#1 for weeks of March 10, 17 and 24th, 1962.
Harmonica never sounded finer than on Bruce Channel's deserved hit song "Hey Baby". Co-written by Channel himself, one could say that this is the song that launched harmonica-based rock. Prior to this song's success, the instrument was all over the place in blues music, but not as commonly in pop songs. That was certainly about to change...
This song has quite a few vocal and musical hooks. In terms of vocals, you have the instantly catchy chorus, not to mention a neat bridge section. As for musical hooks, it's all about the harmonica baby. In many rock songs, the harmonica acts only as a bit of musical garnish and tends to appear when there is no vocals. However, in "Hey! Baby", the harmonica is all over the tune, and it is because of this that the song stands out.
This tune was also very popular in the UK. John Lennon in particular started seriously playing the harmonica after hearing this song. He would first use harmonica on "Love Me Do", which clearly draws inspiration from "Hey! Baby". Lennon even kept the 45 of this tune as a permanent resident of his personal jukebox.
Today, there's still reason to enjoy this song. Due to "Hey! Baby" being a wholesomely catchy tune, and due to its iconic harmonica sound, it still can be played today without sounding outdated. Just do yourself a favor and ignore the abhorrently awful Crazy Frog techno cover, which has no reason to exist. After all, you can't fix what isn't broken!
Final Verdict - I can't find any negatives about this tune, and I don't even feel the need to nitpick. It's a catchy, hook-filled, early rock gem that fully deserves multiple listens!
Coming Up Next - "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You" by Connie Francis.
Until Next Time - Hey! I'm Dr. Rock -
No comments:
Post a Comment