released in 1972. It takes its title from the Nina Simone song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", which is the record's title track....
album which like Lulu's New Routes
New Routes
New Routes is an album by Scottish singer Lulu recorded between 10 September and 2 October 1969 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - one of that facility's earliest recordings - for a 16 January 1970 release...
was produced by Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd. Franklin's first studio album of new material since Spirit in the Dark
Spirit in the Dark (Aretha Franklin album)
Spirit in the Dark is an album by Aretha Franklin, released in 1970. It received mostly positive reviews but was met with middling sales. Despite having two hit singles "Don't Play That Song " which peaked at #1 R&B, #11 on the Hot 100, and "Spirit in the Dark" peaking at #3 R&B and #23 Hot 100 in...
in 1970, Young, Gifted and Black demonstrated Franklin's increasing penchant for covering pop songs and besides Lulu's "Oh Me Oh My..." Franklin gave R&B readings to songs made famous by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
and Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, specifically "A Brand New Me
A Brand New Me
- Bonus tracks CD re-issues :* Track 11. Recording date: March 1970. Recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia. Producers: staff for Gamble-Huff Productions. Arranger:Thom Bell....
" and "April Fools". "Oh Me Oh My..." was used as the B-side for the album's lead single "Rock Steady
Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin song)
"Rock Steady" is a song written and performed by Aretha Franklin and released in 1971, from the album Young, Gifted and Black. The single reached the #9 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that same year. It also peaked at #2 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart...
", eventually receiving enough focus to reach #9 on the R&B charts crossing over to #73 Pop.
Tina Arena version
"Oh Me, Oh My" was remade in 2008 by Tina ArenaTina Arena
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
for her Songs of Love & Loss 2
Songs of Love & Loss 2
Songs of Love & Loss 2 is the eighth studio album by Australian singer and songwriter Tina Arena, released on 15 November 2008 by EMI in Australia. Her second cover album, it follows on from Songs of Love & Loss, released in 2007, and includes covers of songs by Blondie, Lulu, Alice Cooper and...
album recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Hall in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
accompanied by conductor Simon Hale
Simon Hale
-Life:Hale was born in Birmingham, England in 1964, being dually raised there and in South Manchester before moving to London, where he studied performance and composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London between 1982-85...
and the London Studio Orchestra in July 2008. Arena's version – entitled "Oh Me, Oh My" without the subtitle in parentheses – was issued as the album's single in digital format on November 8, 2008 by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
Australia.
Other versions
"Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" has also been recorded by Irma ThomasIrma Thomas
Irma Thomas is an American Grammy Award-winning soul and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans"....
, Oleta Adams
Oleta Adams
Oleta Adams is an American soul, jazz, and gospel singer and pianist.-Biography:Adams was born the daughter of a preacher and was raised with gospel music. In her youth her family moved to Yakima, Washington, which is sometimes shown as her place of birth.Before gaining her opportunity to perform,...
, Buster Poindexter
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen is an American rock, protopunk, blues, and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter.-Early life:Johansen was born in...
, Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
and – as "Oh Me Oh My" – by Ann Austin, Renee Geyer
Renée Geyer
Renée Rebecca Geyer is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and...
, Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen is an American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks, and classical music...
, Benny Mardones
Benny Mardones
Benny Mardones is an American pop singer and songwriter who is best known for his hit single "Into the Night", which hit the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice, in 1980 and again in 1989.-Career:...
, the Raes
The Raes
The Raes were the Welsh-Canadian husband-and-wife singing duo of Robbie and Cherrill Rae, who had a handful of disco-inflected pop hits in the late 1970s.-Career:...
, B.J. Thomas and Lisa Hartman
Lisa Hartman
Lisa Hartman is an American actress and singer.After some minor television appearances, Lisa Hartman starred in the short-lived Bewitched spin-off, Tabitha during 1977-78...
; the last named performed an abbreviated version of the song in the 1981 miniseries Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls.