Oh No Not My Baby
Encyclopedia
"Oh No Not My Baby" is the name of a song written by Gerry Goffin
and Carole King
. The song's lyrics describe how friends and family repeatedly warn the singer about a partner's infidelities, but the singer refuses to believe them. Unlike many songs of this nature, in the end, the singer's faith proves to be well-founded and a happy relationship ensues.
, according to whom the song had first been recorded by her Scepter Records
' roster-mates the Shirelles
with the group's members alternating leads, an approach which had rendered the song unreleasable.
Brown says that Scepter exec Stan Greenberg gave her the song with the advisement that she had to "find the original melody" from the recording by the Shirelles: "they [had gone] so far off by each [group member] taking their own lead, no one knew any more where the real melody stood."
Brown recalls sitting on the porch of her one level house in Queens listening to the Shirelles' track play on a boom box propped in a window. A group of children skipping rope on the sidewalk picked up the song's main hook before Brown herself; hearing the children singing "Oh no not my baby" as they skipped gave Brown the wherewithal to determine the song's melody. Brown recorded her vocal over the Shirelles' track with the group's vocals erased; Dee Dee Warwick
provided the harmony vocal on the chorus.
Released in September 1964, Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" spent seven weeks in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100
in December 1964 - January 1965 with a #24 peak. A concurrent UK release on Scepter's British licensee Pye Records
was overlooked but the song was covered by Manfred Mann
- whose version of the Shirelles' "Sha La La" had shared the U.S. Top 40 with Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" - and that group's version of "Oh No Not My Baby", released 9 April 1965, reached #11 UK. Not released as a single in the U.S., Manfred Mann's "Oh No Not My Baby" failed to chart in a Canadian release and charted low in Australia at #67.
Merry Clayton
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" in a 1972 version which featured co-writer Carole King on piano; produced by Lou Adler
, this single reached the Billboard Hot 100 at #72 (#61 on Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart) and the Billboard's Bestselling Soul Singles chart
at #30. Despite its mild chart impact, Clayton's track earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
for the year 1972.
Also in 1973 Rod Stewart
charted with "Oh No Not My Baby"; his self-produced version - a single with no parent album - reached #6 UK in September 1973 subsequently reaching #59 on both the U.S. and Canadian charts before the year's end.
De Blanc had a minor R&B hit with "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1976.
In December 1992 Cher
released "Oh No Not My Baby" as the follow-up to her international hit "The Shoop Shoop Song
" and likewise produced by Peter Asher
; the track became a moderate international hit early in 1993.
Linda Ronstadt
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1993 Winter Light
album; the track was issued as a radio only single which reached #35 on Billboard
s Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
in 1994.
version
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" in a 22 January 1965 session at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch
which featured the Breakaways
vocal group and Big Jim Sullivan
on guitar. This track was unreleased, with Springfield recording a subsequent version of "Oh No Not My Baby" for inclusion on her Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty
album on 2 July 1965 in a session at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch conducted by Ivor Raymonde
and featuring Madeline Bell
and Doris Troy
on background vocals. The latter track was first issued in the U.S. on the You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
album released July 1966. As is the norm for Springfield's early Philips sessions, the production credit is to label owner Johnny Franz
; Springfield later stated the tracks she recorded with Franz credited as producer were in fact produced by Springfield herself.http://www.wonderboymi.com/Discographies/ds60s.html
Aretha Franklin
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1970 Spirit in the Dark album; this version was issued as the follow-up single to "Don't Play That Song
" in the UK - where the parent album was released as Don't Play That Song - but failed to chart.
Carole King herself recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1980 album Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King
from which it was issued as the second single - after "One Fine Day
" - without charting. King subsequently recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 2001 Love Makes the World
album.
"Oh No Not My Baby" has also been recorded by Fontella Bass
, Debby Boone
, Julie Budd, Odyssey
and The 1970s
made for TV band The Partridge Family
.
The introductory riff to Maxine Brown's version was utilised by Gabriella Cilmi
on her single "Sanctuary
".
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
. The song's lyrics describe how friends and family repeatedly warn the singer about a partner's infidelities, but the singer refuses to believe them. Unlike many songs of this nature, in the end, the singer's faith proves to be well-founded and a happy relationship ensues.
Chart versions
The first released version of "Oh No Not My Baby" was by Maxine BrownMaxine Brown (soul singer)
Maxine Ella Brown is an American soul and R&B singer.-Background and career:Maxine Brown began singing as a child, performing with two New York based gospel groups called the Angelairs and the Royaltones when she was a teenager...
, according to whom the song had first been recorded by her Scepter Records
Scepter Records
Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them. By 1961 Greenberg launched a...
' roster-mates the Shirelles
The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...
with the group's members alternating leads, an approach which had rendered the song unreleasable.
Brown says that Scepter exec Stan Greenberg gave her the song with the advisement that she had to "find the original melody" from the recording by the Shirelles: "they [had gone] so far off by each [group member] taking their own lead, no one knew any more where the real melody stood."
Brown recalls sitting on the porch of her one level house in Queens listening to the Shirelles' track play on a boom box propped in a window. A group of children skipping rope on the sidewalk picked up the song's main hook before Brown herself; hearing the children singing "Oh no not my baby" as they skipped gave Brown the wherewithal to determine the song's melody. Brown recorded her vocal over the Shirelles' track with the group's vocals erased; Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick, she was the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and cousin of Whitney Houston....
provided the harmony vocal on the chorus.
Released in September 1964, Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" spent seven weeks in the Top 40 of 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 1964 - January 1965 with a #24 peak. A concurrent UK release on Scepter's British licensee Pye Records
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
was overlooked but the song was covered by Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
- whose version of the Shirelles' "Sha La La" had shared the U.S. Top 40 with Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" - and that group's version of "Oh No Not My Baby", released 9 April 1965, reached #11 UK. Not released as a single in the U.S., Manfred Mann's "Oh No Not My Baby" failed to chart in a Canadian release and charted low in Australia at #67.
Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer , and an actress...
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" in a 1972 version which featured co-writer Carole King on piano; produced by Lou Adler
Lou Adler
Lou Adler is an American record producer, manager, and director.-Life and career:Adler was born in Chicago, Illinois in December 1933, and raised in East Los Angeles. In 1964, Adler founded and co-owned Dunhill Records. He was President of the label as well as the chief record producer from 1964...
, this single reached the Billboard Hot 100 at #72 (#61 on Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart) and the Billboard's Bestselling Soul Singles chart
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
at #30. Despite its mild chart impact, Clayton's track earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for quality R&B songs...
for the year 1972.
Also in 1973 Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
charted with "Oh No Not My Baby"; his self-produced version - a single with no parent album - reached #6 UK in September 1973 subsequently reaching #59 on both the U.S. and Canadian charts before the year's end.
De Blanc had a minor R&B hit with "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1976.
In December 1992 Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
released "Oh No Not My Baby" as the follow-up to her international hit "The Shoop Shoop Song
The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)
"The Shoop Shoop Song " is a song written by Rudy Clark. The song was made a hit when recorded by Betty Everett, who hit #1 on the Cashbox magazine R&B charts with it in 1964...
" and likewise produced by Peter Asher
Peter Asher
Peter Asher is an English guitarist, singer, manager and record producer. He first came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the vocal duo Peter and Gordon before going on to a successful career as a record producer.-Early life:He was born at the Central Middlesex Hospital, a child actor and...
; the track became a moderate international hit early in 1993.
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1993 Winter Light
Winter Light (Linda Ronstadt album)
Winter Light is an out of print New Age-styled album by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1993. Although it sold less than 300,000 copies in the US, it stands as one of Linda's most acclaimed albums.-History:...
album; the track was issued as a radio only single which reached #35 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
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...
in 1994.
Charts - Cher
CherCher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
version
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart | 30 |
| German Singles Chart | 52 |
| Polish Singles Chart | 18 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 19 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
33 |
Other versions
Prior to Manfred Mann's recording, Dusty SpringfieldDusty 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...
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" in a 22 January 1965 session at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...
which featured the Breakaways
The Breakaways
The Breakaways were an English female vocal trio, formed in 1962. Britain's premiere session vocalists throughout the 1960s, The Breakaways also recorded a handful of little known girl group singles.-Career:...
vocal group and Big Jim Sullivan
Big Jim Sullivan
Big Jim Sullivan is an English musician, whose career started in 1959. He is best known as a session guitarist. In the 1960s and 1970s, Sullivan was one of the most "in-demand" studio musicians in the UK, and performed in more than one thousand charting singles over his career...
on guitar. This track was unreleased, with Springfield recording a subsequent version of "Oh No Not My Baby" for inclusion on her Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty
Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty
Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty is the second studio album by singer Dusty Springfield, released on Philips Records in the UK in 1965. Springfield's 1964 debut album, A Girl Called Dusty, sold well enough to make her Philips Records' top selling female artist. For this, her second album, Philips...
album on 2 July 1965 in a session at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch conducted by Ivor Raymonde
Ivor Raymonde
Ivor Raymonde was a British musician, songwriter, arranger and actor, best known for his distinctive rock-orchestral arrangements for Dusty Springfield and others in the 1960s.-Life and career:...
and featuring Madeline Bell
Madeline Bell
Madeline Bell is an American soul singer, who became famous as a performer in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, having arrived from the US in the gospel show Black Nativity in 1962, with vocal group The Bradford Singers.-Career:She worked as a session singer, most notably backing for Dusty...
and Doris Troy
Doris Troy
Doris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...
on background vocals. The latter track was first issued in the U.S. on the You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (album)
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me is the fourth album of singer Dusty Springfield to be released in the USA, issued on the Philips Records label in 1966...
album released July 1966. As is the norm for Springfield's early Philips sessions, the production credit is to label owner Johnny Franz
Johnny Franz
Johnny Franz was a UK record producer and A&R man at the Philips label. Although his name is not recognized by many Americans, Franz was one of Britain's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s...
; Springfield later stated the tracks she recorded with Franz credited as producer were in fact produced by Springfield herself.http://www.wonderboymi.com/Discographies/ds60s.html
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...
recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1970 Spirit in the Dark album; this version was issued as the follow-up single to "Don't Play That Song
Don't Play That Song
Don't Play That Song may refer to:*Don't Play That Song, an album by Aretha Franklin*Don't Play That Song!, an album by Ben E. King*"Don't Play That Song ", a Ben E. King song also covered by Aretha Franklin...
" in the UK - where the parent album was released as Don't Play That Song - but failed to chart.
Carole King herself recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1980 album Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King
Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King
Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King is an album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1980. It produced Carole King's last hit to date, One Fine Day, which reached number 12 on the charts.-Track listing:...
from which it was issued as the second single - after "One Fine Day
One Fine Day (song)
"One Fine Day" has been recorded by a diverse array of artists including Susie Allanson, the Carpenters as part of the oldies medley on their album Now and Then, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, Even in Blackouts, Kids Incorporated, David Lasley, Natalie Merchant , the Mountain Goats, Aaron Neville,...
" - without charting. King subsequently recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 2001 Love Makes the World
Love Makes the World
Love Makes the World is a 2001 studio album by Carole King. Distributed by Koch Records, it was her first release on her Rockingale Records label....
album.
"Oh No Not My Baby" has also been recorded by Fontella Bass
Fontella Bass
Fontella Bass is an American soul singer, who is best known for the 1965 R&B hit "Rescue Me", which she also co-wrote.-Early life:...
, Debby Boone
Debby Boone
Deborah Anne Boone is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year...
, Julie Budd, Odyssey
Odyssey (band)
Odyssey was a New York, now UK-based dance music band. It grew out of the talent of the Connecticut-born Lopez sisters: Lillian Lopez , Louise Lopez , and Carmen Lopez , who left the group before Odyssey, as the group came to be known after her departure, was formed.-Career:Filipino singer Tony...
and The 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
made for TV band The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
.
The introductory riff to Maxine Brown's version was utilised by Gabriella Cilmi
Gabriella Cilmi
Gabriella Lucia Cilmi is an Australian singer-songwriter. In 2008, Cilmi was awarded six ARIA awards including Single of the Year and Best Female Artist....
on her single "Sanctuary
Sanctuary (Gabriella Cilmi song)
"Sanctuary" is a song by Australian recording artist Gabriella Cilmi from her debut album, Lessons to Be Learned . The song was first released digitally in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2007 as the album's lead single, and subsequently released in Germany and the Netherlands in December 2008 as...
".