Drifters – There Goes My Baby

Sometimes I need a 1950s song, and the Drifters are a group that can give it. Some songs are timeless and could have been released at any time. Some are tied to an era. This one is, and in the best possible way. This is a transport song, a song that transports you to a certain era even if you weren’t there. Well, at least to your version of the era. These songs have cool chord structures, and many are both depressing and uplifting at the same time.

There Goes My Baby was a turning point for the Drifters and for rhythm and blues music itself. Released in 1959, the song sounded unlike anything else on the radio. The group had already enjoyed success, but this record took them in a completely new direction. It blended R&B, pop, and orchestral music in a way that was almost unheard of at the time. Today it is considered one of the most influential records of the late 1950s.

The song was written by Ben E. King along with Lover Patterson and George Treadwell. Producer Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wanted to create something different from the standard R&B records of the day. The session featured strings and a Latin-flavored rhythm. Some people in the music business thought the record sounded strange and would never become a hit. Fortunately, they were wrong. You have the great Ben E. King’s lead vocal. His voice gave the song both power and its heartbreak.

The song became a major hit and helped reshape popular music. The song reached the Top 10 and opened the door for more ambitious productions in soul and pop music. Looking back, it is easy to hear how records from the 1960s were influenced by it. More than sixty years later, it still sounds fresh. Not bad for a song that many people thought was too unusual to succeed.

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B Charts in 1959.

I’ve only done this once, but sometimes I run across amateurs doing a cover of a song. Rarely do I stop and think, oh I must post this. She is far from perfect in this, but she knows what the song is about. This is really a simple version, but she finds the essence of this song. You can hear cars pass by while she is doing this. It shows you how great the song is when you can express it perfectly over a lone acoustic and a voice. She goes by “Blazin’ Blair” and this was like 15 years ago. She has appeared on local tv stations where she lives. It’s lo-fi and raw, but the spirit is there. Something about it…hit me the right way…especially the intro.

There Goes My Baby

Bom-bom (do-do-do-do-do)
There she goes (do-do-do-do-do)
There she goes (do-do-do-do-do)
Bom-bom (do-do-do-do)
Bom-bom (do-do-do-do)

There goes my baby, movin’ on down the line
Wonder where, wonder where, wonder where she is bound?
I broke her heart and made her cry
Now I’m alone, so all alone
What can I do, what can I do?

There goes my baby (whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh)
There goes my baby (yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)
There goes my baby (whoa-oh-oh-oh)
There she goes, yeah, there she goes

I wanna know if she loved me
Did she really love me?
Was she just playing me for a fool?
I wonder why she left me
Why did she leave me so all alone?
So all alone?
I was gonna tell her that I loved her
And that I need her
Beside my side to be my guide

I wanna know, where is my – (do-do-do-do-do)
Where is my baby? (Do-do-do-do-do)
I want my baby (do-do-do-do-do)
I need my baby (do-do-do-do-do)
Yeah, whoa-oh-oh

There goes my baby
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh
There goes my baby

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

40 thoughts on “Drifters – There Goes My Baby”

  2. Pingback: Drifters – There Goes My Baby – MobsterTiger

  3. It amazes me how you can hold down a job, as well as parenting, write posts for two of your own blogs and have a house full of 4 legged dingos running around. I’m tired just thinking about that. lol.

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    1. Well I am cutting down on a post a week because of that. On Friday there will be only one from the Ships thing and that is probabaly it for a Friday for right now. I usually write these on Mon-Thur nights…so it’s not too bad.
      Speaking of the dingos…they are yapping this morining like geese…I came by and mocked them jokingly…and one of them barked at me! lol.

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      8. We are finding them a good homes…we thought about selling them because people are getting 200 minimum for a “Saint Pyrenees” but we are making sure people will keep him/her inside so we are giving them away from people we know. We are keeping one! I would give you one!

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  6. Beautiful song and voices. Strings are incredible. Nice post. How are things in Puppyland? I was wondering, did you find out Buddy’s real name?

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    1. It really is…the song is so beautifully done.

      They are rambunctious but a lot of fun! I’ll miss them though when they leave. July 4 weekend is the 8 week mark…so that is when it happens. Good thing is the neighbor is taking one and we are…and someone else is taking two so some will grow up with a brother or sister together.

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  8. A great tune that was ahead of its time in terms of the complexity of the tune and production. Another great from Ben E King. The girl has a good voice and maybe would sound quite decent in a studio.

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    1. Yes it was…listening to it again the other day…I realized how much it was ahead of it’s time.
      Yea she did a good job in that setting. She is a talented lady no doubt. I’ve played outside like that…it kinda adds some charm to it hearing the car pass.

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    2. On your buskers comment Dave, it’s hard for me to open my wallet for the majority I pass- usually soullessly delivered dead pan vocals and languid no-chord-change guitar strumming- but one or two lately have made me stop and fish around around in my (tight pocketed) jeans. A few- and it is just a few- are damned good and deserve more than my small change.

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  14. A top Drifters tune, one I well know, and yet my mind immediately went to the Tremeloes ‘Here Comes My Baby!’ Back to the time I started to really listen to music rather than it being the background noise coming from my older bros bedroom. Those songs get embedded in the growing adolescents brain.

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  15. It’s a swell tune and takes me to American Grafitti movie, and I don’t even know if it is on that movie’s soundtrack.

    Looking at the title, I thought it was this song, written by Cat Stevens. Way back when I had the album,”Matthew & Son.” It’s probably still down in my ex-husband’s basement with all of the rest of my albums that I gave him when we got divorced.

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