My Baby (The Temptations song)

"My Baby"
Single by The Temptations
from the album The Temptin' Temptations
B-side "Don't Look Back"
Released September 30, 1965
(1st pressing)
October 30, 1965
(2nd pressing)
Format 7" single
Recorded Hitsville USA (Studio A);
August 4 and August 11, 1965
Genre Soul, R&B, Pop
Length 3:05
Label Gordy
G 7047
Writer(s) Smokey Robinson
Robert Rogers
Warren Moore
Producer(s) Smokey Robinson
The Temptations singles chronology
"Since I Lost My Baby"
(1965)
"My Baby" / "Don't Look Back"
(1965)
"Get Ready"
(1966)

"My Baby" is a 1965 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label. Written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson, Bobby Rogers, and Pete Moore and produced by Robinson, the song was a top 20 pop hit in the United States, and a top 5 hit on the R&B charts.[1]

An extension of the theme from the group's #1 hit "My Girl", which had been released the previous December, "My Baby" features The Temptations, with David Ruffin on lead, bragging about the qualities of a special lady. Ruffin praises his woman's hairstyles ("hair soft like a baby lamb/and I love to run my fingers through it") and personality ("the gold in her personality/could set Fort Knox to shame"), and hopes that "she digs me the way I am/but if I have to change/you know I'm gona do it for my baby".

"My Baby" was a notable attempt to create an uptempo danceable number for the Temptations; all of their previous Top 20 hits to this point had been either ballads or mid-tempo numbers. The single immediately following "My Baby", "Get Ready", followed the same plan, and was produced with an even faster tempo and a brassier arrangement.

Unusually for Temptations singles, "My Baby's" B-side, the Paul Williams-led "Don’t Look Back", was a minor hit in its own right, becoming a top 20 R&B hit and serving for several years as the Temptations' live-show closing number."Don't Look Back" was actually the original "A" side of Gordy 7047, but was passed over by the nation's DJ's in favor of the Ruffin-led "My Baby",which relegated "Don't Look Back" to "B"-side status. Both sides of the single would be remixed for its 2nd pressing, adding on the following statements: "Taken from the album #G 914 The Temptin' Temptations."

Personnel

Chart history

Chart (1965) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart 13
U.S. Billboard R&B Singles 4

References

  1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 571.
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