Wednesday June 22, 2022 “There Goes My Baby” The Walkmen
Today’s song was co-written by Ben E. King who was the lead singer of the Drifters when they recorded their number one version of “There Goes My Baby” in 1959 which was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Lieber & Stoller were songwriters and record producers who did continuing work the Drifters, Jay and the Americans, The Clovers (“Love Potion #9”), the Exciters (“Tell Him”) and this new singer that came to them from Memphis with the strange name of Elvis Presley and recorded “Hound Dog”, a song Leiber & Stoller also wrote. They also had this young kid, Phil Spector who was apprenticing with them.
The Walkmen, depending on your source, are either a punk/new wave-inspired band or an indie-rock band who were working primarily out of the New York City area. Members of previous bands Jonathan Fire*Eater and the Recoys came together in 2000 to form The Walkmen and are frequent critics favorites but have yet to find that breakthrough song, if they are even looking for one.
In 2006 the Walkmen would record, track for track, the legendary 1974 Harry Nilsson album Pussy Cats which was produced by John Lennon, features Ringo Starr and Keith Moon and has some uncredited appearances by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Nilsson’s record label rejected his original title for the album as crude and offensive and if you use your imagination you can probably guess what Pussy Cats might originally have been.
Stay safe and well…and this interpretation from Stubbs the Zombie may not be the best version of this tune, but it’s interesting.