Pop Tunes
Bruce Channel teamed up with good friend Margaret Cobb to write “Hey! Baby” in 1959. The doo wop group The Ban-Lons recorded it in 1959 (and there are various theories as to whether Channel sang lead on that recording). Channel performed the song for a few years, and one day Bill Smith, a Fort Worth record producer, asked him to make a demo. Smith released the record on his own label, and it was later picked up by Smash Records. The song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962 as well as to #2 on the R&B Chart and the U.K. singls chart. “Hey! Baby” was featured in the film Dirty Dancing.
Delbert McClinton played the harmonica part on the song. There are stories about how at one of Channel’s shows, during a European tour, Channel was supported by a then-unknown Liverpool group, The Beatles. John Lennon, who could play the harmonica, was impressed with McClinton’s riffs in the song. Regardless of which legends are true, it is said that the harmonica on “Hey! Baby” inspired the harmonica part on the Beatles song “Love Me Do.”
3 Comments
Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby” could be one of the most famous songs by a one-hit wonder. I have it by BC and Anne Murray. Since about the mid 90’s I’ve become a big fan of Delbert McClinton. My wife and I have seen him twice at the Nashville City Winery. “People Just Love to Talk” is my most frequently played song of his on i-tunes. To my knowledge, he’s never had any meaningful chart success.
Where is the song I requested?Hurt by Elvis Presley,not Timi Yuro?
Ah yes, I see. Sorry. I changed the link. Cheers!