The Shirelles: "Baby It's You" (1961), Smith: "Baby It's You" (1969)

Bert Bacharach is back. We featured his first song ever "The Blob" by The Five Blobs in an October 2012 post.

"Baby It's You" was written by Bert in 1961and was performed originally by The Shirelles, who hailed from Passaic, New Jersey. The Shirelles, via Wiki: " have been described as having a "naive schoolgirl sound" that contrasted with the sexual themes of many of their songs. Several of their hits used strings and baião-style music. They have been credited with launching the girl group genre, with much of their music reflecting the genre's essence."

They were credited as being the first African-American girl group to top the Billboard Hot 100, or the first girl group overall, with the song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".

" Baby It's You" would make it to number eight on the U. S. Pop charts and number three on the R & B charts that year.

The song owes a lot of it's popularity to the vocal arrangements and key changes. In this version, the lilting organ provides a melancholy touch complementing the vocals.

Is it true what they say about you?
They say you'll never, ever, never be true.
It doesn't matter what they say.
I know I'm gonna love you any old way.
What can I do?
What 'bout you?
Don't want nobody, nobody.
Baby, it's you.
Baby, it's you.

The Sha-la-la's are a factor as well and play right into The Shirelle's vocal wheelhouse.

The Beatles would immediately cover the song at their live stage performances and record it in 1963 for their first album, Please Please Me. One could easily see John Lennon being taken with The Shirelles version and wanting to make it his own. The Beatles used the same vocal arrangements as the original and is a very good song so we have included their version in this post.

No less than 28 other acts covered this song over the years including Pia Zadora, Elvis Costello & Nick Lowe, and Chrissie Hynde.

But the staff at Monahan's Song must pay homage to the 1969 version by Smith. Here we have a different vocal arrangement with a bluesy shouter taking center stage. The vocal performance by Gayle McCormick makes the song stick. Their version went gold in short order and would reach number five on the charts out selling both prior versions mentioned previously.

Smith was "discovered" by Del Shannon, and he arranged the song to feature McCormick, who had recently joined the band. It is no surprise to us that Del would keep an organ in the arrangement.

Enjoy all three version of this great classic rock tune.