Sunday April 3, 2022 “Baby I’m Yours” Barbara Lewis
Pop-soul doesn't get much better than Barbara Lewis, whose seductive crooning took her own composition "Hello Stranger" to number three in 1963. Today’s song, “Baby I’m Yours” was written by the late singer/songwriter Van McCoy, who has more than 700 song copyrights and would go on to have a huge instrumental hit in 1975, “The Hustle”.
“Baby I’m Yours” was produced by Bert Berns who was responsible for writing many hits and had a hand in the musical careers of a wide variety of artists ranging from the Isley Brothers to Van Morrison. Berns was such an influential musical entity that we will definitely do a Bert Berns Week.
Barbara Lewis would have a couple of additional hits including the Bert Berns written and produced “Make Me Your Baby” but as her hits slowed down Lewis would drop out of public view for years, until 1977 when Yvonne Elliman's cover of “Hello Stranger” prompted Casey Kasem of AT40 fame to track her down. According to Casey Kasem nobody knew where she ended up, including her agent who did not even know how to send her checks for the Elliman recording of her song.
Stay safe and well…and on August 8, 1969, together with actress Joanna Pettet, Barbara Lewis had lunch with Sharon Tate at her house in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, a few hours before Tate's murder there later that night.